Posted on 02/27/2009
“Jheri curl alert!” “Where the Miller High Life?” “Wake up!” When you hear Samuel L. Jackson’s voice bellow from the We-Love DJ booth or see the late Ossie Davis stumble into the Korean bodega for his preferred beverage, the wonderful world of 1980s Bedford Stuyvesant comes crackling to life in Spike Lee’s seminal film, Do the Right Thing. To commemorate its 20th anniversary, ImageNation, in collaboration with Lincoln Center, honored Spike Lee with a special screening of the film at the Walter Reade Center and presented Lee with a Revolution Award. In attendance were a host of admirers, including Malcolm Lee, Michaela angela Davis, Malinda Williams and Nicole Fiscella, as well as a number of the film’s major players who would later participate in a panel discussion about their roles in the classic film.

Chuck D (sans Flav) gave a special kick-off to the celebration as he revived the film’s classic anthem “Fight the Power” with indie shoegazers, Apollo Heights, providing an unusually hard-rocking assist. Though at this point in his career an eloquent elder statesman for hip-hop, Chuck D’s powerful tone and presence has only gotten stronger with age. While Brooklyn singer Imani Uzuri walked the aisles, encouraging audience members to stand up and forget they were at a prestigious institution, many fans needed no help feeling the heat of the moment as they jumped up from the first chorus. The music and message spoke for itself as Chuck D prowled the stage with ease and Apollo Heights band members stood in a straight line behind him like Buckingham Palace guards. The first of many, lengthy applause breaks closed their set.

Lee then graced the stage to a standing ovation and gave a roll call of thanks to everybody who played some part in helping the film come to fruition, including cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, actors Rosie Perez and John Turturro, even urging people in the audience to shout out their participation if he overlooked them. One young man kept quiet as the older woman next to him hopped up and shouted she was the mother of the boy Ossie Davis’ Mayor character saved from the car. Lee acknowledged her and they received their share of applause as well. Keeping his comments brief, Lee said, “Everybody knew we had the potential to do something special and here we are twenty years later able to come together.”

With that, the room grew dark as the film began, but the celebration continued. How could it not with a first scene of Rosie Perez grinding in front of a block of Bedstuy brownstones? The spirit was that of a much more tolerable crowd at the Magic Johnson Theater. That night, and that night only, talking back to the screen was greatly encouraged. Though the film may be remembered most for its climactic riot scene, a newfound respect of how funny the film is jumped out to a lot of spectators. The nuance between racial tension on a hot summer’s day and the wit of the neighborhood’s colorful characters came together perfectly in a way many ‘issue’ films fail today. The late Robin Harris’ unique intonation and pitch perfect timing, Radio Raheem besting all with his gigantic boombox and the odd dap the characters gave each other (clinched fingers waving back and forth in mid-air as if sprinkling parmesan over pasta, can that please make a comeback?) all added layers to what could have easily become a heavy-handed drama if it had forgotten about the fact that most of the people in this Bedstuy community were happy to be there.

Rounding out the evening was a panel discussion moderated by Passing Strange playwright and star, Stew. In addition to Lee, Dickerson, Perez and Turturro, the panel included Richard Edson, Frankie Faison, Luis Miguel, John Savage and producers Jon Kilik and Monty Ross (Joie Lee made an early appearance and exit and Roger Guenveur Smith arrived after most of the festivities had concluded). Not only did Perez look stunning, but she shared some of the more touching stories about apartment hunting in Brooklyn with co-stars Steve White and Robin Harris and reuniting by chance with co-star Martin Lawrence after 12 years. The tears flowed freely from both at the encounter and when someone asked why they were crying, all she could say was, “Do the Right Thing. Do the Right Thing changed our lives. We were the newbies and it changed our lives.” The media treatment of the film also came to light as Turturro noted that the press acted as if the film would cause race riots, but he never received any flak for his incendiary portrayal of Pino. That audiences of color were able to separate character from real-life vitriol showed him “how over-reactive the press was because [Do the Right Thing] was something they’d never seen.” The momentous night came to a close with Dickerson sharing how excited and fortunate he felt just to be able to share a set with the iconic Ossie Davis. But for those of us in the audience, seeing the ensemble onstage was a reminder of just how many luminaries were launched by a film that hit all the right notes at just the right time.

- Candace L.