Everything about Spike Lee totally explained
Shelton Jackson Lee (born
March 20,
1957, in
Atlanta, Georgia), better known as
Spike Lee, is an
Emmy Award - winning, and
Academy Award - nominated
American film director,
producer,
writer, and
actor noted for his films dealing with controversial
social and
political issues. He also teaches film at
New York University and
Columbia University. His production company,
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.
Early life
Lee was born in
Atlanta,
Georgia to
Bill Lee and Jacquelyn Shelton Lee. Lee moved with his family to
Brooklyn,
New York when he was a small child. The
Fort Greene neighborhood is home of Lee's production company,
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, and other Lee-owned or related businesses. As a child, his mother nicknamed him "Spike." In Brooklyn, he attended
John Dewey High School. Lee enrolled in
Morehouse College where he made his first student film,
Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He took film courses at
Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a
B.A. in
Mass Communication from
Morehouse College. He then enrolled in
New York University's
Tisch School of the Arts. He graduated in 1978 with a
Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television.
Film career
Lee's
thesis film,, was the first student film to be showcased in
Lincoln Center's New Directors New Films Festival.
In 1985, Lee began work on his first
feature film,
She's Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, the film was shot in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U.S.
box office.
She's Gotta Have It would also lead Lee down a second career avenue. After marketing executives from
Nike saw and liked the movie, Lee was offered a job directing commercials for Nike. What they'd in mind specifically was pairing Lee's character from
She's Gotta Have It, the Michael Jordan-loving
Mars Blackmon, with Jordan himself as their marketing campaign for the
Air Jordan line. Later, Lee would be a central figure in the controversy surrounding the inner-city rash of violence involving Air Jordans. Lee countered that instead of blaming manufacturers of apparel, "deal with the conditions that make a kid put so much importance on a pair of sneakers, a jacket and gold". Lee, through the marketing wing of his production company, has also directed commercials for
Converse,
Jaguar,
Taco Bell and
Ben & Jerry's.
Lee's movies have examined
race relations, the role of
media in contemporary life,
urban crime and
poverty, and political issues. Many of his films include a distinctive use of
music.
Awards, honors and nominations
Lee's film
Do the Right Thing was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. Many people, including some in Hollywood, such as Kim Basinger, believed that
Do the Right Thing deserved a Best Picture nomination, but the movie didn't get the nomination, and "
Driving Miss Daisy" won Best Picture that year. According to Spike in an April 7, 2006 interview with New York Magazine, this hurt him more than his film not receiving the nomination.
His
documentary 4 Little Girls was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary
Academy Award in 1997.
On May 2, 2007, the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award. He was most recently named the recipient of the next Wexner Prize.
Trademarks
- The borough of Brooklyn is the setting for many of Lee's theatrical releases.
- Lee often has a role in his films ranging from small cameo (Clockers) to leading role (Do the Right Thing).
- His films are referred to in their credits as "A Spike Lee Joint", except When the Levees Broke and Inside Man, which are each referred to as "A Spike Lee Film".
- There is commonly a sequence using a "floating" effect, when a character seems to glide in the air like a ghost instead of walking to make it look like they're in a world of their own. Usually the actor is on a camera dolly, framed in a way that one doesn't see their feet. Denzel Washington has been the focus of this shot in Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, and Inside Man. Mekhi Phifer is given the same treatment in Clockers, as well as Laurence Fishburne in the film School Daze. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Paquin have similar shots in 25th Hour.
- Lee incorporates something related to the sport of baseball in every one of his movies. Examples include the New York Mets in Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever, Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens in Do The Right Thing, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente in Clockers, Reggie Jackson and the New York Yankees in Summer of Sam, and Jackie Robinson in Malcolm X, amongst other recurring themes in his movies such as She Hate Me.
Recurring actors
A number of actors have appeared in numerous Spike Lee productions. Lee's sister,
Joie Lee, leads the list, having appeared in nine of his films.
Public figures as actors
Several well-known
public figures have appeared in Spike Lee films portraying characters other than themselves, particularly in
Malcolm X. They include
Ray Allen (He Got Game)
Travis Best (He Got Game)
Mark Breland (Summer of Sam)
Jim Brown (He Got Game, She Hate Me, Sucker Free City)
Rick Fox (He Got Game)
Evander Holyfield (Summer of Sam)
William Kunstler (Malcolm X)
Nelson Mandela (Malcolm X)
Bobby Seale (Malcolm X)
Al Sharpton (Malcolm X and Bamboozled)
Wyatt Tee Walker (Malcolm X)
Controversy
Lee has never shied away from controversial statements and actions involving race relations. In 2002, after headline-grabbing remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott regarding Senator Strom Thurmond's failed presidential bid, Lee charged that Lott was a "card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan" on ABC's Good Morning America.
Lee was the executive producer of the 1995 film New Jersey Drive, which depicted young African-American auto thieves in northern New Jersey. At the time, the city of Newark had the highest automobile theft rate in the country, and Newark mayor Sharpe James refused to allow filming of New Jersey Drive within the city limits. Years later in the hotly-contested 2002 Newark mayoral campaign, Lee endorsed James's opponent, Cory Booker.
In May of 1999 The New York Post reported that Lee said of National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston, "Shoot him with a .44 Bulldog." Lee contended, "I intended it as ironic, as a joke to show how violence begets more violence," Lee said Thursday. "I told everyone there it was a joke. I said I didn't want to read in the papers, 'Shoot Charlton Heston.'" Insisting that he's no reason to apologize, Lee further explained that the remark was in response to a question about whether Hollywood was responsible for the then-recent rash of school shootings, saying, "The problem is guns," he said. Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey issued a statement condemning Lee as having "nothing to offer the debate on school violence except more violence and more hate."
In 2003, Lee filed suit against the Spike TV television network claiming that they were capitalizing on his fame by using his name for their network. The injunction order filed by Spike Lee was eventually lifted.
More recently, Lee commented on the federal government's response to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Responding to a CNN anchor's question as to whether the government intentionally ignored the plight of black Americans during the disaster, Lee replied, "It's not too far-fetched. I don't put anything past the United States government. I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans." On Real Time with Bill Maher Spike cited the government's past atrocities including the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.
Spike Lee is well-known for his devotion to the New York Knicks professional basketball team. Much of the blame for the Knicks' loss (93-86 to the Indiana Pacers) in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, in which "Knick-killer" Reggie Miller scored 25 points in the 4th quarter, was given to Lee. Lee was apparently taunting Miller throughout the 4th quarter, and Miller responded by making shot after shot. Miller also gave the choke sign to Lee. The headline of the New York Daily News the next day sarcastically said, "Thanks A Lot Spike".
Lee is a supporter of Barack Obama, saying in an April, 2008 New York Magazine interview, "I’m riding my man Obama. I think he’s a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was Do the Right Thing. I said, “Thank God I made it. Otherwise you'd have taken her to Soul Man. Michelle would have been like, ‘What’s wrong with this brother?’ ”
Personal life
Lee and his wife, attorney Tonya Lewis, had their first child, daughter Satchel, in December 1994.
Filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Spike Lee'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://spike_lee.totallyexplained.com">Spike Lee Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
