JAMES BENTLEY / ALWAYS BALLING CLUB

Move: Do the Right Thing
Deleted scene: Mookie learns to chill

On the hottest day of the year, Mookie takes yet another unscheduled break from his delivery
job at Sal’s Famous Pizzeria in the heart of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Knowing how hot it
is, and that he’s planning to visit his girlfriend Tina later that day, he decides to watch a video
borrowed from his friend. The subject of the X-rated video is how to be intimate when it’s almost
too hot to move. This sets him up for a later scene in the movie, where he shares some alone
time with Tina and a tray of ice cubes. The instructional video is presented by none other than
local celebrity, master of the airwaves and smooth operator, Mr Señor Love Daddy.
Spike Lee’s classic ‘Do the Right Thing’ is undoubtedly a work of huge weight in terms of its
subject matter, which is handled with a remarkably light touch until, and even after, the tensions
building throughout the day on which the film is set finally reach their incendiary conclusion. But,
having watched it numerous times since I discovered the movie in the early to mid 90s, on
rewatching it recently I was struck by the amount of humour. The cinematography almost makes
the film set feel like a stage, and the single city block on which it was filmed feel like a cinematic
universe in its own right, while dealing with themes which have a much wider reach and
resonance. While I don’t feel particularly qualified to speak on some of the heftier issues at play,
I was reminded that this is one of my favourite films and it confirmed that this was the movie I
wanted to reference. I approached my piece with a type of humour so completely at odds with
the film itself that it seems almost abstract in context, and hopefully it’s apparent that this is only
a token of my love for the movie and not a serious attempt to contribute to or build on its
important legacy.

More of a designer and illustrator than an artist, I knew I wanted my piece to be meta - and that
the medium of the “canvas” itself, the humble VHS cassette - should form the subject of the
scene it relates to.

Aesthetically, I tried to reference the colours and design touches of both the ‘Do the Right
Things’ movie poster and, to a lesser extent, the movie itself, while also visually referencing
Nike branding - with the company’s footwear being so integral to the film - as well as elements
of my own brand. The tattered and grubby condition of the packaging and labels on the cassette
are intentional reminders of the state of physical media like VHS tapes once they’d been passed
around indefinitely between friends. The blue and red of the cassette are a nostalgic attempt to
capture the thrill of handling an item where a detail as simple as a different colour could make it
feel truly special.