The Top Five Spike Lee Movies

Hello again world and welcome back to my blog. Today's entry is a retrospective of classic American cinema, as we count down the top five movies of filmmaker Spike Lee. As the prime years of his career range from the late 1980's to the 1990's, Lee (seen in the above photo as his Air Jordan saavy alter-ego Mars Blackmon) told stories of the modern black community, accurately depicting its views and opinions concerning racism, sexuality and class. His unique brand of realism would both counter the imaginary, superheroic "blaxploitation" era of a decade before, as well as usher in a cadre of black filmmakers who would be inspired to tell stories from their own specific point of view (i.e. John Singleton, Lee Daniels, and even Tyler Perry). Here are my top five Spike Lee movies, films that I think display his genius at mixing cultural, diasporic values with biting political commentary.

5. He Got Game (1998)



As we all know Spike to stay front row center at any given Knicks game, in "He Got Game" he uses the love of basketball to propel dissonance in the relationship between an estranged father and son.

4. School Daze (1988)



The satirical title for this film is accurately appropriate; it simultaneously praises and criticizes HBCUs while exploring deeper levels of difference in the black community regarding class, education and skin color.

3. Get On the Bus (1996)



Set against the backdrop of the Million Man March, "Get on the Bus" is a movie that I venture to say is truly specific to the black male audience. To attend the march, a small group of black men ride a charter bus cross-country from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in hopes of finding solidarity within their race and communities. As we watch the group's pilgrimage unfold, we observe every possible interpretation and relationship of the black man, ranging from old to young, father to son, convict to lawman, even homosexual to homophobic. Though their individual personalities and lifestyles do provide division, it is at a cost that the group ultimately achieves the solidarity they journeyed for.

2. Do the Right Thing (1989)



Hailed by many to be Spike's greatest film if not his best known, "Do the Right Thing" parallels the hottest day of the year with rising, explosive anger towards gentrification in a black neighborhood. It could be said that most of the characters in fact do not do the right thing; they talk at each other rather than to each other, and each side wants the other to accommodate their culture while not being willing to do so themselves. The arguing and frustration catapult the film's most memorable scenes, such as when the comedically defiant Buggin' Out and friends have a dispute with a white neighbor over scuffed Air Jordans, or when the movie's breakout character Radio Raheem has a semi-hostile interaction with Korean store owners while trying to buy batteries for his boombox. The ending of "Do the Right Thing" is intentionally ambiguous, I think because Spike wanted the audience to draw their own conclusions about what was right or wrong, racist or defensive.

1. Malcolm X (1992)



Through this telling of Malcolm's epic story, the combination of Spike's direct narrative with Denzel Washington's commanding performance accomplishes the impossible; it makes an already iconic figure more grandiose in legacy but also more relatable to a new generation. "Malcolm X" was a total labor of love for Spike, as he had to fight to direct, produce and finance the film to be as accurate to his vision as possible. The film brilliantly evaluates Malcolm's constant and truthful spiritual evolution by breaking his life up into four parts that intermingle when necessary to show genuine feeling or thought behind certain events. His fiery yet elegant persona is perfectly embodied by Denzel in what is one of the greatest acting performances I've ever seen.

In recent years, Spike's range has expanded through directing both stirring, thought provoking documentaries (4 Little Girls, When the Levees Broke) and feature films that have his core audience relate to non-black, outlaw type characters (25th Hour, Inside Man). While some of this latter signature-styled films (She Hate Me, Miracle at St. Anna) have been more serious in subject matter but less playful in depiction, they nevertheless showcase his continued ability to tell stories accurate to black American society both historical and current. I hope that he will continue in this style in his upcoming remake of the Korean film "Oldboy", as some of the principles of that story can be amended towards his point of view. Though some of his releases have been initially recieved as controversial and insulting, Spike Lee used his movies to help the advance for "culture clash" in modern American society, as he pushes his audience into observing then relating to other races and cultures more in a common ground.

Well, that's about it for now folks. Thanks for taking the time to read to blog, and let me know what you think about this and other entries. Until next time, peace out.

Frederick Douglass Selling Afro Sheen!

Hello again world and welcome back to my blog. For today's entry I've decided to showcase a vintage advertisement from the 1970's that speaks volumes both then and today. A few months ago, I watched on television the "Soul Train" retrospective that talked about the show's cultural significance through establishing new tastes in music, fashion and commerce. In terms of commerce, "Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius knew to market both his own production company as well as promote other black owned companies such as Johnson Hair Care products; this partnership is possibly its most remembered and lucrative, as Johnson's "Afro Sheen" products received heavy boosts in popularity and sales thanks to the commercial spots "Soul Train" would provide for them. One such commercial (which caught my eye during the airing of the retrospective) combines historic pride with common fashion sense of the day.



This commercial, which depicts the spirit of former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass promoting pride through the "proper wearing" of the natural Afro, is quite genius if you think about it. I think they picked the perfect symbol for this depiction, as Douglass was the only black leader to wear the natural Afro (as it were) in the 19th century. In the time of the 1970's the modern Afro hairstyle was at best a decade old, so finding a historic figure who wore their hair in that way further connected him to the modern black American by affirming the political and cultural meaning that the hairstyle would come to embody. It can be assumed that the creative director of this commercial picked up on this, as both Douglass and the modern teenage blacks of the 1970s had journeyed for both individualistic and societal freedom while proudly wearing this new, expressive hairstyle.



When I first saw this clip, I thought it was a bit comical at first, as I am of a generation where we hold a bit of cynicism and skepticism towards some older displays of black pride. However, I have come to have a great respect for it not just as an commercial ad but also, in a sense, as a public service announcement, as in both terms it shows that pride in ourselves, our history and our community can prove to be enriching towards financial and cultural means. Ads like these, unexpectedly targeted at specific communities more so than demographics, can cause us to investigate what determines something to be a force or value within a particular culture's way of life.



Well, that's about it for now folks. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog, and let me know what you think about this and other entries. Until then, peace out.