I have been given only a few filmgoing experiences in my life to equal the first time I saw Do the Right Thing. Most movies remain up there on the screen. Only a few penetrate your soul. In May of 1989 I walked out of the screening at the Cannes Film Festival with tears in my eyes. Spike Lee had done an almost impossible thing. He’d made a movie about race in America that empathized with all the participants. He didn’t draw lines or take sides but simply looked with sadness at one racial flashpoint that stood for many others…. Thoughtless people have accused Lee over the years of being an angry filmmaker. He has much to be angry about, but I don’t find it in his work. The wonder of Do the Right Thing is that he is so fair. Those who found this film an incitement to violence are saying much about themselves, and nothing useful about the movie. Its predominant emotion is sadness. – Roger Ebert, 2001
How does Do the Right Thing hit Blake Snyder’s story beats? Here is the Save the Cat!® beat sheet for the film:
Download the PDF of Blake Snyder’s beat sheet of Do the Right Thing, from Save the Cat!® Goes to the Movies, The Screenwriter’s Guide to Every Story Ever Told.
