One of the things I appreciated about DtRT was that despite the politically charged material, rap music, and contemporary styles/setting, Spike Lee made it like a classic 1950s drama.
The characters are developed in a slow, steady way, with plot lines evolving as in literature, and key events foreshadowed early on, rather than just hitting randomly.
In the ’50s, a lot of movies were based on books and/or successful plays (e.g. Streetcar Named Desire), and were structured / scripted a lot like novels or stage productions.
So Do the Right Thing has a lot more in common with much older classics like The Man With the Golden Arm than others made in the late ’80s.
It’s one of those great movies I assume everyone has seen… but then it turns out they haven’t.
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