It took me a week or so to return to this post, but picking up where I ended the last post, I wanted to weigh in on my reassessment of director Spike Lee and his early films. The impetus for this was the rotation of Lee films that have been airing on cable lately, which has given me a chance to see them again with older, more mature eyes.
Some background: I was a teenager when Lee's first major films were released (1986-1992). At first I just thought these were really good black movies. In college when I chose to critique these films (adding She's Gotta Have It, but not including Malcolm X) for my Images of Women in the Media class, these films were my exhibit A of black male chauvinism in Hollywood. My indictment of Lee's sexism was harsh--but I was a student at a women's college in the 90s...everybody was a sexist. Now some 20 years later, I regard these films as heralds of a renaissance of black film and Lee is undeniably the most exalted figure in the pantheon of black directors.
Of course, I still think Spike Lee is sexist and 20 years later, his gratuitous sex scenes and two-dimensional female characters sadden me. He should not shoulder the burden of uplifting black women on film, but he does deserve some blame for not creating a better model for subsequent filmmakers to emulate. The only film that breaks this mold is Crooklyn (but that was written by his sister Joie).
Spike Lee is also too outspoken for his own good, and in many ways, his off-screen arrogance over-shadows his nobler on-screen efforts. He gets a lot of attention for his high-profile dust-ups: Clint Eastwood, Spike TV, Debbie Allen, Reggie Miller, Charlton Heston, and of course, any team that plays against the New York Knicks. He came to the defense of Barry Bonds and has earned the ire of Jewish groups for some of his characters. And then there is Tyler Perry...
But it must be said that Spike Lee is a genius. A flawed, sexist, and arrogant genius.
The earlier films hint at this fact. There is no denying that Do the Right Thing is a brilliant film that so captures every nuance of Brooklyn in the late 80s. Only a genius would know that his location was one of the main characters in his film. The brilliance of Mo' Better Blues was Bleek Gilliam's love affair with jazz music--not the two women who were vying for his heart. And while the main story of Jungle Fever is lacking, it is the secondary storyline of how drug abuse wreaks havoc in families that offers the sneak peek into the future genius that is revealed in Clockers. Crooklyn and School Daze draw on Lee's own experiences, and while some elements are exaggerated, they are enjoyable films. And of course, Malcolm X is one of the best biopics ever made.
The film that confirms Lee's genius is the vastly under-appreciated Bamboozled. I cannot help but to think that this film was an oracle of what was to happen in Hollywood for the rest of the decade. Just two years after the critics panned Lee for being too angry and too melodramatic, Tyler Perry released the first of too many Madea movies and has pretty much taken over. So was Lee's criticism of Perry's work just another playground fight Lee chose to start, or is it possible that in Bamboozled, Lee was essentially telling us that he had already read the tea leaves on the future of blacks in Hollywood?
I have not seen enough Tyler Perry films, stage plays or sitcoms to know whether he is the devil in a fat suit and flowered dress, but I know how I feel about what I have seen. And let's just say that Lee happens to be the most high-profile black celebrity to take Perry to task. Plenty of critics dislike Perry's body of work, including the non-Madea output, but he is Hollywood's black King Midas right now, so those arguments can be dismissed as jealousy or box office envy. His films are cheap and they make money, whereas Lee alternates between making documentaries and 'serious' films that generally cost more money to produce than they make at the box office.
Ten years from now, I have to wonder whether Perry will have produced any substantial work that will be remembered as fondly as Spike Lee's early films. Would a premium cable channel ever run a Perry movie marathon? Do great actors work with Perry for a career boost or a lifeline?
Ultimately, when assessing the work of any artist deemed great, a key consideration should be his/her legacy. What imprint will that artist leave on those that follow? In the case of Spike Lee, the answer is yes. His legacy is not just evident in the fact that he has made great art, but in that his art has had a widespread impact. How many young black kids decided to go to college after seeing School Daze? How many budding young jazz musicians who saw Mo' Better Blues were introduced to Miles Davis and John Coltrane for the first time? How many young people learned cautionary tales from Do the Right Thing, Clockers and Get on the Bus? How many people read the Autobiography of Malcolm X after seeing the film?
How many young people are enrolled in film school right now with dreams of becoming the next Spike Lee?
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