Do the Right Thing - Jessica S.

John Turturro's character Pino does seem the most conflicted throughout the entire cast of characters as we watch the story progress. He values his family's sense of business and pride in their heritage, but he is in constant conflict with his surroundings because of it. Even though he knows that his family's pizzeria is situated in a popular black neighborhood, it seems as though he is most unhappy about it because of the isolation he feels about his family being the last Italians that are living in that neighborhood. I think Pino inhabits the 'in-between' character in the mosaic of the film because of his dislike of the neighborhood African Americans, but also his overall like of the neighborhood African Americans. It's as though he admires those who had made something famous of themselves in the world, while the customer's in his father's store were to be hated because they hadn't, in his sense, made something of themselves.

I think the film finds Pino's point of view a problematic one because of his hateful but contradictory behavior. If nothing went his way- if nothing felt traditional to Pino-like in the sense of his family's Italian heritage, he raised up against it and would try to force whatever it was to separate. For instance, when Pino sees that Vito and Mookie are friends, he threatens Vito and warns him to keep away from Mookie, trying to inflict that separation between them. I think under the surface that Pino's character really wanted to hold on to those traditional Italian values that we can see represented through Sal's pizzeria, but he really went about it with too much force and anger that couldn't be reconciled by anyone. The film recognizes these values in a hidden sort of way; much less than it focuses on recognizing his temperamental state of mind and his want to understand. I think we can see him try to start to understand the situation in the scene where Sal is talking to him by the shop's window, but Buggin' Out intervenes and Pino's anger breaks through. These values of Pino's obviously contribute to the conflict of the film and the downfall of the pizzeria, because his negative energy is displayed every time a customer comes in to eat. I think that even though his intolerance makes him an unlikeable character, his argument seems valid if you take into account that he wanted to preserve the heritage and history of his family and his people. That does not exclude his behavior toward the African Americans of the community, but it does help show his reality in the situation.