Propelled by Public Enemy’s immortal “Fight the Power,” Spike Lee’s searing panorama of a summer day-in-the-life of a Brooklyn neighborhood remains one of his most enduring films, and garnered the filmmaker his first Academy Award nomination for the film’s Original Screenplay. As the temperature rises and tensions build along racial fault lines, a Bed-Stuy neighborhood, graced with striking murals commissioned by production designer Wynn Thomas, starts coming apart at the seams. More than three decades later, the film is as relevant as ever. Boasting an ensemble cast including acting legends Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Martin Lawrence, Bill Nunn, Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Danny Aiello, Rosie Perez in her film debut, and Lee himself, Do the Right Thing remains a landmark of American cinema.

DIRECTOR: Spike Lee. WRITTEN BY: Spike Lee. CAST: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Spike Lee. 1989. 120 min. USA. Color. English. 35mm. New print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

All film screenings in the Director’s Inspiration: Spike Lee series are available here.  

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.