Do The Right Thing

This movie has been on my "need to watch" list for a long time, but always lurking near the bottom; probably because it's an '80s movie, I'd never heard about it from any of my friends, and it's about race relations, which is just not something I'm super interested in. Please don't take that the wrong way; I'm just saying I'd usually pick "action" or "comedy" or "sci-fi" over "race relations" as a genre.

Well, I just finished watching it, and it's the best movie I've seen in a long time. Probably the best race relations movie I've ever seen. As far as cultural relevance goes, I'm sure it's lost a lot in the twenty years [yikes!] since its release – I don't think black people listen to Public Enemy* as much anymore – but whether or not this movie does anything to help black people and white people get along today, it's still a cinematic masterpiece. It's funny and poignant, the writing and directing are brilliant and gorgeous respectively, and the movie is bursting at the seams with all kinds of energy: joy, love, anger, and hate.

Please, please, if you are twenty years behind the times like me and haven't seen this movie yet, go rent it. Grit your teeth through the painfully long, painfully 1989 opening credits, then enjoy a two-hour snapshot of humanity in its simultaneous beauty and horror.

* My most relevant 30 Rock link ever! If you don't understand the reference, click here.