Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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.

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