#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁
#DoTheRightThing (1989)
😆😂🤭😬😮😲😡🤬😱🥵😔🙏
Bl**dy H*ll! This funny, empathetic, superbly-crafted, incendiary human's-eye view of a neighbourhood *still* has the power to…well, do *every*thing! An instant stone-cold classic on release, let's hope that 30 years from now it'll finally feel dated because the alternative is too sad to even think about…
I mean, you could write a college term paper and not even begin to scratch its giddy, multitudinous surface to see everything that's going on. But I have a theory about (re)watching your favourite movies: the visceral reaction you have the first time you watch it as a young person, the analytical, battle-scarred approach to watching it once you're "grown up," and then when you introduce your kids to it. Man, I hope TBH brings her A-game for the third time, 'cause I'm not gonna have any idea how to actually adult that convo.
So, I'll talk, like I always do, about these things: *incredible* cinematography by the great Dickerson, I mean seriously, I've mostly known his work as a director, but man his early work holding the camera, dude, no seriously, all these hipster dudes with their DSLRs and steadicams doing one-r's these days, take a look at what the camera team did here, wow! And, of course, superlative production and costume design, that *stunning* editing, that score by Spike's father (paving the way for a long and fruitful collaboration with Blanchard), that in-your-face sound design(*integral* in a way that you don't often see), and of course, that casting director with an ensemble *bursting* at the seams with once and future "known" actors/stars…I mean, soooo many great performances: Spike (he was quite an actor, no?), Sandoval, Harris, Faison, Savage, Lawrence(yes, *that* Martin!), Edson, Smith(that shot of him at the end😯!), the irrepressible Perez, the doomed Nunn, the livewire Esposito, the conflicted Turturro, the great Dee, Sam Mutha-Bleepin' Jackson(what?! he's been with us *all* along, hasn't he?!)…have I left anyone out?!
And of course, the *great* Aiello, who brings all the nuance and charisma to a complex, complicated, infuriating, warmhearted character, a human being in other words.
But, I gotta say, in all of this maelstrom, in all of Spike's whirling directing, the person who steals the show is Davis. He may not have the last word in the film, but it's his presence that hangs over it all, an easily-ignored but insistent voice that things can, and, must, get better.
PS. TBH was right, as much fun as the movie is…it was all perfectly designed with Swiss-precision to inexorably build to its *inevitable* ending.
#SpikeLee #ErnestDickerson #BarryAlexanderBrown #WynnThomas #RuthECarter #SkipLievsay #BillLee #BranfordMarsalis
#OssieDavis #DannyAiello #GiancarloEsposito #RosiePerez #BillNunn #JohnTurturro #RichardEdson #RubyDee #RogerGuenveurSmith
#MartinLawrence #JoieLee #FrankieFaison #RobinHarris #MiguelSandoval #JohnSavage…and, of course, #SamuelLJackson (and many, many, many more!)
@universalpictures @officialspikelee
