Spike Lee: Dud or DUD?!?

"This flat scene, appearing at points where other films blast out in plot-solving action, has been subtly cooling off, abstracting itself, with the words coming like little trolley-car pictures passing back and forth across a flattened, neuterised scene."

(haha, hippety-hop => farber goes precog on us, predicts "fight the power" 21 years b4 the fact, despite much time-static)

(what is the timeframe of the final sentence quoted: "this flat scene... has been subtly cooling off..." when? during the 9 years between 1959-68? what a weird thing to say! i love manny farber!)

not the shot on its own, but the entire sequence it's embedded, is in look and speed and content anti-narrative (in terms of the actual narrative): instead it's an interrogation of another story — actually here not as "fiercely inadequate" as jean seberg or lee in other movies — which "abstracts itself" the more you think of it afterwards (into a kind of generous cartoon of Grand American Narrative of Possible Freedom or something), and in fact "cools off" the rest of the story, or rather, contextualises it in a broader way

it's a long way from godardian technique now (and lee was always a long way from godardian politico-tic), so you could say it's spike's own as a device to play with now, but the role of that section — yes yes also a scorseaholic's hommage to last temptation's best known coup — is somewhat like i think what farber is getting at, re godard, in that passage

in other words: you have the story and it clips along, until these bits where the director takes out a flipchart and some coloured magic markers and interrupts the plot proper to bulletpoint "wider" stuff (in breathless, it's actually pre-politico-godard, that's part of farber's specific argument, semi-relevant maybe to 25th hour's "post-political" lee maybe, in an upside-down way but i'm too tired to work that bit out)

*spoilers end spoilers end spoilers end*

Actually Mark that answered my question perfectly.

http://www.depauw.edu/news/story.asp?id=377147461458333

25th Hour

*

Peter Bradshaw
Friday April 25, 2003
The Guardian

Spike Lee's grotesquely macho-sentimental paean to post 9/11 New York City is tagged to the story of Monty - a goateed Edward Norton - spending his last 24 hours in the Big Apple before going to prison for drug-dealing. Why exactly Monty is allowed out when he's such an obvious flight-risk is never explained. (Did they give him bail? Who paid it?)

He bids farewell to his dad James (Brian Cox), girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) and two old buddies from the posh school he was once kicked out of: Francis (Barry Pepper) is a Wall Street shark and Philip Seymour Hoffman faxes in his sweaty, nerdish performance as Jacob, a screwed-up teacher perving on his sexy 16-year-old student Mary (Anna Paquin).

Lee's ostentatious setpiece is Norton's howl of non-PC rage lacerating all of NYC's uptight ethnic groups, including the self-righteous blacks: "Slavery was 137 years ago; get over it!". He goes easy, however, on the Irish-American heroes of the fire service. In any case, whatever impact this speech has is entirely cancelled by the final gooey sequence in which Monty imagines these same various representatives of the gorgeous mosaic supportively bidding him farewell, before the ambiguously fantasised cop-out ending.

A turgid, bombastic and outrageously self-satisfied movie.

Was this the critical consensus in Britain? The other Guardian reviewer didn't like it, either.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Samuel Maull

June 4, 2003 | NEW YORK (AP) --

Filmmaker Spike Lee has sued Viacom Inc. over plans to rename its TNN cable channel Spike TV as part of its campaign to attract male viewers.

In court papers filed Tuesday, Lee asked for an injunction against Viacom's use of the name, saying he had never given his consent for it to be used.

"The media description of this change of name, as well as comments made to me and my wife, confirmed what was obvious -- that Spike TV referred to Spike Lee," Lee said in court papers.

The judge directed Viacom to explain why it shouldn't be barred from using the name.

TNN, which bills Spike TV as "the first network for men," said it was "confident that the court will reject any legal claims by Mr. Lee to the popular word and name Spike."

Viacom bought TNN in 2000, and said in April that it would change the channel's name to Spike TV on June 16 in an attempt to increase the number of men in an audience that is already about two-thirds male.

Viacom also owns CBS, Showtime movie channel, VH1, UPN, book publisher Simon & Schuster and other properties.

According to Lee, TNN's president, Albie Hecht, has said the public associates the name "Spike" with Lee.

Lee, whose given name is Shelton Jackson Lee, included in court papers affidavits from people including former Sen. Bill Bradley, and actors Ossie Davis and Ed Norton. The affidavits said the signers had thought of Lee when they heard about Spike TV and some said they believed he had become affiliated with the network.

Lee directed Nike sneaker commercials with Michael Jordan. His movies include "Malcolm X," "Jungle Fever" and "Do the Right Thing."

---

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.

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).

the girlfriend was also hot

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.

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?

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.).

*This is for Mohammed Abba.

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.

Wow. Too right.

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.)