We gotta have Spike Lee

The fearless and fabulous Spike Lee first made his mark in the summer of 1986 with the release of She’s Gotta Have It. Tracy Camilla Johns starred as Nola Darling, a young woman from Brooklyn struggling to find herself, as well as the time to deal with her friends, her job, and 3 (count ‘em) lovers. Shot in 12 days for $175,000, the film went on to gross $7 million dollars, at that time an unheard of box office for a small movie. Its release not only changed perceptions of African Americans on the big screen, it would prove to be a seminal moment in the American independent film movement.

Fast-forward to November 23, 2017, when we’ll be giving thanks for more than turkey as She’s Gotta Have It, a Netflix Original Series, goes up against the NFL and all bets will be off. A 10-episode contemporary update of Lee’s film of the same name, it stars DeWanda Wise (Shots Fired), Cleo Anthony (Divergent), Lyriq Bent (The Book of Negroes), and Hamilton alum Anthony Ramos in the role immortalized by Lee, Mars Blackmon. Lee, who created and produced the show, directs all 10 episodes. Tonya Lewis Lee (aka Mrs. Spike) is Executive Producer. Heavy hitters Barry Michael Cooper and Lynn Nottage also produce.

As we countdown to Spike’s first television series, what better time to look back at some of his best on the big screen.

Do The Right Thing (1989) Over the course of the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn, Lee and cinematographer Ernest Dickerson deliver a powerfully atmospheric snapshot of life in late-eighties Bed-Stuy at a time of escalating racial tension in the city. Starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturo, and Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez in their feature film debuts.

He Got Game (1998) This would qualify for the soundtrack alone. Denzel Washington stars as convicted killer who is promised a reduced sentence if he can convince his basketball playing prodigy son (Ray Allen) to play for the Governor’s alma mater. The tensions between father and son drive this story but it is balanced by a sad and touching subplot involving Milla Jovovich as an abused prostitute. All three characters find some version of peace by the film’s end. Allen more than holds his own against Washington, who has never been sexier.

Malcolm X (1992) In a performance that won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best Actor and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor, Denzel Washington is nothing less than majestic. Over its three-and-a-half-hour running time, Malcolm X tells a deeply American story of a larger than life character, and is that rare biopic that allows us not only to get to know and understand our hero, but to watch him change. From his early life as a petty criminal, to his conversion to Islam, to the development of his personal political philosophy, X remained a flawed man who faced down his failings in the service of the civil rights movement.

Jungle Fever (1991) In his fifth feature, Lee takes on the loaded issue of interracial love (and sex!). Wesley Snipes stars as a happily married man who begins an affair with Annabella Sciorra, recently hired as a temp at his office. But there’s nothing temporary about this coupling, which turns tumultuous in no time. Lee is the friend who finds out and is sworn to secrecy. But when Snipes’ wife finds out (as of course she will), the tumultuous becomes terrible as friends and lovers break apart. In a highly acclaimed, and much awarded performance, Samuel L. Jackson stars as Snipes’ crack addicted brother. A number of Lee regulars–John Turturro, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee–as well as Lonette McKee and a pre-Sopranos Michael Imperioli round out the cast.

Clockers (1995) Spike Lee and Richard Price…two bad boys who were born to make a movie together. Based on Price’s 1992 novel, this gritty crime drama tracks the complicated lives of a group of street level drug dealers living in a Brooklyn housing project. The outstanding cast includes Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, and Mekhi Phifer, in his film debut. In telling the story of a murder, Lee digs deep to dramatize the causes and effects of African-American crime and in doing so has made a movie that is at once compelling and heartbreaking. The opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission.