Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing is a 1989 motion picture produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee and released by Universal Pictures. The film tells a tale of bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on the hottest day of the year. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn and John Turturro. Do the Right Thing also marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez.

Trivia

• The character of Smiley was not in the original script; he was created by Roger Guenveur Smith, who was pestering Spike Lee for a role in the film.
• The film was made entirely on a real street in the Bed-Stuy neighbourhood. The street's colour scheme was, however, heavily altered by the production designer, who used a great deal of red and orange paint in order to help convey the sense of a heatwave.
• The ovens in the pizzeria set really worked, and Danny Aiello learned to knead pizza dough in preparation for his role.