Do the Right Thing

But the Tim Burton, that was a movie that was in many ways a crucial, if not the first modern blockbuster because of the way that Warner Brothers owned and controlled that property and that Burton was a director for hire.

And, but at the same time, the, that, that year also is, was, you know, saw sexualizing videotape and do the right thing.

And I, I, you know, the, the first chapter of the book, you know, is focuses on Tim Burton and Batman and the, and then the, and then the, Tim Warner merger.

But then I also spent a lot of time in that first big chapter on 1989, first big section on 1989, talking about about Do the Right Thing and Sex, Lies and Videotape and the impact that those two movies, both 1989, both summer 1989, Batman would do over a billion dollars in his first year on the market from all sources, which was at the time staggering.

And a lot of that was because of the Time Warner merger, the extent to which Time Warner had a global operation.

as well as a marketing operation that enabled it to maximize the income on that film.

Meanwhile, Sex, Lies, and Videotape is the biggest indie movie to date, $25 million.

$25 million domestic.

But the, the, you know, the Tim Burton, that, that was a, that was a movie that was, uh, in many ways a, a crucial, if not the first modern blockbuster because of the way that Warner Brothers owned and controlled that property, and that Burton was a director for hire.

And but at the same time, the, that, that year also is, was, you know, saw Sexualizing Videotape and Do the Right Thing, and I, I s- I s- you know, the, the first chapter of the book, you know, is focuses on Tim Burton and Batman and the se- and then the, and then the Time Warner merger.

But then I also spend a lot of time in that first big chapter on 1989, first big section on 1989, talking about, about Do the Right Thing and Sexualizing Videotape, uh, and the impact that those two movies, both i- 1989, both summer 1989, um, Batman would do over a billion dollars in its first year on the market and all, f- from all sources, which was at the time staggering.

Uh, and a lot of that was because of the Time Warner merger.

Uh, the, the extent to which, you know, Time Warner had a, had a, had a, a global operation, uh, as well as, uh, a marketing operation that enabled it to maximize the income on that film.

Uh, meanwhile, uh, Sexualizing Videotape is the, is the biggest indie movie to date, $25 million.

$25 [laughs] million domestic.

So, uh, but, uh, Do the Right Thing, Sexualizing Videotape, uh, both, they both do $25 million.

At the same time, you know, I think the thing we need to kind of work our way around to is one of the main reasons I wrote this book was not just the development of conglomerate Hollywood, but the concurrence, the concurrent development of the so-called indie movement and and the extent to which the two cross-fertilized through time.

And one of the reasons I start the book in 1989, and there are several, as I said before, but one of them is that the movies that I kind of put front and center to start this book are tim burton's batman and and we refer to it as tim burton's batman when in fact it wasn't a tim burton movie it was a tim burton movie in certain ways but not anywhere near the extent that it was sold to us and has been promulgated over time but the the you know the tim burton that was a that was a movie that was uh in many ways a crucial if not the first modern blockbuster because of the way that warner brothers owned and controlled that property and that burton was a director for hire and but at the same time the that that year also is was you know saw sexualizing videotape and do the right thing and i i you know the first chapter of the book you know is focuses on tim burton and batman and the and then the and then the time warner merger but then i also spent a lot of time in that first big chapter on 1989 first big section on 1989 talking about about do the right thing and sexizing videotape uh and the impact that those two movies both in 1989 both summer 1989 uh batman would do over a billion dollars in his first year on the market and all from all sources which was at the time staggering uh and a lot of that was because of the time warner merger uh the the extent to which you know time warner had had a global operation that as well as a marketing operation that enabled it to maximize the income on that film.

So over a billion dollars, Tim Burton's Batman, 1989.

Meanwhile, Sex, Lies, and Videotape is the biggest indie movie to date, $25 million, $25 million domestic.

But Do the Right Thing, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, They both drew $25 million.

They put two filmmakers, Soderbergh and Spike Lee, on the map.

they bring a new dimension to the industry that would be absolutely vital to its development over the next decade.

Thompson.

Smith, I think, is best known for playing the role of Smiley in the Spike Lee movie, Do the Right Thing.

He's been in a bunch of Spike Lee movies, and he's also a long-established rapper, spoken word artist, monologuist.

He's done a bunch of one-man shows.

Yeah, I hadn't seen any of his work before, besides, I mean, I've seen Do the Right Thing.

I have not, so I was really...

But I saw he has one of these on Netflix, I believe, directed by Spike.

that's like, if anything, I wanted more of that to be the show.

Anyways, we're back covering my pick for this episode, guys.

It's Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.

People who listen to this podcast know that I criticize Spike Lee.

As an artist, a very outspoken artist, especially in recent years.

But added to that, one of my friends had told me that I really have to watch this movie despite my qualms about Spike Lee.

So here we are.

Let's do the right thing.

And so without further ado, let's get into the plot summary.

I like the sound of that a lot.

To me, when I first, when I read that synopsis, the first thing that jumped out at me was Spike Lee's do the right thing.

And I know you talked about that with him in the interview, like if he drew inspiration or anything like that, but like.

you when you did that interview you hadn't seen the movie yet yeah now that you've seen the movie would you would you say that you can see kind of like that inspiration or is it or is that more just like it's taking the i the idea of like a heat wave one single day kind of like you know people walking around just going through a date a regular experience almost but it's totally different from that or would you say you can kind of see little pieces in there

I would say that now that I've seen it, I understand why he kind of like, not like shoot it off, but was kind of like, yeah, kind of.

Because on his face, it's like, oh, that sounds like do the right thing.

But a big part of the do the right thing is the racial conflict.

That kind of happens throughout the movie and that stuff.

You broke back, don't ya? [laughs]

I'm saying this don't even count other things at '89, like Do the Right Thing or whatever it is, but-

If, if forced to pick-

Yeah