director of the month: spike lee

[Guest godthedog]

spike lee's gotten to be something of a hot topic in this folder, so i thought: why not periodically start a thread about a director & get various opinions of him? he's a particularly divisive figure, so make this one fun.

 

so, knock yourselves out. just say what you think of him, be it his films, his politics or his publicity.

 

i've had a love/hate relationship with his movies, & i think he's generally a VERY uneven director. i can't think of anyone else who's done both a movie that i love so much (do the right thing) and one that i hate so much (girl 6). even the movies that fall in the middle rarely have any "mediocrity" to them, they just seem to alternate between amazing scenes and total shit that i can't believe anyone thought was a good idea (jungle fever, & bamboozled--which, although i love overall, has some REALLY grating things about it). he isn't particularly good at fleshing out well-drawn characters or subtlety, but he's incredible with provoking an emotional reaction. he's also incredible with using ambiguities & contradictions in his movies to incite debate, and all of his movies (even the bad ones) have at least made me think. that's a credit even a great director like hitchcock doesn't have.

 

he's probably an egomaniac, but he is a genius at self-promotion. the viacom thing is way out of hand, but the way he got warner bros. to put up the rest of the money for 'malcom x' was very shrewd.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Every once in a while he directs a script that turns into a good movie.

 

For the most part I don't like his work.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

I haven't seen enough of his films to really give an informed opinion. From what I've seen he's got a good visual sense, and also appears to be good at directing his actors. I agree that subtlelty isn't exactly his forte, but he can build a powerful emotional punch to counteract that (he somewhat reminds me of Oliver Stone in that respect). I was very impressed by Do the Right Thing, mainly for how Lee managed to maintain and build on the emotional tension to the climax, as well as the overall visual design of the film.

 

I don't really have anything else to say, I'd have to see some more of his films before going any further.

[Guest El Satanico]

I agree with the first post.

 

He makes some great movies, but he's also made some piles of shit. I'd say for every shitty movie he's made there's two good-great movies.

 

What he does best is emotion. He's great at giving his actors emotion and at envoking emotion from the audience. His ability of envoking emotions is likely why most of the people who dislike his movies feel that way.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I've actually only seen Bamboozled and Malcolm X, and the only one I remember well enough to discuss is Bamboozled. Although I thought the whole Mantan's Millennium Minstrel Show was a great parody and commentary on the perpetration of black stereotypes in popular culture,

Spoiler (Highlight to Read):

but I don't like how the film ended with violence. To me it almost put out the message of "this is the only way black people know how to deal with these problems". In fact, the "black revolutionaries" themselves seemed to be just as stereotypical and insulting a character as those on the minstrel show. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but it was the impression I got. Other than that though, I enjoyed the satire, and was interested and saddened by the "black-face collage" of found footage that ended the film.

 

I haven't seen Malcolm X in years so I don't remember much about it, but I didn't hate it.

[Guest Ripper]

In bamboolzeld, the Black Revolutionaries were actually another version of the modern minstral show (the knowwhatImean-knowwhatImsayin scene was a good example of it).

 

If Bamboozeled was suppose to be a self parody on Spike Lee films, then yeah, great film (you know, EVERY white character really being racist on the inside, all the Black characters waiting for a chance to sell out, the only female character having to sleep her way to the top). Other wise it was another film in a long line of crap from him.

 

Malcom X and to some extent Do the Right Thing and Jungle fever were his only really good films(although I am reaching with DTRT and Jungle Fever) He Got Game(which would be on the list if he had gotten a ACTOR to play the main character) falls into the second catagory (alright films) with Mo Better Blues. The rest? CRAP. (Haven't seen 25th Hour)

 

BUT...spike lee is a great DIRECTOR...he sucks to all hell as a writer, but his cinematography and direction of films is so amazing...I find myself in awe of it sometimes.

 

So I guess I love him as a director but hate his ridiculous abismal views on life. Maybe I'm crazy for not thinking that all white people are waiting to call me the N-word.

[Guest El Satanico]

Maybe I'm crazy for not thinking that all white people are waiting to call me the N-word.

Sadly, there are alot more of us like that than you care to believe.

 

That's not to say they are the cross burning extremists, but they still think stupid shit.

 

However, most of the people like that I know refer to "niggers" in the same way people refer to "white trash". They don't mean it as in "i hate black people", but in reference to uneducated trash who happen to be black.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

In bamboolzeld, the Black Revolutionaries were actually another version of the modern minstral show (the knowwhatImean-knowwhatImsayin scene was a good example of it).

Ahhh, OK, cool, thanks for the confirmation on that one.

 

My film textbook has this huge write-up on Do the Right Thing (it's actually the most modern film to receive mention in the book), and Criterion's put out a nice 2-disc version of it, but what makes it such a renowned film? Most Spike Lee praise I've read is based mainly on that film...if it weren't for that film, would we even know who Spike is today?

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

It was his first huge movie, and because of the riot scene it was very controversial upon its release.

 

It's also the only Spike Lee movie I've seen besides his documentary, Four Little Girls. I'd branch out, but it's hard to do when you start at the best thing he's apparently ever done.

[Guest godthedog]

In bamboolzeld, the Black Revolutionaries were actually another version of the modern minstral show (the knowwhatImean-knowwhatImsayin scene was a good example of it).

Ahhh, OK, cool, thanks for the confirmation on that one.

 

My film textbook has this huge write-up on Do the Right Thing (it's actually the most modern film to receive mention in the book), and Criterion's put out a nice 2-disc version of it, but what makes it such a renowned film? Most Spike Lee praise I've read is based mainly on that film...if it weren't for that film, would we even know who Spike is today?

i believe it was pretty much the first time a black director had announced himself to the world so confidently & explosively since the blaxploitation days. there hadn't really been a distinctive black director since van peebles did 'sweetback', so he was foremost hugely important in the progression of black cinema (if there can be said to be a black cinema).

 

and the issue of race aside, it's a movie that really commands your attention & makes you stand up and take notice. EVERYTHING about it, from the characters to the issues to the visual & audio style was about as in-your-face as it could be. for better or worse, there's really no other movie that looks or sounds like it, & rarely had the issue of race relations been debated so well and so feverishly in a movie. i mean, if you see this movie with a group of people, i can't see how you can NOT debate about it with your friends, and it sparked a huge amount of debate about racial progress & the whole idea of america as a melting pot.

 

it's hard to picture lee's career WITHOUT 'do the right thing'. he certainly never would've gotten the money to do 'jungle fever' or 'malcom x', so he probably would've kept making movies on the fringe. but 'bamboozled' would definitely have still gotten him national publicity, even if no one had ever heard of him before. 'bamboozled' could probably warrant its own thread, i think it's the most loaded thing he's ever done. moreso than DtRT, cause the images are so charged (like the fans in the studio audience all wearing blackface), & cause he puts just as much blame on the black community for degrading themselves & buying shit like that.

 

and does anyone else think that the commercial parodies in 'bamboozled' for the bomb & tommy hillnigger are the funniest & greatest things about it?

[Guest Ripper]

The only thing that pissed me off about that is that he was all "We wearing these white peoples names on our chest like walking billboards making more money for the white man, blah, blah, blah..." but all the while wearing a fucking Haines T-Shirt....last I checked, that's a white peoples company too.

 

Back to the subject, Do the right thing is alot better to me not knowing that you were suppose to be on the black people's side as apart of the riot (if I had never seen lee say that in a interview, I would have liked it more). Knowing the directors true meaning behind that scene took alot away from the movie from me. I felt Sal should have beat the shit out of Mookie the next day when he came to ask for his pay. I felt that Sal should have cracked Radio Raheem and that other annoying dudes skull in with the bat instead of just the radio...

 

And El Santico, I understand what you mean, but I just don't think that most white people put that much thought and energy into disliking black people. Spike lee is on a belief that they all do. I remember him doing a interview about how Danny Aielo(ok, I can't spell his name but you know who I mean) didn't want to say "nigger" in the movie because he dispised that word, but would do it for the script. So did lee give him credit for being a incredible actor and putting a believeable emotion behind the line? No...he said he just kept making him do scenes over until he was mad enough at him to say the "nigger" line "from his heart" because he really wanted to say it then. I was so insulted for Danny after then and that begun my lifelong hate for Spike Lee. That coupled with his bitching about losing the Oscar to Driving Miss Daisy(a BETTER FUCKING MOVIE) was a message to him personally.

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

But he is a hell of a director.