At the end of Do the Right Thing, Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) reminds his listeners to go out and vote in the upcoming election. Spike Lee, in fact, hoped that this film would turn the 1989 New York City mayoral election against the incumbent, Ed Koch, who he saw as responsible for the increasingly violent racial tensions that inspired the work. Whether or not it actually played a role in Koch's loss to the city's first black mayor, David Dinkins, there is no question that Do the Right Thing was conceived as an ideological film. Even so, as we touched on the other night, the film seems less interested in presenting a solution than posing a question. Spike Lee, that is, wants to show look at the complex sources of the problem and get us to think and talk about them. For this week's post, choose one of the characters below and consider the various values he or she represents. What part of the ideological mosaic of the film does the character inhabit? What makes his or values problematic from the film's point of view? Which of his or her values, if any, does the film seem to appreciate, or find nonnegotiable, even essential? How do these values contribute to, or work to relieve, the conflict? Even if we may view a particular character negatively, or at least with some skepticism, are there elements of his or her "argument" that might be valid, or that must be addressed rather than dismissed?
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