Do the Right Thing

Another fantastic Spike Lee joint. Features a believable community of great characters. I love how this movie charges the audience to "do the right thing" without ever telling us exactly what the right thing is. We live in a complex world full of imperfect people shaped by imperfect systems, all interacting in ways that create horrible tragedies. It would be silly to think any movie could give us all the answers. However, what this film does do is present us with situations where people do the "wrong" thing (or at least the questionable thing), prompting us to reflect on what it means to do the right thing for ourselves. The two quotes at the end of the movie leave us with a lot to think about. If, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral," but also, as Malcolm X said, using violence in self-defense isn't violence but intelligence, how can we know what the right thing is? You don't always know, but you do feel. None of us knows how to fix the world, but I think we all have a voice in our head or a feeling in our gut that urges us toward what's "right" in each situation we encounter. The challenge is paying attention to it and acting on it Was a pleasant surprise to see actors from Breaking Bad and The Sopranos in this