Whoa. Y'all take a chill. You got to cool that shit off. And that's the double-truth, Ruth.

On Do the Right Thing:

There is so much to say about this movie. I thought it was a great movie that everyone should watch the first time I saw it, but somehow, I got even more out of the film this time. I can hardly choose where to start.

Radio Raheem and Mookie are having a conversation about Raheem's new rings, love on the right hand, hate of the left, and Raheem breaks into a monologue: "Let me tell you the story of Right Hand, Left Hand. It's a tale of good and evil. Hate: it was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love: these five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: static. One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that's right. Ooh, it's a devastating right and Hate is hurt, he's down. Left-Hand Hate KOed by Love." Now, this is a movie. Directors and producers spend days and days making the final cut of every film. There was a reason for this awkward monologue. It does introduce the idea, presented again and again throughout the film, of the fight between love and hate, but there is also a literary allusion that is a little out of place. Raheem refers to his left hand as the hand that "Cain iced his brother" with. The movie ends with a lot of hate, so as I interpret it, Cain does kill his brother in this movie. Now the only question is who is Cain and who is Abel? Sal could be Cain when he breaks Raheem's beloved radio. Raheem could be Cain when he is tries to strangle Sal. The police could be Cain when they kill Raheem. I personally believe that Mookie is Cain.

Sal refers to Mookie as one of his sons and he tells him that he always has a place at the pizzeria. When Sal and Buggin Out start arguing, and the argument starts to escalate, Mookie finds him self caught up in hate. Mookie is Cain killing Abel when he throws the first trash can through the restaurant window. It is this betrayal that leads to the looting and burning of Sal's Famous Pizzeria. In this action, it looks like Raheem was wrong, hate conquered love.

Spike Lee uses a directing technique in this movie that is reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa. Lee uses the weather to symbolize the conflict between the people in the city. The weather is hot, the heat just keeps getting worse throughout the story. Not only is heat and anagram for hate, but the heat reaches a climax when Sal's Famous is set on fire. The hottest moment in the movie is when the building is on fire, and for what, just to get some pictures on a wall. In the moment of the burning, Smiley puts a picture of Martin Luther King and Malcom X on the wall, just as it burns to the ground. The movie closes with a quote from each of the black leader, in my mind to represent the the hands of love and hate. Next on the list is Boyz N The Hood