Spike Lee has blasted critics who claimed Do the Right Thing would spark riots.
The 66-year-old director said his film was accused of being powerful enough to incite violence among Black people when it opened in 1989, and he has now hit out at the allegation while honoring one of the reviewers who came to the film’s defense at the time.
Lee said as he received the Ebert Director Award — named after the late film critic Roger Ebert — at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Awards on Sunday, Sept. 10: “Your husband got behind me when those motherf—ers in the press were saying that Do the Right Thing was going to incite Black people to riot.”
Lee was accepting his award from Roger’s widow Chaz Ebert, and added critics had said “this film should not be shown in the United States.”
The filmmaker named David Denby and Joe Klein as two of the most prominent critical voices against the film, which is now considered in some quarters to be one of the greatest films ever made. Lee recalled the pair wrote readers should “hope to God that this doesn’t open in your neighborhood.”
He added: “The struggle still continues. It’s not an even playing field.”
Colman Domingo, Vicky Krieps, Patricia Arquette, Pedro Almodovar and Shawn Levy were also honored at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Awards.
