The Right Thing?

Many critics and viewers ask Spike Lee whether or not Mookie 'did the right thing' by throwing the trash can through the window, starting the riot, after Sal broke Radio Raheems boom box and after Radio Raheem was killed by the police. Personally, I don't think that was the right thing to do. It wasn't Sal's fault that Radio Raheem died. I mean sure he broke his boom box, but who wouldn't after Radio Raheem coming into his pizzaria many times blasting his boom box and refusing to turn it down. That would annoy anyone; black or white. Sal was gerneralized due to the color of his skin with the white policemen. Sal didn't want anyone to get killed, he liked the people who came to his pizzaria. Sal told Mookie several times to 'do the right thing'. Sal viewed Mookie as one of his sons and he gave Mookie a job at a white pizza place and after all that, Mookie still threw the garbage can through the window. Many people, including Spike Lee, viewed Sal as a racist. I dissagree with that also. All Sals customers were black and he treated all of them with respect except when they didn't treat him with respect. Sal had a crush on Mookies sister, also prooving he wasn't a racist. Also, Sal gave Mookie a job at the pizzaria. People think of the argument over the pictures on the wall as racism due to the fact that there weren't any black people on the wall. But, it's a italian pizzaria. It makes sense to only have famous italian people on the wall. Sals talk with his son, Pino, really shows that he's not a racist because he often questions Pino why he's so angry all the time, aka racist. The underlining message in the story was a really good one and portrayed through all the different kinds of races, I really liked this movie.

La Bataille d'Algier

I read the article from the Washington Post by Ann Hornaday. I agreed with most of the basic comments Ann said about the film. One of the quotes I liked and agreed on also was, "He's pretty confident that his side will win the battle, but he's even more confident that it will lose the war." It was pretty obvious that Col. Mathieu knoew that the Algerians were going to keep their peace and independence even after the long battle. Even though they won the battle, it was pretty pointless because they didn't even win the war on taking their independence. I really don't think Ann Hornaday missed any major important parts of the movie. I did dissagree with one part. I think that there were alot of heroes in the film, and she thinks there is none. I thought that when the Algerian women dressed up as French women was really heroic. I mean, they risked their lives for the sake of winning their freedom and the war. That's got to count for something. I also think that Ali la Pointe was heroic in the film just by being a great leader and being sneeky to try to win independence. I think that the Algerians would consider him a hero.