Formal Film Study: Spike Lee

Whether he's sitting court side at the Knicks game, or just walking around town, Spike Lee is always grabbing the attention of the paparazzi.  That being said, Mr. Lee has quietly become an American icon, especially in African-American communities and having very little knowledge about Spike Lee films, I felt like this would be a good chance for me to explore a dip my toes into a new side of film.  

Here are some trailers:

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Jungle Fever (1991)

Crookyln (1994)

The thing I got out of these three movies, and probably the thing that will stick with me forever when looking at Spike Lee films is the presence of the civil rights theme.  I really don't think I could see Spike directing anything without the hidden race struggle.  That's not to say Spike is a bad director, in fact he's quite the opposite, as I really enjoyed all three films, but his films give us an interesting perspective into a society I frankly did not know all that much about.  The sad thing about it is that there's still a wide disparity when it comes to black v. white films, sure we have African American actors but the industry is still heavily dominated by white films.  I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting at here, but regardless, Spike Lee definitely goes after this struggle in his films.

From a cinematic/visual literacy perspective, Spike Lee doesn't do anything out too far from the norm, but he likes to use the birds eye angle a lot.  I've figured out that this ties in especially well with the settings he chooses.  His films are mostly set in downtown Brooklyn, and by utilizing the birds eye view shot type, he's able to capture the close knit neighborhoods that are Brooklyn.  Another thing I noticed (this isn't necessarily some artistic thing but...) was that Spike likes to use shots in which we are placed in the perspective of birds eye view but then we see a character walk over some picture. The thing that ties his films in the best is his sound mixing.  Especially in "Do The Right Thing" music plays a big part, even with a character Radio Raheem, who basically carries a radio around blasting songs.  But it's not just good sound mixing, it's Spike Lee actually picking when he wants it to be sort of like a comparsion between all the different perspectives.  The opening scene for all 3 movies have songs which if you listen to the lyrics are very powerful, talking about how Elvis was a bad man, or the failures of Wall Street, it's all very subtle things that make a big difference.

As I alluded to a earlier, Spike Lee's films are known for their commentary on society and what the African American means in the greater picture that is America.  If I had the chance I would've watched Malcolm X, but I couldn't get my hands on a copy.  If we look at the historical context, Blacks were making a lot of head way in the 80s/90s and I think Spike wanted to show that there's still a lot more that needs to be accomplished.  I thought the idea behind "Jungle Fever" was really interesting because I know that even by today's standards interracial marriages are still seen as weird.  And Who Knows?  As a white person I don't know the first thing about what it means to be black and I think that's part of what Spike is trying to say.  In all three of these films there's the struggle between White Italians, Latinos, and African Americans.  It just so happens that these are the three biggest populations in the boroughs of Brooklyn so in reality Spike is doing much more than a commentary on blacks.  Then at times he seems to say that it's not just the whites that are halting the ways of progress it's the blacks too.  I think Jungle Fever pales this especially well when it's both the blacks and whites that can't seem to accept this forbidden love.

In the end, I'm still really confused when it comes to Spike Lee and I really don't know what he stands for.  Spike ends "Do The Right Thing" with two quotes on violence one from MLK Jr. and one from Malcolm X almost asking the viewer to choose his own opinions, leaving me ever more puzzled.  I've only grazed the top of what seems to be a complex person, but one thing that I do know is that every film Mr. Lee makes is going to have some underlying critique on society and in that sense he's a very unique director.

Demographics of Brooklyn: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050619_BROOKLYN_GRAPHIC/index.html

SIDE NOTE: This is my favorite scene out of all three movies I've seen of Spike Lee - it's simple, yet unlike anything I've ever seen before, with an eye-level, medium shot through it's entirety.