What a top film. I loved the fact that he didn't go over the top with the period stuff; it was just so well observed. Except perhaps for the overwrought punk scenes.
DV mentioned dogs in SL films. The talking dog scene in Summer was fab. Time Out's TV section last week had a go at Lee's 'flights into surrealism' using the talking dog as their clinching example. That's silly. It was a central motif, and I heard afterwards that the voiceover was by Turturro. Ace.
Unlike some on this thread I thought Mira Sorvino was excellent in Summer of Sam, really understated and convincing. Sex in general was so well handled, e.g. Leguizamo's philandering and Brody's Male World adventures and the way this made them relate to their female partners.
― Daniel (dancity), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 20:29 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 20:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Daniel (dancity), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 20:47 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 20:52 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 20:54 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 20:57 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 21:00 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 21:01 (twenty years ago) link
Second question: why was that the message for the moment? what made ppl. ready to hear a sanitized, stark (for a city stereotypically "teeming with life" the thing that strikes most about DTRT is how EMPTY the sets feel, how clumsily and few the extras set to walk through scenes, even how TINY the "mob") highlighted vision of "racism will burn us ALL down"? Somehow even the way the film is posed says more about Spike and his situationing of himself, his view of the mechanisms for political change, than about "America" in any sense. He ends with the Malcom and King quotes but its clear he's in the tradtion of a minister of information.
Also, PE as a representation of rap fails on so many levels, the list the DJ gives of heroes and greats captures the absurdity of drawing this line of tradition up through PE perfectly (if unintentially). Also spike fails most fully when he tries to comprehend/convey generative forces for racial animosity from anybody not black. I mean... "my friends make fun of me"? (i suspect this is what mark was getting at with the jungle fever stuff) This also tends to gloss-over/forgive the more subtle and consistent sorts of racial prejudice. (perhaps which partially answers my second question).
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 23 October 2003 05:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 23 October 2003 16:58 (twenty years ago) link
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:08 (twenty years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:14 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 23 October 2003 18:51 (twenty years ago) link
the girlfriend was also hot
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 23 October 2003 18:56 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 23 October 2003 18:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 23 October 2003 19:00 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 23 October 2003 19:02 (twenty years ago) link
Ditto. Been years since I've seen DTRT, Crooklyn or Jungle Fever. The words "awesome" and "intense" immediately come to mind. It's sure that Spike's movies will end up in an international movie space capsule to show the future that we DID have passionate filmmakers now and then.
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Thursday, 23 October 2003 19:05 (twenty years ago) link
but sterling, what do you mean by "is it TRUE"? "is it an accurate (visual & otherwise) portrayal of life in bed-stuy in 89?" or something else?
― s1utsky (slutsky), Thursday, 23 October 2003 19:11 (twenty years ago) link
besides, spike has always been about juxtaposing different aspects of black culture, the youth/populist culture versus the history/art aspect (i.e. Get on the Bus, all the discussions in Mo' Better Blues, etc.).
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:06 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:14 (twenty years ago) link
*This is for Mohammed Abba.
― Al Andalous, Friday, 24 October 2003 01:32 (twenty years ago) link
― Al Andalous, Friday, 24 October 2003 01:43 (twenty years ago) link
i watched do the right thing about six months ago because nancy had never seen it and i must say it holds up remarkably better than i expected it to from the last time i saw it as a freshman film student.
― mohammed abba (dubplatestyle), Friday, 24 October 2003 01:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 24 October 2003 03:32 (twenty years ago) link
Wow. Too right.
― Skottie, Friday, 24 October 2003 13:28 (twenty years ago) link
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 22 February 2004 10:51 (twenty years ago) link
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 22 February 2004 19:41 (twenty years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 00:42 (twenty years ago) link
The bathroom monologue was even more powerful this time, but the last five-ten minutes wasn't. It was still great, and I was about to cry - but it didn't match the awe I felt the first time I saw it.
(25th Hour really made me wish I could move to NYC again. And a Cool Hand Luke poster.)
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 23 February 2004 04:51 (twenty years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 23 June 2005 14:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 6 August 2005 23:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 21 July 2006 02:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― Damn, Atreyu! (x Jeremy), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― kingfish cyclopean ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Damn, Atreyu! (x Jeremy), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:27 (seventeen years ago) link
the most effective moment emotionally for me was simply the long look at what ebay sellers like to call "black americana" eg: dolls, advertisements, etc. and even that stuff (hugely popular collectables big with wealthy black collectors) would have made an extremely interesting documentary of some sort
some of that stuff made it into that Confederate States of America movie, and was pretty much the only good part of it. Lee had some kind of production role in C.S.A., and I assume he had some hand in including the real history of "black Americana" in the mockumentary. He should totally make an actual documentary about it.
― horseshoe (horseshoe), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:42 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't know, CSA's satire was kind of inconsistent--like it wouldn't put its money where its mouth was in terms of racial ideology.
― horseshoe (horseshoe), Friday, 21 July 2006 04:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 21 July 2006 06:23 (seventeen years ago) link
Duds: Mo' Better Blues, Bamboozled
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 21 July 2006 11:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― fongoloid sangfroid (sanskrit), Friday, 21 July 2006 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― pisces (piscesx), Friday, 21 July 2006 12:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 July 2006 12:23 (seventeen years ago) link