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Spike Lee
Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Actor
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), Jon Kilik (Producer), Wynn Thomas (Production Designer), Ernest Dickerson (Cinematographer), Sam Pollard (Editor/Producer), Denzel Washington (Leading Player), Ellen Kuras (Cinematographer), Ossie Davis (Character Player), Lonette McKee (Character Player)

Highly Recommended: Do the Right Thing (1989)*
Recommended: She's Gotta Have It (1986), Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002)^, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts [TV] (2006)
Worth a Look: Jungle Fever (1991), Summer of Sam (1999), Inside Man (2006)
Approach with Caution: He Got Game (1998), Bamboozled (2000)
* Listed in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films section; ^ Listed in TSPDT's 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films section.

Links: [ Amazon ] [ 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 ]
 
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)  
     
 
Please note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we haven't seen include School Daze (1988), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Crooklyn (1994), Get On the Bus (1996), Girl 6 (1996), 4 Little Girls (1997), The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), and She Hate Me (2004).
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"Never far from holding a mirror up to his own life's experience, virtually all Lee's films reflect on his family, his upbringing, the creative professions, New York City, and being a wicked smart African-American artist in a whitewashed world. The themes of autobiography and race quickly become useful for understanding Lee's work... Since Lee's career shift to being a more ambitious producer, his work has been uneven. Certain projects are fantastically good, and sometimes commercially successful, whereas others are disastrous, from conception to execution, eliciting shrugs of confusion that someone so great might be brought so low." - Garrett Chaffin-Quiray, 501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers

 
 
Top 250 Directors
100 Essential Directors (Pop Matters)
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Bill Duke (External Link)
F. Gary Gray
Albert & Allen Hughes (External Link)
Sidney Lumet
Mira Nair
John Sayles
Martin Scorsese
John Singleton
Oliver Stone
James Toback
Mario Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles (External Link)
 
Spike Lee's Favourites
A Face in the Crowd (1957) Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront (1954) Elia Kazan, Pixote (1981) Hector Babenco. Source: BBC: Calling the Shots (2004)
 
 
 
         
         

 

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