Spike Lee Crafted a Cinematic Universe Before Marvel Made It Popular

The Big Picture

• Spike Lee’s Chronicles of Brooklyn series connects his films through shared characters and settings, delving into vital social issues over time.
• Do the Right Thing
  stands as the pivotal film in Lee’s interconnected universe, exploring race relations and societal tensions in Brooklyn.
• Lee’s persistent themes of justice, race, and love in his films mirror ongoing societal struggles, underscoring the relevance of his storytelling.

One of the most prevalent trends in 21st-century cinema has been the popularization of the cinematic universe. As opposed to the traditional route of expanding self-contained stories with sequels, the cinematic universe model sees a variety of movies that take place in and around different settings and characters while overlapping to establish that they exist in the same world. Marvel Studios has been the primary pusher of this mode of storytelling, while Legendary’s MonsterVerse (which recently brought Godzilla and Kong together again) is another popular example. But one filmmaker has unexpectedly built his own shared universe far away from the realms of superheroes and kaiju: Spike Lee.

Lee stands among the most important American filmmakers working today, with major works like Malcolm X that have showcased his stylistically and politically bold approach to storytelling. His 1989 feature, Do the Right Thing, serves as a centerpiece to a shared setting that many of Lee’s films appear to be set in. Through the overlapping settings and characters in what Lee has dubbed his “Chronicles of Brooklyn,” Lee has thoughtfully and critically examined the intersections of race, class, education, love, and crime and how they impact different groups of people around New York City.

What is Spike Lee’s “Chronicles of Brooklyn?”

Lee has had one of the more fascinating careers of any American director, as someone who writes and performs in his own movies that are often deeply humanist dramas set around race relations in modern America, while also occasionally signing on for studio genre-films like Inside Man, movies he did not write but still manages to bolster with his distinctive style. Lee’s filmography has one distinctive set of movies that he has dubbed as the “Chronicles of Brooklyn,” comprised of She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Crooklyn, Clockers, He Got Game, and Red Hook Summer.

These films all share a similar tone and style, in addition to the city in which they are set. They are dramas, oriented around real-life, grounded conflicts that are influenced by personal and societal tensions. Lee was born in Atlanta, but moved to Brooklyn at a young age, and has devoted much of his career to highlighting stories and characters that reflect the culture and spirit of his city. Through these specific movies, and even others that he does not include in the Chronicles of Brooklyn, Lee explores social issues and human relationships in a wide-spanning, interconnected fashion.

‘Do the Right Thing’ Works as the Centerpiece of Spike Lee’s Shared World

The most monumental, influential film in Lee’s Chronicles of Brooklyn is Do the Right Thing. The 1989 film is a watershed moment for Spike Lee’s career, but also one of the most important American movies ever made. Set against the backdrop of the hottest day of the summer in Brooklyn, Do the Right Thing sees racial tensions boil over as conflicts spark around the block that is home to an Italian-owned pizzeria.

The film introduces a wide-ranging cast of characters, including Mookie (portrayed by Lee himself), a pizza delivery man working for Sal (Danny Aiello), Mookie’s outspoken friend, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), and the eclectic, charming radio DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson). These characters intersect personally and professionally, building to a tense climax where Sal and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a local man who blasts Public Enemy from his boombox throughout the film, come to blows, leading to Radio Raheem being placed in a fatal choke hold by two police officers, and Sal’s Pizzeria being burnt down in the ensuing outrage. Do the Right Thing closes with a somber reunion between Mookie and Sal, where the two tensely reflect on the previous night’s events.

Do the Right Thing‘s expansive cast of characters is what brings Spike Lee’s Brooklyn-set films together. Many of these films share the same actors, including Jackson, John Turturro, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee, but there are a few instances of the same characters appearing across two movies. The crossovers occur most prominently in Jungle Fever and Red Hook Summer. The former of these features the same two police officers who killed Radio Raheem roughing up the film’s lead character, Flippy (Wesley Snipes) after prejudicially mistaking his and Annabella Sciorra‘s play-fighting for a domestic dispute. In Red Hook Summer, Lee returns to the big screen as Mookie for a brief appearance, where it is revealed that in the years since, he and Sal have reconciled, and he began working for the pizzeria again.

The connections even extend into the world of TV, where Lee’s Netflix series adaptation of She’s Gotta Have It, which saw Anthony Ramos take on Lee’s iconic Mars Blackmon character, eventually reveals that Mars is the son of Mookie and Tina from Do the Right Thing. The connective tissue makes for some interesting character revelations, but it is about more than injecting fan service into these films.

The Shared Characters and Settings in Spike Lee’s Films Point to the Persistence of the Themes He Tackles

The crossover between Lee’s films should not be written off as merely a fun gimmick that rewards audience members who have kept up with his filmography, because the relationship between the Chronicles of Brooklyn movies speaks to the evergreen nature of the themes and stories that Lee platforms. The block where Do the Right Thing was filmed was the site of a 30th anniversary celebration for the film in 2019, and even just looking at the change in architecture decades later shows how the vibrant culture around the neighborhoods that Lee platformed in his films is under threat of gentrification. In 2020, Lee directed a filmed performance of David Byrne’s American Utopia which included a heartfelt, powerful tribute to people who have lost their lives to police violence, including recent cases such as Breonna Taylor. When it comes to the types of societal issues that Lee’s filmography has centered around since the 1980s, we see that America has largely avoided finding a solution.

When you see the cops who choked Radio Raheem harassing Flipper in Jungle Fever, it isn’t the kind of cameo that elicits cheers, it is a choice that reflects a sobering status quo within Lee’s filmography. Justice did not prevail, a man lost his life to police violence and the people responsible are still abusing their power on the streets of New York City. Mookie was dejected by what happened, but he still comes back to the pizzeria. Nothing really changed. And bringing these characters back in subsequent films ensures that Radio Raheem’s death, and other injustices like it, are still echoing years down the line.

Lee’s filmography depicts years of systemic issues playing out in America. The Chronicles of Brooklyn emphasize small-scale, human stories that are impacted by these problems. Lee’s ambitions as a director and storyteller allow this interconnected group of films to exist richly in conversation with one another. Do the Right Thing tells an extensive story of tension, trauma, love, and life in Brooklyn that still reverberates throughout Lee’s filmography today, and has cemented itself as a cornerstone of contemporary American cinema.

Do the Right Thing is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

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