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Q3 2024

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By Manuel Gonzalez I was an only child for my first 14 years, and so I spent a lot of time alone. I be- ca m e i m m e rs e d e a r ly o n i n s to r i e s, whether they were in books, movies, or songs. I guess escapism has always ap- pealed to me. Yet my mother pushed for me to be a chef or a lawyer, and as I got good at it, a baseball player. By the time I saw Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" when I was 16, I already knew I wanted to be a writer. I'd read tons of Stephen King novels and short stories and had even seen some adapta- tions of his work. Aside from reading, I saw a lot of films to further my understand- ing of the craft, despite the formats being quite different. In the first half hour of "Do the Right Thing," I knew I'd never seen anything like it. From Rosie Perez's opening credits dance to Samuel L. Jackson's (as Señor Love Dad- dy) electric radio DJ voice to the immediate burst of racism. Yeah, this is going to be very different, I thought. Admittedly, I couldn't figure out what the movie was about as it went along. But it didn't matter. I was fascinated with the characters and the way they were intro- duced. Smiley, the mentally disabled man attempting to preach about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Radio Raheem with his huge boombox blasting Public Enemy. Da Mayor and Mother Sister's contentious coexistence. It's difficult not to get invested in the people. I learned a lot about charac- terization, character intros, development, and arcs from this film. Perhaps more than from any other. Race and racism are prominent themes that pop up in almost every scene. And in these scenes, these themes are presented with plenty of humor, along with Bill Lee's outstandingly beautiful score. Much of the comedy comes from the Greek chorus-like three men (Robin Harris, Frankie Faison, and Paul Benjamin) who sit outside and ar- gue about Mike Tyson and whether it's too hot sometimes to have sex. Or it could come from Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and his misfit friends (Martin Lawrence among them) who turn on fire hydrants and annoy the only white man in the neighborhood. This tone lasts through most of the movie — until it slowly gives way to a more serious one. Irrevocably invested in the characters and the slowly building tension, I was suddenly faced with the film's climax. And it was there, when Radio Raheem is choked to death, that I just had to stop the video and turn off the TV. I couldn't deal with what I was seeing. I felt betrayed. Lee pulled me into the neighborhood and got me to like and fear for the characters, and then led me unwillingly down a dark alley, which he seemed to try to avoid for an hour and a half. The intensity of the events — the anger, the exhumation of long-buried attitudes, and, of course, the violence — scared the hell out of 16-year-old me. I debated not returning to it. I mean, it was only less than a half hour left. But I decided to turn everything back on, and it was because of something more than need- ing to know how it ends. It was about the message. It was about the craft. It was about the art. In a span of two hours, Lee made me laugh, think, and made me realize writing movies can be a more powerful means by which an artist expresses him/herself, and becomes a witness and everlasting voice for society because, unlike novels, film is a visual medium. Images, powerful images, can be burned into our brain along with the artist's unique perception of society. In that way, the film never ends. It stays with us, for the ages. We can never forget Da Mayor's simple piece of advice: "Always do the right thing." ■ Manuel Gonzalez is a screenwriter by trade and a story analyst by profession. He lives on the eastside of LA with his wife and son and has worked for CAA, Paradigm, UTA, HartBeat, and Sony Pictures. A lifelong Dodger-lover, he'll fight anyone smaller and drunker than him who says anything bad about them. He can be reached at manuel.i.glez@gmail.com. Spike Lee, center, and Danny Aiello in "Do the Right Thing." P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T T A I L P O P 'DO THE RIGHT THING' WAS RAW, FUNNY — AND SOMETIMES SCARY SWITCHING OFF 62 C I N E M O N T A G E

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