4 stars = Outstanding
Ratings explained

Two decades ago, director Spike Lee managed to capture lightning in a bottle with his third major studio release "Do the Right Thing." Always bigger on ideas than he is on subtlety, Lee refused to back down from an idiosyncratic take on race relations at the tail end of the Reagan era. "DTRT" is Lee's indelible and highly controversial meditation on how the intersection of various color lines and ethnic perspectives boiled over in one corner of Brooklyn during the hottest day of the summer.

Lee directs himself as Mookie, a pizza delivery man consumed with "making that money," but seemingly allergic to hard work. He has a child with his high-decibel baby mama Tina (Rosie Perez), a Latina who is quick to remind him of all the way he's falling down in his responsibilities. Mookie works for Sal (Danny Aiello), the crusty, but essentially decent owner of Sal's Famous Pizzeria, one of the few establishments still operating in the neighborhood.

Sal is constantly admonishing his two sons to put in an honest day's work. Sal's oldest son Pino (John Turturro) doesn't like black people and resents working in the neighborhood. The pizzeria's habitues include a permanently indignant activist named Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a laconic giant who blasts rap music from his oversized radio wherever he goes.

When Buggin' Out launches a boycott of Sal's Pizzeria because there aren't any pictures of blacks on the walls along with famous Italian Americans, he enlists the aid of Radio Raheem. Sal and Radio Raheem have an angry confrontation that leads to a death and a riot with long-range consequences for the neighborhood.

Twenty years later, "DTRT" feels like an exceptionally well-done period piece and less like an essential barometer of American race relations. While prophetic at one point in our nation's complicated racial history, "DTRT's" pessimism is out of step with these times.

The 20th anniversary edition of "DTRT" includes deleted and extended scenes along with a documentary that brings the cast together to talk about what the film meant then and now. It is a fascinating trek back into the filmmaking that created one of the most provocative movies of the past quarter century.