Do the Right Thing Book Review and Poem (article) by Betty Jo Tucker on AuthorsDen

A TERRIFIC BOOK

Dr. Karla Rae Fuller’s book DO THE RIGHT THING: FIVE SCREENPLAYS THAT EMBRACE DIVERSITY encourages screenwriters to branch out and write stories that will appeal to more than white people. She picked five films that became successful and documented some of the ways each one took advantage of new approaches. Do the Right Thing, is the result. Fortunately, it’s a terrific book that should appeal to anyone interested in the movies -- but especially screenwriters or wannabe scribes

The author’s choice of films for her book is perfect. They each won acclaim even though the writers were surprised at their success. Moonlight received a Best Picture Oscar in 2016 and Roma took home the Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar in 2018. Plus, Get Out earned Best Original Screenplay in 2017. Also, Always Be My Maybe and Mudbound were favorites among critics.

These five movies do the right thing

by diversity they all bring.

The screenplays avoid common roles.

Different characters with souls

take center stage to share their hearts

and help us know new movie parts.

Screenwriters need to read this book.

It analyzes films that look

much different than you expect.

Readers will end up with respect.

Stereotypes are left behind.

Races and gender you will find.

Plus, genres get a brand new flair

and reach more viewers by this dare.

Examples of diversity in these films include the following: a young African American man grapples with his sexuality; the lower class maid for a middle class family in Mexico City back in the 1970s ends up being a savior; two soldiers – one from a white family and one from a Black family – return home from World War II and face severe racism; an Asian American man and an Asian American woman reconnect after being apart for 15 years; and an African American man finds out his white girlfriend’s family members are trying to turn him into an Uncle Tom or worse. Popular genres (drama, historical fiction, romantic comedy, and horror/thriller) are here, but each has a different feel to it.

Dr. Fuller’s credentials for writing a book like Do the Right Thing are impeccable. For example, she is an Associate Professor at Columbia College in Chicago where she teaches Cinema Studies and Screenwriting. In addition, she has done research about racial and ethnic representation in Hollywood films and postwarJapanese cinema.

Although I helped write a screenplay for an award-winning short movie adapted from a book my husband and I wrote, that’s my only screenwriting experience. How I wish Do the Right Thing had been available then!

DO THE RIGHT THING: Five Screenplays that Embrace Diversity is published by Michael Wiese Productions. Available at Amazon.com.

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The first time I saw Regina King was in one of the MISS CONGENIALITY films with Sandra Bullock. She did more than hold her own. So I expected great th

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on October 26, 2022

Wasn't there a movie, Do the Right Thing? I thought that the movie Crash was a good example of an entirely different way of looking at race stereotypes.

As usual, you find and write about the best movies, ever. When I watch different movies, usually from foreign countries, that have won awards, like Kites (from Afghanistan before all the extremism and wars--I believe that was the title) to be very enlightening and dispelling myths about people and places.

Ron

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