Bedford-Stuyvesant · summer 1988 · Spike Lee
One block on the hottest day of the summer. It had one fire hydrant, and the kids in the film open it. So can you.
The hottest day of the summer, and the water’s off.
Stuyvesant Avenue · Lexington to Quincy
The block had one fire hydrant, outside one of its houses, and it is the one the kids open in the film. Turn the nut a quarter at a time to build pressure, then aim the spray along the street. Every front the water reaches cools down and shows you what is there.
The hydrant is shut. Turn the nut to open it.
The block’s only hydrant, outside one of its houses, is the one opened in the film; the kids open it to beat the heat. The pressure and reach here are this page’s own game.
NYC in Film: Do the Right Thing (1989)Wikipedia: Do the Right Thing
Nothing wet yet. The street is baking.
The corner of Stuyvesant and Lexington
Sal’s Famous Pizzeria was built from scratch on an empty lot on the corner of Stuyvesant and Lexington. It was a set, and it worked.
It had real ovens. While the crew filmed further down the block, the neighbours came in and ate there.
Across the street the crew built the Korean grocery on a second empty lot, two storeys high, so the two shops faced each other all day.
Sal’s Famous Pizzeria was built from scratch on an empty lot on the corner of Stuyvesant and Lexington. It was a set, and it worked. It had real ovens. While the crew filmed further down the block, the neighbours came in and ate there. Across the street the crew built the Korean grocery on a second empty lot, two storeys high, so the two shops faced each other all day.
Yale Film Archive: Do the Right Thing, film notesNYC in Film: Do the Right Thing (1989)
Southwest corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and Lexington Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant
The Wall of Fame. At the counter, Buggin’ Out starts the argument about who hangs on Sal’s Wall of Fame.
The pizzeria has gone and the corner lot is used for parking. Look from the pavement.
Six weeks to get ready, eight weeks to shoot
Lee wanted the hottest day of the summer, so the crew made the block look like one. Before a frame was shot they threw a block party for the neighbours, on the Saturday before shooting began.
The crew shut the block’s crack houses; there are no drugs in the film.
Run-down buildings got new façades.
Walls painted orange and red. The production designer, Wynn Thomas, used a great deal of both to make the street feel like a heatwave.
Yale Film Archive: Do the Right Thing, film notesWikipedia: Do the Right Thing
Murals and graffiti went up along the block.
Ernest Dickerson’s colour filters pushed the heat further on film.
A block party on the Saturday before shooting, to build goodwill.
Stuyvesant Avenue between Lexington Avenue and Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Spike Lee had this one block for six weeks of preparation and eight weeks of filming.
In 2015 the city co-named the block Do the Right Thing Way, the first time a work of art lent its title to a New York City street.
There are far more trees now than in 1988, when the block reportedly had one.
A residential block of brownstones. Walk it on the pavement; the houses are private homes.
Summer 1988: Six weeks of preparation and eight weeks of filming on one block.
18 July 1988: Shooting starts on Stuyvesant Avenue.
14 Sept 1988: Wrap.
22 April 1989: Lee shoots the Fight the Power video in Bed-Stuy, as a youth march.
Okayplayer: How Fight the Power saved Public Enemy and almost sank Do the Right Thing
19 May 1989: Premiere at Cannes.
30 June 1989: Opens in American cinemas.
Wikipedia: Do the Right ThingYale Film Archive: Do the Right Thing, film notes
1999: Chosen for the National Film Registry.
2015: The block becomes Do the Right Thing Way.
DNAinfo: Do the Right Thing is first work of art to lend its name to a city street (23 July 2015)Wikipedia: Do the Right Thing
June 2024: A 35th-anniversary party on the block.
CBS New York: Do the Right Thing block party celebrates Spike Lee classic 35 years later
Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn
A restored 1860s landmark inn at 347 MacDonough Street, in the brownstone streets south of the block. Book online, or call 866 466 3855.
See the innMookie’s round
Mookie delivers Sal’s pies round the neighbourhood. These boxes go further: to the places that made the film, from a Fort Greene firehouse to the seafront at Cannes.
Five pies on the counter, all for addresses off the block.
Still in the box.
Still in the box.
Still in the box.
Still in the box.
Still in the box.
Brooklyn
Live marketplace results for film-location tours of Brooklyn. Check each itinerary for Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWashington, D.C. · Concourse 1
A Promax Super Jumbo: twin cassette decks, a graphic equaliser, three pairs of speakers, and Public Enemy stickers down the sides.
1400 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Radio Raheem’s boombox, a Promax Super Jumbo, is in the museum’s collection and is listed as on view on Concourse 1, in A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond.
It has twin cassette decks, a graphic equaliser and three pairs of speakers. Its sides carry Public Enemy stickers and strips of red, yellow and green tape.
Lee signed the back in gold ink in Brooklyn on 17 March 1990 and gave it to the critic Gene Siskel.
The boombox is listed as on view on Concourse 1, in the exhibition A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond.
After the shoot, Lee asked Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad for a song. It became the film’s theme, heard again and again. On 22 April 1989 Lee directed its video in Bed-Stuy, staged as a youth march.
Lee’s talks with Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad began in September 1988; the song recurs through the film; the video was shot in Bed-Stuy on 22 April 1989 and doubled as a youth march.
Okayplayer: How Fight the Power saved Public Enemy and almost sank Do the Right Thing
The people
Around Lee are Danny Aiello as Sal, John Turturro and Richard Edson as his sons Pino and Vito, Bill Nunn as Radio Raheem, Roger Guenveur Smith as Smiley, Rosie Perez as Tina, Joie Lee as Jade, Martin Lawrence as Cee, and Robin Harris and Frankie Faison on the corner. Ernest Dickerson shot it, Wynn Thomas designed it, Barry Alexander Brown cut it, and Bill Lee wrote the score.
Cast and roles.
Crew: Dickerson, Thomas, Brown and Bill Lee.
One block, eight weeks of filming, about $37 million worldwide, and Oscar nominations for Danny Aiello and for Lee’s screenplay.
Yale Film Archive: Do the Right Thing, film notesWikipedia: Do the Right Thing
8 places you can visit: three on the block, two in Fort Greene and Manhattan, three further afield. The brownstones, the corner men’s wall and the old firehouse are private homes: named here, not on the map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A residential block of brownstones. Walk it on the pavement; the houses are private homes.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The pizzeria has gone and the corner lot is used for parking. Look from the pavement.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An empty lot across the street from the Sal’s corner. Look from the pavement.
Stuyvesant Avenue between Lexington Avenue and Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Spike Lee had this one block for six weeks of preparation and eight weeks of filming.
A residential block of brownstones. Walk it on the pavement; the houses are private homes.
Southwest corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and Lexington Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Sal’s Famous Pizzeria was built from scratch on a vacant lot at the corner.
The pizzeria has gone and the corner lot is used for parking. Look from the pavement.
East side of Stuyvesant Avenue, across from the Sal’s corner
The Korean grocery was a two-storey set, built on a second vacant lot directly across the street from Sal’s.
An empty lot across the street from the Sal’s corner. Look from the pavement.
Stay
A landmark inn in Stuyvesant Heights, south of the block.
Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn
A restored 1860s landmark inn at 347 MacDonough Street, in the brownstone streets south of the block. Book online, or call 866 466 3855.
See the innGo there
Walking tours of Bed-Stuy and film-location tours of Brooklyn.
Brooklyn
Live marketplace results for walking tours of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brooklyn. None is built round this film; check each route for Stuyvesant Avenue.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursBrooklyn
Live marketplace results for film-location tours of Brooklyn. Check each itinerary for Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Lee has thrown anniversary block parties on the block; the next one is not announced yet.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
An original 1989 one-sheet, Lee’s own book of the film, essays on it, and both soundtracks.
Original 1989 US one-sheet, 27 × 40 in (68.5 × 101.6 cm), rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterSpike Lee with Lisa Jones · Fireside
Lee’s own book of the film, written with Lisa Jones, with photographs by his brother David Lee. Fireside, 1989, 297 pages.
Find the bookEdited by Mark A. Reid · Cambridge University Press
Essays on the film, edited by Mark A. Reid for the Cambridge Film Handbooks, 1997.
Find the bookVarious artists · CD, Motown, 1989
Public Enemy’s Fight the Power first, then Guy with Teddy Riley, E.U., Steel Pulse, Take 6, Al Jarreau and Rubén Blades.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyBill Lee with Branford Marsalis · CD, Columbia, 1989
The score by Spike Lee’s father, Bill Lee, with Branford Marsalis.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 13 of 13 Moments
Stuyvesant Avenue between Lexington Avenue and Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Lee throws a block party for the neighbours on the Saturday before shooting starts.
On the hottest day of the summer the kids open the block’s fire hydrant to cool off.
Lee directs Public Enemy’s video for Fight the Power in Bed-Stuy, staged as a youth march.
The city co-names the block after the film.
Hundreds come to a block party for the 35th anniversary; Giancarlo Esposito is there, and Flava Flav performs Fight the Power.
Southwest corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and Lexington Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Sal opens his pizzeria on the corner; Mookie delivers its pies round the neighbourhood.
At the counter, Buggin’ Out starts the argument about who hangs on Sal’s Wall of Fame.
East side of Stuyvesant Avenue, across from the Sal’s corner
Sonny’s grocery faces Sal’s across the street, and the day turns between the two fronts.
Stuyvesant Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Mister Señor Love Daddy broadcasts to the block from a storefront studio.
Mother Sister watches the street from her windowsill; Da Mayor has his beer below.
Lexington Avenue, at the corner of Stuyvesant Avenue
ML, Sweet Dick Willie and Coconut Sid talk the day away against a wall on Lexington Avenue.
South Elliott Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
DeKalb Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
721 Broadway, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Atlanta University Center, Atlanta, Georgia
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, France
The film has its premiere in competition at Cannes.
1400 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Lee signs the boombox in gold ink and gives it to Gene Siskel.
