"Do the Right Thing" Locations Then and Now

For Do the Right Thing's 25th anniversary, Complex looks the Bed-Stuy filming locations today.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

It's a film-critic to cliché to say that a movie's setting is just as important as its stars, but whoever made the observation first had probably just seen Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee's tale of simmering racial conflict uses the boiling heat of a Bed-Stuy summer as a mirror, with violence escalating as the thermostat climbs. The fact that Lee used one actual city block to shoot almost all of the scenes just adds to the film's verisimilitude: it feels real, because it is. 

A quarter century later, Stuyvesant Ave. remains a monument to the time and a reminder that things aren't as different today as some would like to believe. In celebration of the film's 25th anniversary, Complex asked photographer Liz Barclay to return to the block on another sweltering summer day. Click the thumbnails to see images of the street then and now—how much (or little) the neighborhood has changed may surprise you. 

RELATED: "Do the Right Thing Way" Becomes Official in Brooklyn 
RELATED: Spike Lee Gets Brutally Honest When Discussing Gentrification in Brooklyn
RELATED: We Been Here: How "Do the Right Thing" Predicted Our Current Frustrations with Gentrification 

Mother Sister's Stoop

Not Available Interstitial

Yes Jesus Last Baptist Church

Not Available Interstitial

"Bed-Stuy — Do Or Die" Mural

Not Available Interstitial

Mookie's House

Not Available Interstitial

FM 108 We Love Radio

Not Available Interstitial

Fruit and Vegetable Delight

Not Available Interstitial

Sal's Famous Pizza

Not Available Interstitial

Stuyvesant Avenue

Not Available Interstitial

Latest in Pop Culture