It's a hot day in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and it's getting on everybody's nerves. Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) is the radio DJ. Sal Fragione (Danny Aiello) owns the local Italian pizzeria where his sons Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro) work. Mookie (Spike Lee) is Sal's delivery boy and finds himself in the center of the boiling racial tension. Tina (Rosie Perez) is his girlfriend. Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) is Mookie's friend who is railing against everything. Mother Sister (Ruby Dee) watches over the neighborhood. Drunk Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) sweeps the sidewalk for a dollar everyday and tells Mookie "To always do the Right Thing." Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) carries around his loud boom box.
This movie is most notable for bringing everyday race relations to the screen. Buggin' Out demanding to have black pictures in the pizzeria is one of those great scenes in American cinema. The biggest complaint is the lack of drugs. In the end, this is not suppose to be a hard gritty realistic portrait. It's a racial struggle where the characters are everyday people. There are no easy villains. Spike Lee taps into something more powerful than just a bunch of stereotypes. It's the Korean grocery story, the yuppie moving in, the old black resentments, the Italian holdouts, the Puerto Ricans, the young punks, the police, and the heat.
This movie is most notable for bringing everyday race relations to the screen. Buggin' Out demanding to have black pictures in the pizzeria is one of those great scenes in American cinema. The biggest complaint is the lack of drugs. In the end, this is not suppose to be a hard gritty realistic portrait. It's a racial struggle where the characters are everyday people. There are no easy villains. Spike Lee taps into something more powerful than just a bunch of stereotypes. It's the Korean grocery story, the yuppie moving in, the old black resentments, the Italian holdouts, the Puerto Ricans, the young punks, the police, and the heat.