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Happy Birthday, Spike!

Started by tomwatson · 11 months ago

An early happy birthday to Spike Lee, who turns 50 on Tuesday. He has always struck me as the most interesting modern American director, because he is so unpredictable. Indie films, big budget films, riveting documentaries, music videos, sneakers commercials. He’s done it ... Continue reading »

2 comments

  • happy birthday indeed - spike is one of my all-time favourite directors.

    when i was living in a recently post 9/11 new york i watched 25th hour pretty much every couple of days; i was going through a lot of personal issues at the time, in parallel to business pressures and the vibrancy of living/working in manhattan - the film became very significant to me, and still is, to this day ...

    ... although my wife is thankful that i don't feel obliged to watch it quite so frequently, nowadays, lol.
  • My favorite Spike Lee film is one of his least watched, Crooklyn. It might be because his sister co-wrote the screenplay, and the story is very auto-biographical. It's a tender, thoughtful, subtle film - all qualities that many of his other films lack. I also liked 25th Hour. But there are many recent films I've heard good things about - but have not yet seen.

    Sorry to say I am not a fan of his early films, including Do the Right Thing. I was very dissapointed with Malcolm X because it left out so many aspects of his life, so many interesting events -his debates with James Baldwin, his many visits to Africa, and it treated the Nation of Islam way too kindly methinks. And Malcom is presented as a cold, calculating leader - his warm human, frail human side is almost never shown.
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