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Spike Lee

 

TSPDT Rating

Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Actor / Editor
1957 - 
Born March 20, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Key Production Country: USA 
Key Genres: Drama, Urban Drama, Crime Drama
Key Collaborators: Terence Blanchard (Composer), Barry Alexander Brown (Editor), Wynn Thomas (Production Designer), Jon Kilik (Producer), Ernest Dickerson (Cinematographer), John Turturro (Character Player), Sam Pollard (Editor), Ossie Davis (Character Player), Denzel Washington (Leading Player), Ruby Dee (Leading Character Player)
Highly Recommended: Do the Right Thing (1989)
Recommended: She's Gotta Have It (1986), Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002)
Links: [ IMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Film Reference ] [ Thomson Gale Biography ] [ Salon Interview ] [ Guardian Unlimited Interview ] [ eFilmCritic Interview (1999) ] [ DGA Interview ] [ Interview: Four Little Girls ] [ NPR Audio Interview (2006) ] [ Film Monthly Article ] [ Scotsman Article (2005) ] [ BBC: Calling the Shots ]
Books: [ Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It ] [ Spike Lee: Filmmaker ] [ Spike Lee: Interviews ] [ Spike Lee: On His Own Terms ]
DVD's: [ Amazon ] 
1,000 Greatest Films: Do the Right Thing (1989)
21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films: Bamboozled (2000), 25th Hour (2002)
 
She's Gotta Have It (1986)Do the Right Thing (1989)Malcolm X (1992)25th Hour (2002)
 
     
  "If Lee is best known for his sometimes provocative studies of racial prejudice and conflict, the value of his films arguably lies less in political commentary (which can tend towards the simplistic) than in his having given a cinematic voice to contemporary African-Americans. Not only is he adept at portraying the fabric, texture and sheer variety of the black American experience but his style, often neglected in favour of the films' content, is idiosyncratic and assured." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)  
     
  "The great thing about Lee is that he has not tired or faltered. The question mark still hangs over the degree of his talent...He is capable, I think, of a great film about New York - and it might be better if he saw that as his subject and let the responsibility of being the best black director around look after itself." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)  
     
  "Leading American maker of street-level social dramas, whose narrative skills are sometimes undercut by seemingly racist (anti-white) attitudes. Having said that, Lee's films, in which he himself often plays featured roles, are frequently inspired by real events...His films, to many of which jazz forms an important background ingredient, are challenging, thought-provoking and in-your-face, sometimes too simplistic, but never taking the easy option, nor offering any ready resolution to the racial oppression which Lee sees all over America." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)  
     
 
 

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"A film is a petrified fountain of thought." - Jean Cocteau   "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick