Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America; circa 1989; is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful; tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America; revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer; the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if; in the end; anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal; the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie; the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders; Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Se?or Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch; treasure; and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson