First off, a bit about technical points. Dickerson shoots Bedford-Stuyvesant with such intensity and colour that it literally becomes a cultural melting pot. It's the hottest day of summer, but we know this even without the in-world references and the narration of radio jockey Mister Señor Love Daddy. His palette is awash with 'hot' colours that perfectly capture the heat of the setting; reds, oranges, yellows that boil under the surface and seep through the screen until racial tensions that have been harboured for years explode into focus. There is a montage that bursts with this anger; later used again in Lee's 25th Hour. When Radio Raheem strides into Sal's blasting Fight the Power, he demands a slice of pizza and is shot with a wide lens, which distorts his face and makes it loom large in the frame, towering over the POV recipient. This is relevant to Sal, but also to Pino, who is quite sure of his racist views.
This is a canvas full of characters that pop out at you. Their skin shines with sweat and the words that comes out of their mouths resemble authenticity; why else would we be so frustrated with an act of simply buying radio batteries, or how irresponsible Mookie becomes in both his job and his love life? These are flawed characters, and Lee spends much of his time devoted to criticising them, not outright, but by showing who they are and prompting us to understand. Sal is proud that he has raised this street on his pizza, and berates Pino for being outwardly racist, then in a fit of anger smashes a black man's property who has come barging into his pizzeria demanding 'justice'. In another burst of anger, Radio Raheem chokes out the man who has destroyed his one treasured possession, and we understand his rage, but not necessarily how he goes about dishing it out. Anger and the heat drives these people to do these things. Some interpretations have said that Mookie redirects the mob rage to property instead of Sal - the right thing. No, he is angry, angry that love has lost out to hate, that a brother has been killed, and of course that emotion boils over in him too, and he must take action.
Later he returns to ask for what he is due - his salary - and we see now that he his hostility is not aimed at Sal at all, or his pizzeria. People have endlessly pondered on what is the right thing to do in this film. There are no easy answers. A community has lost a brother in an act of brutality, perhaps not purposely in the haze of rioting and violence. The riot is not the right thing in the sense that they destroy Sal's beloved pizzeria, and they even nearly veer towards the Korean grocery in their anger. In a different sense, it is an act that cries out loudly from the oppressed. Sal's pizzeria will rise again - he has his insurance, and his mutual relationship with his customers. But Radio Raheem is dead, and will remain dead, and there must be a response. That response is directed towards the window, and oh it's heartbreaking to see his life's work go up in flames, but where is the heartbreak for Raheem's radio, a piece of property in itself? Or more importantly, his life?
It would have been very easy for Lee to tilt the scales. But he doesn't; when the white copes arrive in the wake of a prank that leaves a man and his car soaked, they brush it off. Da Mayor is a small voice of reason that perhaps does the only righteous things in saving a little boy and trying in vain to reason with the riot. No one but Raheem and Smiley even agree with Buggin Out's boycott; they've been raised on this pizza after all, and though they prop up Sal with their business, it is a two way street, with it being the only place along with the Korean grocer where food is available. But they riot with him anyway. Why is that? It is a significantly more important question than, why did they riot at all?
And then there is love between the lines. Watch how Mookie quietly seduces Tina with a block of ice, as he skips out on his work. See how Sal treats Jade with respect and care, even as both his son and her brother observe with disapproval (maybe even disgust in Pino). They see eye to eye on this particular issue, but unfortunately on opposite sides. Da Mayor seeks romance with Mother Sister, who is wary of his drunkenness, but also wise in recognising his kindness and goodness. But then in climax, she too is shouting for the pizzeria to be burnt down. Tricky. Lee ends with two conflicting perspectives from MLK and Malcolm X, but which seem to fit together. Oh, this form of protest is violent and impractical and immoral, but what are the residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant supposed to do in the wake of a brother's death? And then you can condemn them too, and go on forever arguing. But at least we are arguing about it. We need to be.
Film Crit Hulk offers some enlightenment. He ponders that people still ask why Mookie smashed Sal's window, but not why the police killed Radio Raheem. It is something to consider. People say, why couldn't have Raheem just turned off his music, but those same do not say, why could Sal not have referred to it as 'jungle music'? The latter seems to be reasonable (Even I wrestled with it upon my first watch), but again, we filter the events. He eloquently sums up this film better than I could in one sentence: It's impossible to do the right thing when no one seems to care when the wrong things are done to you.
