Set entirely over the course of one sweltering summer day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Do the Right Thing follows Mookie (Spike Lee), a delivery man for Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, as he navigates the escalating friction between the Italian-American owners and the predominantly Black community they’ve served for decades.

Weaving together a vivid ensemble of neighborhood voices — from the block’s elders to its youth — Spike Lee builds an unflinching portrait of race, identity, and systemic tension in America. What begins as an ordinary, heat-soaked day builds toward a confrontation that is both inevitable and devastating.

A landmark of American independent cinema, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most urgent films ever made.