16. The Good: Trying to stop a riot at a pizzeria
The Bad: Killing an innocent boombox enthusiast
The New York police serve as antagonists in what 1989 film?
From Quiz New York's Finest
Answer:
Do the Right Thing
Often considered one of Spike Lee's greatest achievements, "Do the Right Thing" speaks volumes about tensions between African-Americans and a police force burdened by racism, more than a dozen years before the founding of Black Lives Matter.
The film takes place on a single day, the hottest day in the year, at Sal's Pizzeria in Brooklyn, which is owned by an old Italian man but mainly serves the minority community, especially African-Americans. A racially-charged disagreement over which pictures should be hung on the "Wall of Fame" in the restaurant turns violent, and climaxes when the police, called in to resolve the conflict, choke Radio Raheem, nicknamed for the fact that he's always carrying around a boombox. At that point, the protagonist (played by Spike Lee) hurls a trash can into the pizzeria, starting a ferocious riot that quickly gets out of hand.
The film's deepest irony is in its title, "Do the Right Thing"--as though it were so easy. Lee deliberately waffles on the question of how best to secure racial equality, ending the film with diametrically opposing quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The police are not represented positively in this film, but Lee also inculpates the restless mob, who, in one scene, attempt to vandalize a supermarket until finding out that the owner is Korean. In perhaps the film's best-known scene, which is an obvious homage to "The Night of the Hunter", Raheem explains why he has the words "Love" and "Hate" emblazoned on his knuckles:
"Let me tell you the story of Right Hand, Left Hand. It's a tale of good and evil. Hate: it was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love: these five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: static. One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that's right. Ooh, it's a devastating right and Hate is hurt, he's down. Left-Hand Hate KOed by Love."