Acclaimed film guru still doing right thing
When Spike Lee phoned in for an interview late last week, New York was still in the throes of demonstrations against police brutality, a lockdown brought on by COVID-19 and the civic unrest and economic crisis that have ensued.
But Lee, who was calling from his home on the Upper East Side, was in an exuberant mood. “Wednesday was the first day nobody died from corona,” he said, citing data of confirmed deaths published by New York City health officials. What’s more, he had taken a bike ride to mayoral residence Gracie Mansion a few days earlier that considerably raised his spirits.
“It was a great sight for my sore eyes to see my fellow New Yorkers — white, brown, red and black — unified and speaking up against the powers that be.”
He was even more heartened by what he saw on CNN.
“It happened all across the United States of America, not just New York,” he says excitedly. “Haven’t seen this since I was a kid growing up in the ’60s.”
Having a conversation with Lee, who turned 63 in March, is akin to a dance: He is as sharply observant as the films he’s been making since his groundbreaking debut in 1986 with She’s Gotta Have It. His new movie, Da 5 Bloods exemplifies what makes him so distinctive as a director: He’s one of a few of filmmakers who have refined their own, instantly recognizable cinematic language.
Lee has also been fearless about making polemical work, and speaking out about politics off-screen, regardless of any blowback. Given the huge turnouts at the demonstrations over the past two weeks, is he optimistic that systemic change is at hand?
The answer, he says, is all about follow-through. “Let’s not get (ahead of ) ourselves,” he warns. “Let’s see what’s happened when we wake up on Nov. 4. Because regardless of what’s happening now, if Agent Orange gets re-elected, then it’s been in vain.”
“Agent Orange,” as Lee’s fans know, is the filmmaker’s preferred name for U.S. President Donald Trump.
It’s also a deadly chemical that was used in Vietnam, where Da 5 Bloods takes place (see story at right).
When the video emerged of George Floyd dying under the knee of a white police officer, he responded almost days later with a breathtaking 94-second short film called 3 Brothers — Radio Raheem, Eric Garner and George Floyd, in which he intercut the deaths of Garner and Floyd with footage from the 1989 film Do the Right Thing, in which Radio Raheem dies while in a police chokehold.
Does Lee feel compelled to make a particular movie in light of these extraordinary times? “No,” he says flatly.
“I can understand that every artist has their own path,” he says. “And there are some artists ... they make a conscious decision to leave politics out of it ... But I do think that history has showed us that when times have been rough, they’ve produced some of the greatest music, movies, plays and whatnot from artists who feel that it’s their duty to comment or hold up a window to the evil that’s going on.”