Dr. Lecter Wrote:This guy delivers, clearly.
DO THE RIGHT THING
by
Spike Lee
Second Draft
March 1, 1988; Brooklyn, N.Y.
Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Inc.
YA-DIG SHO-NUFF
BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY
WGA #45816
"The greatest miracle Christianity has achieved in America
is that the black man in white Christian hands has not grown
violent. It is a miracle that 22 million black people have
not risen up against their oppressors--in which they would
have been justified by all moral criteria, and even by the
democratic tradition! It is a miracle that a nation of
black people has so fervently continued to believe in a
turn-the-other-cheek and heaven-for-you-after-you-die
philosophy! It is a miracle that the American Black people
have remained a peaceful people, while catching all the
centuries of hell that they have caught, here in white man's
heaven! The miracle is that the white man's puppet Negro
'leaders,' his preachers and the educated Negroes laden with
degrees, and others who have been allowed to wax fat off
their black poor brothers, have been able to hold the black
masses quiet until now."
--THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X
TITLES--WHITE ON BLACK
PLACE
Brooklyn, New York
CUT TO:
TIME
Present
CUT TO:
WEATHER
Hot as shit!
CUT TO:
INT: WE LOVE RADIO STATION STOREFRONT--DAY
EXTREME CLOSE UP
WE SEE only big white teeth and very Negroidal (big) lips.
MISTER SEÃOR LOVE DADDY
Waaaake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Up ya wake! Up ya wake! Up ya wake!
CAMERA MOVES BACK SLOWLY TO REVEAL MISTER SEÃOR LOVE DADDY,
a DJ, a radio personality, behind a microphone.
MISTER SEÃOR LOVE DADDY
This is Mister Señor Love Daddy.
Your voice of choice. The world's
only twelve-hour strongman, here on
WE LOVE radio, 108 FM. The last on
your dial, but the first in ya
hearts, and that's the truth, Ruth!
The CAMERA, which is STILL PULLING BACK, shows that Mister
Señor Love Daddy is actually sitting in a storefront window.
The control booth looks directly out onto the street. This
is WE LOVE RADIO, a modest station with a loyal following,
right in the heart of the neighborhood. The OPENING SHOT
will be a TRICK SHOT--the CAMERA PULLING BACK through the
storefront window.
MISTER SEÃOR LOVE DADDY
Here I am. Am I here? Y'know it.
It ya know. This is Mister Señor
Love Daddy, doing the nasty to ya
ears, ya ears to the nasty. I'se
play only da platters dat matter,
da matters dat platter and that's
the truth, Ruth.
He hits the cart machine and we hear a station jingle.
VO
L-O-V-E RADIO.
MISTER SEÃOR LOVE DADDY
Doing da ying and yang da flip and
flop da hippy and hoppy
(he yodels)
Yo da lay he hoo. I have today's
forecast.
(he screams)
HOT!
He laughs like a madman.
INT: DA MAYOR'S BEDROOM--DAY
An old, grizzled man stirs in the bed, his sheets are soaked
with sweat. He flings them off his wet body.
DA MAYOR
Damn, it's hot.
INT: JADE'S APARTMENT--DAY
CAMERA MOVES IN ON a young man sitting at the edge of a sofa
bed.
CLOSE UP--HIS SMALL HANDS
WE SEE him counting his money. This isn't any ordinary
counting of money, he's straightening out all the corners of
the bills, arranging them so the bills--actually the "dead
presidents"--are facing the same way. This is MOOKIE. Once
he's finished with that task, counting his money, he sneaks
into his sister's bedroom.
INT: JADE'S BEDROOM--DAY
CLOSE UP--JADE
JADE, Mookie's sister, is fast asleep. Mookie's fingers
ENTER THE FRAME and start to play with her lips. Jade
pushes his hands away. Mookie waits several beats and he
continues. Jade wakes up--mad.
JADE
Don't you have enough sense not to
bother people when they're sleeping?
MOOKIE
Wake up!
JADE
Wake up? Saturday is the lone day
I get to sleep late.
MOOKIE
It's gonna be hot today.
JADE
Good! Leave me alone when I'm
sleeping. I'm gonna get a lock on
my door, to keep ya ass outta here.
MOOKIE
Don't ya love ya brother Mookie
anymore? I loves ya, Jade.
JADE
Do me a favor. Go to work.
MOOKIE
Later. Gotta get paid.
He plants a big fat juicy on his sister's forehead.
EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAY
A 1975 El Dorado pulls up in front of the neighborhood
pizzeria--Sal's Famous Pizzeria.
From out of the car comes the owner, SAL, a slightly
overweight man in his early fifties, and his two sons, PINO,
22, and VITO, 20. It's time for them to go to work at Sal's
Famous Pizzeria in the heart of Black Brooklyn. Sal's sits
on the corner of The Block. The Block being where this film
on the hottest day of the summer takes place.
Pino kicks a beer can in his path into the gutter.
SAL
Pino, get a broom and sweep out
front.
PINO
Vito, get a broom and sweep out
front.
VITO
See, Pop. That's just what I was
talkin' about. Every single time
you tell Pino to do something, he
gives it to me.
PINO
He's nuts.
SAL
The both of youse, shaddup.
VITO
Tell Pino.
PINO
Get the broom.
VITO
I ain't getting shit.
SAL
Hey! Watch it.
PINO
I didn't want to come to work
anyway. I hate this freakin' place.
SAL
Can you do better? C'mere.
Pino is now silent. Sal walks over to him.
SAL
Can you do better?
(he pops Pino upside
the head)
I didn't think so. This is a
respectable business. Nuthin'
wrong with it. Get dat broom.
PINO
Tell Vito.
VITO
Pop asked you.
SAL
I'm gonna kill somebody today.
EXT: MOOKIE'S BROWNSTONE--DAY
Mookie comes down his stoop and walks to work.
EXT: STREET--DAY
The Block is beginning to come to life. Those unlucky souls
who have to work this Saturday drag themselves to it, and
the kids are out on the street to play in the hot sun all
day long.
EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--DAY
Mookie stops to say hello to MOTHER SISTER. She leans out
her window on the parlor floor. In the summertime, the only
time when she's not perched in her window is when she's
asleep.
MOTHER SISTER
Good morning, Mookie.
MOOKIE
Good morning to you.
MOTHER SISTER
Now, Mookie, don't work too hard
today. The man said it's gonna be
HOT as the devil. I don't want ya
falling out from the heat. You
hear me, son?
MOOKIE
I hear ya, Mother Sister. I hear
you.
MOTHER SISTER
Good. I'll be watching ya, son.
Mother Sister always watches.
INT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAY
Mookie enters the pizzeria and Pino is on him before the
door closes.
PINO
Mookie, late again. How many times
I gotta tell you?
MOOKIE
Hello, Sal. Hello, Vito.
SAL
How ya doin', Mookie?
VITO
Whaddup?
MOOKIE
Just coolin'.
PINO
You're still late.
SAL
Pino, relax, will ya.
PINO
Here, take the broom. The front
needs sweeping.
MOOKIE
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I
just got here. You sweep. I
betcha Sal asked you first anyhow.
VITO
That's right.
PINO
Shaddup, Vito.
MOOKIE
Fuck dat shit. I deliver pizzas.
That's what I get paid for.
PINO
You get paid to do what we say.
MOOKIE
What we say. I didn't hear Sal say
nuthin'.
Pino looks at his father. He wants to be backed up on this;
all he gets is an amused look, and a smirk from Vito.
PINO
Who's working for who?
There's a knock on the door and Da Mayor enters.
SAL
Come on in, Mayor.
DA MAYOR
Good morning, gentlemens. It's
gonna be a scorcher today, that's
for sure. Need any work done
around here?
Sal looks at Pino, who reluctantly gives Da Mayor the broom.
DA MAYOR
It will be the cleanest sidewalk in
Brooklyn. Clean as the Board of
Health.
Da Mayor almost runs out of the pizzeria in his hurry; soon
as he finishes he'll be able to get a bottle.
PINO
Pop, I don't believe this shit. We
runnin' welfare or somethin'?
Every day you give dat bum--
MOOKIE
Da Mayor ain't no bum.
PINO
Give dat bum a dollar for sweeping
our sidewalk. What do we pay
Mookie for? He don't even work. I
work harder than him and I'm your
own son.
MOOKIE
Who don't work? Let's see you
carry six large pies up six flights
of stairs. No elevator either and
shit.
SAL
Both of youse--shaddup. This is a
place of business.
VITO
Tell 'em, Pop.
PINO
Me and you are gonna have a talk.
VITO
Sez who?
PINO
Sez me.
SAL
Hey! What did I say?
MOOKIE
Who doesn't work? Don't start no
shit, won't be no shit.
SAL
Mookie, no cursing in the store.
MOOKIE
Talk to your son.
EXT: SAL'S FAMOUS PIZZERIA--DAY