Do the Right Thing

“Do the Right Thing. When Spike Lee got the Criterion treatment, oh my God. And all the extras in it. Spike’s preserved the storyboards, the audition tapes, the day that everyone first meets, them building the sets, the pizzeria, them building it by hand. So you get to see, soup to nuts. It’s as if Spike knew that some ten years later, some twenty years later, that they would contextualize this and he kept everything.”

“Oh. Do the Right Thing. The performances are just so great. So many actors who I admire. Spike, and then Turturro, Danny Aiello, and Giancarlo Esposito. People that I’ve crossed paths with or worked with through the years, a very solidly New York group. And a great movie. What an innovative and interesting filmmaker.”

“Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee. I’m from New York, and I feel like this really captures New York and the grit of New York, but also how beautiful it is and just the people. This movie always makes me emotional. I just love this film so much.”

“And this one. Do the Right Thing, ‘cause it is a masterpiece. And that’s… It just is.”

“This is a respect pick some things you pick just out of respect and I remember seeing Do the Right Thing years ago and really understanding and learning about who Spike was and the type of filmmaker that he is and he continues to be and it's bold and it's daring and it's provocative and it's funny finding the levity in sometimes very traumatic situations is so special and nice to feel so shout out to Do the Right Thing.”

“Do the Right Thing. I think of myself as... I don’t know, I feel like I’m a... Definitely influenced by European directors, by, you know, Spike Lee– Black directors, by gay filmmakers. A little Euro, a little ghetto, a little homo.”

“Let me start with Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee, such a great film. Reminds me of New York, of how I studied here. 1989, I came in 1991, so the movie just came out and it was like a revelation of a film. So that one I'm going to take. It says director approved, so Lee approved it. It's wonderful.”

“I gotta go and Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee. Just the use of color, the framing, the way he would frame subjects. I'm thinking of certain low shots where he had the camera way down and shooting up against this sort of Midnight blue sky. The way he took what to me at the time was a revolutionary and unique aesthetic and he mixed that with the social point of view that was educational. I really think this is one of our finest films.”

“Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, one of the most seminal texts on race in America. Playful, funny, inventive, sad, scary. It’s a huge film. And for anybody who attempts to talk about race in America, this is always there.”

“Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. This is so hard because, like, you know, everybody wants like the whole closet to come home, but one must choose.”

“Oh, remember when we first saw this? Oh, wasn't that, is that our first Criterion film? It's, yeah, it's the first Criterion film. I think that was our first Criterion film. No, first, no, first Criterion film we bought.”

“I've already got Do the Right Thing, the Criterion, one of my favorite films. That's probably the film more than any that I would say kind of inspired me when I left school in 1988. It's probably the one movie that made me think I actually want to make films. It's still really powerful. The ending really hits you. You don't expect it to turn. It's been so funny and light and then suddenly when the violence kicks off you realize this film is still so relevant.”

“I mean this is just the like the fight sequence and Do the Right Thing is one of the best things that's ever been put on film it's flawless it's just a flawless sequence the opening sequence is great I think if there's anything that has been a mainstay in all the films it's like dancing and if you get those things right then you're fine.”

“And I got a Spike Lee movie and this makes me so happy. This, we all know, is a masterpiece, a masterpiece in acting, a masterpiece in filmmaking. Spike Lee, I think, is the comparable master of creating the world of truth in space like no other filmmaker. He is such a genius.”

“Do the Right Thing. I have a crazy story with Do the Right Thing because I was an exchange student to Brazil when I was 16 and the day that I came home... My cousin was like yo wait to hear this... There's this song called Fight the Power and this movie called Do the Right Thing. It's the summer of 89... I went to the theater to see Do the Right Thing.”

“Do the Right Thing. The ’80s, underrated decade, as far as I’m concerned. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best movie of the ’80s. It’s just as vital now as it was when it was made. It’s a great film. Do the Right Thing.”

“Okay, and for the last one, I’m going to pick Do the Right Thing, a Spike Lee joint. Another amazing movie.”

“Do the Right Thing? How could I miss it? As a young boy growing up in Wales, I just remember it felt like I was being slapped around the face the first time I saw it and just introduced to a world I had no idea of. And that’s what great films should do, and it did. And it was this introduction to Spike Lee’s Brooklyn or America that made me... Made me want to come here, certainly made me want to come to Brooklyn. I fell in love with Rosie Perez, and I kind of still am.”

“Do the Right Thing. Do the Right Thing and see this movie. That is the right thing to do. When this film came out, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, it was such a powerful moment. To have Rosie Perez, a Latina, opening up the film, it was huge. And it was political and it was angry, and it was owning the anger that we people of color have... I love Spike Lee as a man. I love him as a filmmaker. I love his politics. I love what he did for all of us people of color.”