Do the Right Thing (4k UltraHD + Blu-ray)

“It’s the hottest day of summer. You can do nothing, you can do something, or you can…Do the Right Thing. Directed by visionary filmmaker and Academy Award winner Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing is one of the most thought-provoking and groundbreaking films of its time. The controversial story centers around one scorching inner-city day, when racial tensions reach the boiling point in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood. Culturally significant and featuring over four hours of bonus features, Do the Right Thing captures a vital look at American life.”

Do the Right Thing is nothing less than Spike Lee’s masterpiece. As his body of work took various different directions throughout his career, sometimes capturing the perfect tone of a genre, other times approaching the mundane, his ability to tap in to these societal and racial issues in this film while presenting a thought-provoking and powerful message ensures that this film, early on in his career, is still the kind of film and message we desperately need today.

As audience members, we mainly follow the character of Mookie (Spike Lee), as he traverses a few city blocks in New York City, delivering pizzas and interacting with all the people that live there. Mookie sees the racism everywhere he turns, and although it can be subtle at times, he continuously tries to get everyone to ‘do the right thing’, de-escalating situations that could become worse, but most importantly, showing us, the audience, both sides of the story. It isn’t racism against one group of people, it’s racism from all sides, of all people, which finally comes to a head in the third act which causes Mookie to finally act.

The theme, echoed by the quotes at the end of the film, doesn’t glorify a violent response to racism, but just the opposite, despite the events in the third act. Seeing racism at it’s most raw, visceral, and ugly, helps further Spike Lee’s message, and brings attention to how deplorable it is. The scenes with Mookie and Pino (John Turturro) lobbing racial and derogatory slurs at the camera is uncomfortable to say the least, but it puts the viewer in the position that they are the target of these insults. It’s a moment that we’re taken out of the narrative momentarily, almost as if the things that are being thought of by the characters are being said aloud. The point being, even things like this that are thought internally, are just as sickening as if they were said aloud. It’s all these deep moments that Spike Lee is able to present in the story that truly makes it a great film, one that has stood strong over these three decades since its release, and will continue to endure for generations to come.

The ensemble cast of the film helps make it the success that it is, and was the first film for a lot of entertainers like Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. Each character had such a strong impact on the film, with a certain element being added to the story, that I don’t think you could do without a single one and still have such a strong narrative.

So much more has been said about this film over the years, in much more eloquent ways that I certainly could put into words. As much as I would like to think that we’ve progressed socially in the last thirty years, seeing this film in contrast to what’s happened only in the past year with George Floyd and countless others subjected to the brutality of a system still ripe with racism, I realize that we’ve barely even moved the dial. Do the Right Thing will stand the test of time, highlighting the ugliness of racism and prejudice, and the horrors that come along with it.

Video

Do the Right Thing is presented in 2160p 4k Ultra High Definition Widescreen 1.85:1 featuring HDR10. This new 4k transfer looks absolutely incredible. If there is one thing you can say about the film, is that it’s colorful. The streets of New York City and its people are so vibrant, each wearing bright colors that show up wonderfully in this 4k set, providing the brighter, deeper and more lifelike colors that HDR can give us. From the opening shot of the clock, zooming out with Samuel L. Jackson, you’ll see just how clear and detailed the picture is, and how much of a marked improvement it is over its Blu-ray counterpart.

The film was released on Criterion just two years ago with a brand-new transfer that manually removed a lot of detrimental elements from the print. While I don’t know if this transfer is sourced from that same work, which I doubt, the 4k print looks just as clear and is free from dirt and defects. There will be hesitation to pick this up I’m sure from fans already owning the Criterion release, because unfortunately they still refuse to make the jump into the 4k format. However, the treatment of this film, for me, warrants the upgrade to the UHD format.

Audio

The audio is presented in DTS:X. This track is better than I could have hoped for the film, which provides some powerful sound, perfectly balanced between the surrounds and center channel. While the film doesn’t have a lot of action sequences or anything, the sound plays a big part in the film, the dialogue especially being an assault on our senses at times, and the soundtrack especially, being a very powerful portion of the film.

Special Features

The disc contains over four hours of bonus material, mostly older material that has been included on past releases, save for a new intro for the 4k set.

• Spike Lee Introduction
• Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Behind the Scenes
• Making Do the Right Thing
• Editor Barry Brown
• The Riot Sequence
• Cannes, 1989
• Trailers
• 20^th Anniversary Edition Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee
• Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee, Director of Photography Ernest Dickerson, Production Designer Wynn Thomas and Actor Joie Lee

Universal’s 4k transfer of Do the Right Thing looks and sounds incredible, a marked improvement over all other formats, very worthy of an upgrade. With some themes just as prevalent today as it was thirty years ago, it’s a film worth taking to every format available. Pick this one up today.