Spike Lee's BIG DEBUT

Do the Right Thing really had a controversial ending. My class was able to talk almost two class periods about the morality of the ending and whether or not the right thing was done in the end. Everyone’s thoughts had me battling my own interpretation of the ending. I still however, feel strongly that Mookie made a terrible move when he decided to feed into the destructive intentions of the mob. I felt that Mookie made this decision after the cops took away Radio Raheem’s body and the crowds focus shifted towards Sal, his sons and Mookie himself. I interpreted it as Mookie throwing the trashcan through Sal’s window in order to tell the crowd that he was on their side. Mookie saved his own behind in order to preserve his place in the community and his actions tell the audience that life is more important than material possessions. Everyone knew that what happened to Radio Raheem was wrong and I feel that the crowd needed to take their anger out on someone. This point brings us back to the original conflict of whose fault was it that Radio Raheem got killed. One can argue that it was Raheem’s own fault because of his obnoxious behavior which caused Sal to break his radio which in turn started the fight. On the other side of the argument though when can say that Sal knew what he was getting himself into when he broke Raheem’s radio and that he shouldn’t have acted on impulse. I don’t feel that there is a right answer to whether Mookie did the right thing or not and that it all depends on how a person characterizes Mookie’s actions.