David Baker's Reviews > Do the Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint

This is a journal Spike Lee kept while writing and making "Do the Right Thing". He writes about watching the premiere of "Midnight Run" and hassling Robert De Niro afterwards because he wanted him to play the pizzeria owner, which the late Danny Aiello ended up playing. He writes about meeting Rosie Perez for the first time when she was a dancer in a club. There's the scene at the end of the movie when Mookie, played by Spike Lee, throws a garbage can through the pizzeria window. Take-after-take, Spike Lee couldn't break the window, and he writes about how embarrassed he felt (Danny Aiello told him he should go to the gym). This is an entertaining and honest account of a young film director feeling out of his depth making a studio movie on a tight budget ("tighter than chicken pussy" he says) before becoming world-famous after this incredible film.

A must-read for aspiring film-makers and lovers of the movie.