To Do The Right Thing? : It Doesn’t Matter

Spike Lee has stated that only some white viewers have asked him whether Mookie did the right thing, when he threw a trash can into Sal’s Pizzeria. At the end of the cult classic Do The Right Thing, Mookie was angry over the death of Radio Raheem from the police, so he threw the trash can. After the trash can was thrown the rest of the community went onto destroy Sal’s Pizzeria.

So the questions is, does it matter if Mookie did the right thing at the end of the movie? My answer is no it doesn’t matter because the movie is not that simple. It’s not that simple because, even though the destruction of Sal’s Pizzeria is the climax of the movie it doesn’t define the entire film. Mookie’s actions were a reaction to the racial tensions that were shown throughout the movie. So whether Mookie did the right thing doesn’t matter when you analyze the movie as a complete film.

After the last scene there are two quotes that are shown. The quotes give you two different perspectives on the decision that Mookie made. One quote is from Martin Luther King Jr. while the other is from Malcolm X.