Cast : Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee ,Richard Edson

SYNOPSIS

Mookie (Spike Lee) is a young man living in a black and Puerto Rican neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn with his sister, Jade (Joie Lee), and works as a pizza delivery man for a local pizzeria. Salvatore "Sal" Frangione (Danny Aiello), the pizzeria's Italian-American owner, has owned it for 25 years. His older son, Giuseppe, better known as Pino (John Turturro), is a racist and "detests the place like a sickness" and holds racial contempt for all the neighborhood blacks. Sal's younger son, Vito (Richard Edson), is friends with Mookie, who is black, which Pino feels undermines their fraternal bond. Mookie himself takes a very casual attitude toward his job: he often takes a long as he pleases to deliver food to the neighborhood residents, much to the consternation of both Sal and Pino. Mookie also has a young son with another neighborhood resident, Tina (Rosie Perez). Tina often criticizes Mookie for being unambitious and uninterested in planning a future for their son. The story takes place on one of the hottest days of the summer and the street corner is filled with distinct personalities, most of whom are just trying to find a way to deal with the intense heat and go about their regular day-to-day activities. An old drunk called Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) is constantly trying to win both the approval and affection of the neighborhood matron, Mother-Sister (Ruby Dee). A young man named Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) lives for nothing else but to blast Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" on his boombox wherever he goes. He wears a "love" and "hate" four-fingered ring on either hand which he explains in one scene to symbolize the struggle between the two forces. A fast-talking young black man, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), wanders around the neighborhood, talking to anyone who will listen about black civil rights. The local radio disc jockey, "Mister Señor Love Daddy" (Samuel L. Jackson) rounds out the neighborhood. Upon entering Sal's shop, Buggin' Out questions Sal about the "Wall of Fame" and demands he place some pictures of black celebrities (or as he puts it, "brothers") on the wall, since, he explains, Sal's pizzeria is situated in a black neighborhood and sells most of his product to black people. Sal replies that it is his store; he is proud of his Italian heritage and he doesn't have to feature anyone but Italians on his wall. Mookie tries to defuse the situation by taking Buggin' Out outside and telling him to wait a week before coming back. Buggin' Out attempts to start a boycott of Sal's over the "Wall of Fame," but no one will support his protest: all the people of the neighborhood have been eating at Sal's all their lives. The only person who will join Buggin' is Radio Raheem, who earlier got into an argument with Sal about playing his boombox loudly in the store The film ends with two quotations that demonstrate the dichotomy of the film's theme: The first, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who argues that violence is never justified under any circumstances. The second, from Malcolm X, argues that violence is not violence, but "intelligence" when it is used in self-defense.