Do the Right Thing
Dir. Spike Lee. 1989, 120 mins. 35mm. With Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Rosie Perez, John Turturro. One of the most aesthetically accomplished and intentionally incendiary American films ever made, Spike Lee’s full-throttle portrait of a particularly eventful, hot summer day in the life of a Bed-Stuy neighborhood is a remarkable and ambivalent dramatization of race relations in America. The phenomenal cast (including Aiello as pizza man Sal, Lee as delivery boy Mookie, and Davis as an apartment-stoop prophet), the endlessly inventive visuals, and the charged political discussion made this an epochal cultural moment when it was released in summer 1989, and it easily retains its power to this day. Tickets: $17.50 / $12 senior and students / $10 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.