Do the Right Thing Review and Poem

 

DO THE RIGHT THING: Five Screenplays that Embrace Diversity

By Karla Rae Fuller

Review & Poem by Betty Jo Tucker

 

Moonlight

Get Out

Mudbound

Roma

 Always Be My Maybe

Those 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.  

Dr. Fuller’s book 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.          

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 postwar Japanese cinema.      

Although I helped write a screenplay for an award-winning short movie adapted from a book my husband and I wrote (under the pen names of Harry and Elizabeth Lawrence), 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.