Spike Lee's entire career as a filmmaker has focused on illustrating New York City's multiple stories and histories, especially those of the city's diverse African American community. With a mixture of skill and controversy, Spike Lee has put together narratives that combine stories picked from newspaper headlines with others drafted from fiction. Summer of Sam is best known for the fact that it is the filmmaker's first film dealing with non-African American subject matter. What becomes evident is that while the names and faces have been changed, Spike Lee's concern with the city's stories, and how they are impacted by race and class, continues. Addition to Summer of Sam, Do The Right Thing is a good representation of Spike Lee's vision concerning the lives of specific characters, separating his style as an independent filmmaker from that of high-concept filmmakers. This paper is set out to situate Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing in reference to his more recent film Summer of Sam, discuss the subject matter in each of the films, and similarities that link to Spike Lee's unique style as a filmmaker. Do The Right Thing takes place on a hot summer day in an African American neighborhood(Bedstuy) located in an urban section of New York City. The action centers on the pizzeria whose good-hearted owner Sal plays off tensions between his two sons, Pino and Vito, and his delivery man Mookie(played by Spike Lee). Sal himself has running contentions with Buggin Out(who is portrayed as a so-called neighborhood trouble maker), over his wall of heroes devoted to great Italian-Americans. Sal also runs into problems with Radio Raheem over the volume and choice of his rap music, and with Mookie over the efficacy of his deliveries. In general, the heat has everybody in this neighborhood living loud. By the end of the day, everyone has reached the boiling point. From an insignificant argument over Sal's wall of heroes, accumulated differences ...
