Ryan McNeil
New York is the sort of city that seems to make most sense in black and white. The history of it, the look of it, the million stories in this naked city. But sidestepping the colour of the city shreds it of its true vibrance; vibrance that seems to drip from the fire escapes during the summer…vibrance that especially seems to live in neighbourhoods like the part of Brooklyn Spike Lee set DO THE RIGHT THING in.
Let’s be clear, much of the Brooklyn that Spike Lee captured in 1989 no longer exists. Hell, the whole of New York City as it was in 1989 no longer exists. But one thing from that era that still remains is that the summers in The City can be brutal, and while many New Yorkers will take that as a cue to get inside into air-conditioned comfort, not everybody has that luxury.
So some still get outside. They gather, they talk, and they laugh. They are already living in tight clusters thanks to the density the city employs, but the heat brings out a different part of them. It’s a more leisurely part, sometimes a more boisterous part, often a more irritable part.
But it’s a part that’s bright, that’s hot, and that wants to be a part of what’s happening. The summer of DO THE RIGHT THING is slipping away from us in our isolationist ways, but I’d wager if you walked the streets of New York during a heat wave, you’d still find people like ML, Sid, and Willie who have no use for Twitter or blogs like mine.
They’re too busy watching the dog days of summer play out…and too busy trying to stay cool.
Love this think piece, a small slab of something to ponder. When the wife and I were in Europe, the feel of life there, the lack of need for things and the fluidity of just ‘living’ was so prominent and so overwhelmingly beautiful. There are many days where I wish I could walk away from the need for technology…and just live life.
You raise a good point here. While there are so many things I want to do before my time on this planet is up, I’d never want to stack the day/week/month/year so full of these things that I can’t take a breath and enjoy them.
The funny thing is that one could easily think “Well, I’d never want to spend every day just sitting around ML, Willie, and Sid”…but we need to remind ourselves that RIGHT THING is only one day.
For all we know they’ve spent the last five working really tough jobs that involve manual labour. On this day – as you so rightly point out – they’re just “livin’ life”
And now you’ve arrived at my favorite movie of all time. This is Brooklyn, and by extension the city as a whole, precisely as I remember it as a kid. This movie speaks to me in a way no other film does. I simply can’t praise it enough so I’ll stop right here. Love this series!
My one regret about my weekend in The City was that I didn’t get to explore Brooklyn as much as I’d like…but now I know what I’ll be focusing my time and energy on next time I’m there!
Something tells me that I’ll have to make sure that trip happens during summer.
Thanks for keeping up with this series.
I am not a Spike Lee fan, but I have to admit his films are atmospheric. ‘Do the Right Thing,’ was probably one of his most atmospheric films to date.
The funny thing? When I first cooked up this series, this wasn’t the Spike Lee film I had in mind. My brain was focused on THE 25TH HOUR and the way it seems like the quintessential post-9/11 film.