Audiences Think Spike Lee Did the ‘Right Thing’

As Virginia Harris waited her turn Saturday in the tortuous ticket line that stretched from the box office of the Baldwin Hills Entertainment Complex to outlying La Brea Avenue, she marveled at what she believed was a queue for Spike Lee’s controversial new film, “Do the Right Thing.”

When she entered the theater showing the film, however, Harris noticed that the crowd had dwindled considerably. Most had gone next door for “Batman.”

In her eyes, they’d done the wrong thing.

“I couldn’t believe it,” chuckled Harris, a Los Angeles resident. “When we got inside, the crowd wasn’t bad, but I thought almost everybody was coming to see (Lee’s film). . . . People need to. This is a definitely a film for everybody.”

Her sentiments were echoed by many of those among the crowd that did opt for “Do the Right Thing.” Despite warnings from critics that the film--which explores the racial tensions and ultimately violent events of one summer day in a largely black Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood--could prove incendiary in multi-ethnic venues, Angelenos of widely ranging ethnic and racial backgrounds praised it as “the best movie of the summer.”

“These days we talk about a person’s right to be a racist,” said Sylvia Castillo, standing alongside Harris in a cluster of five people who were discussing the film outside the theater. “It’s as if there’s nothing wrong with that, but a when movie like this comes around, it’s viewed as threatening.”

Criticizing the movie critics who cautioned that “Right Thing” was inflammatory, Castillo defended the film by saying, “It just puts dialogue right on the table.”

Anne Davis, another Los Angeles resident, said many of the critics manufactured the film’s supposed incendiary potential because Lee is black.

“This is something that’s emphasized because a black man wrote it, produced it and directed it,” she said. “The media doesn’t talk about the skinheads’ violence or (police brutality) like that.”

Added Brian Hudson: “Movies like this can only do good. There is nothing negative about this movie, nothing at all. It’s the best movie of the summer.”

Others commended the film for its accurate portrayal of life styles in black communities.

“It showed life from the black community’s perspective,” said Karen Bass. “It wasn’t like ‘Mississippi Burning,’ where black people were just nameless, helpless victims.”

Bass said that most people tend be “uncomfortable about talking about racism” but that “Right Thing” makes discussion of the issue nearly unavoidable.

Bass and others said they were also impressed by how Lee subtly took stances on some of the recent, highly publicized incidents of alleged racism in New York. For instance, in a scene in which blacks and Hispanics loot and burn a pizzeria after police murder a black youth, the angry mob chants “Howard Beach! Howard Beach!” In another scene, Lee stands near a wall bearing the spray-painted proclamation “Tawana Told the Truth,” a reference to the Tawana Brawley rape case.

But, while many gave the film high marks, not everyone came away with the same message.

“I think the message was that people think we can solve problems with violence, but we can’t,” said Vordie Friday of Gardena.

“It was saying that (black people) really need to come together,” said Rubbey Brown, a Baldwin Hills man. “It showed what’s really going on in the minds of black people. But whites should come see it too.”

Larry Dorsey, a 45-year-old Los Angeles resident, said the film focused on racial differences just to point out human commonality.

“I think the message was epitomized by the Korean man in the movie who said he was just like the black people,” Dorsey said. “We are all one. We need to let down our walls, our prejudices.”

Harris said she believed that “Right Thing” would not only foster interracial harmony but encourage greater cohesion in the black community.

“Hopefully, movies like this can build a movement, especially in light of the recent Supreme Court decisions,” she said, citing rulings by the high court that many perceive as rollbacks of civil rights gains. “Movies like this also help create solidarity among the races. It showed the unity between blacks and Hispanics, which was a nice touch.”

The emotions touched off by “Right Thing” were as varied as the messages it broadcasted.

“I feel uplifted by it,” said Bass. “It was very positive; it left me feeling like there was some hope.”

Said Harris: “I left angry. To think, that, in 1989, we still haven’t solved the problems of racism. That’s a shame.”