BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Starting with the message, I think this film is a perfect example of historical dramatization usable as a primary source on the period in which it was produced. Spike Lee, never one for subtlety, is very on the nose about calling out Trump, featuring all his favorite slogans and footage of the man himself at the very end. So not only is the movie thematically poignant, it is necessary as blatant white supremacy rears its ugly head in public.

The style is not obviously Spike Lee. By no means is it slow, but it doesn't have the kinetic forward energy that pushes along some of his earlier works. There are some tinges of blaxploitation, alluded to directly. There are experimental cuts and edits that are a little too film school for someone so experienced--the floating heads watching Stokeley Carmichael's speech are sort of strange, the titles over the Charlottesville footage look a little childish (or rushed? as if the titles were so insignificant he just used the default in the editing software). The allusions to Birth of a Nation are obvious, but the opening scene from Gone with the Wind followed by Alec Baldwin's un-polished monologue are unusual directorial choices. I love the use of music. The main theme sounds exactly like an undercover cop soundtrack stereotype. There are also some tracks of more rah-rah Saving Private Ryan-esque music used subversively. The 1970s dialogue and costumes are right on. If not for that, well, it could have been 2018.

Crooklyn (1994)

We caught a screening at the Central Park Film Festival thanks to VIP tickets Aglaia won. A film historian introduced the film as one that Spike Lee would deny that he ever made Crooklyn, embarrassed by its sentimentality. The sentimentality is one aspect of what makes it great. It's a movie with heart. Crooklyn's got heart and community. It's a community sometimes at odds, reminiscent of the block in Do the Right Thing. In a word, community is beautiful. I found myself smiling a lot during the movie. It is very humorous. It's fast paced. And everyone is quite witty. Everyone is yelling over each other but the dialogue is clear and realistic. The soundtrack is perfectly in sync with the tone of the movie. In some ways, it is extremely Spike Lee. His signature is all over it.

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Do the Right Thing is just as important and poignant today as it was in 1989. Obviously, nothing has changed. Race relations are still tense and police brutality is still rampant. This didn't all of a sudden come out of nowhere and Barack Obama was not a cure-all. Spike Lee sends a powerful message to America.

It's a scorcher. The coloring of the film is tinted a hot red. Everyone is feeling agitated and you feel it too thanks to the reds and oranges. You know that someone is about to erupt. But let's start from the beginning with Rosie Perez dancing the opening credits to an aggressively bold Fight the Power by Public Enemy. Her moves are sharp, sensual, expressive, and absolutely magnetic. It does not glorify violence. But it does beautify it--beauty and fighting are not mutually exclusive.  Violence can be justified, it can be the titular right thing. It's a little more Malcolm than Martin.

Samuel L. Jackson is the radio host who acts as a narrator of sorts. We set the scene in Bed-Stuy on a street shared by African Americans, Puerto Ricans, a Korean grocery and an Italian pizzeria. This itself is beautiful. Not everyone necessarily gets along, but Brooklyn is such a uniquely American locale that all these different cultures could have the opportunity even to clash here. There is the very famous scene of the character staring down the barrel of the camera yelling racial slurs and insults. Even though they are pitted against each other, they are written in such a rich and complete way that the audience can empathize with all of them. We get it. We understand where they're coming from.

Spike Lee is a student of film. There is a very obvious allusion to Night of the Hunter directed by Charles Laughton. Radio Raheem wears LOVE and HATE knuckles and recites Robert Mitchum's monologue. Radio Raheem is perhaps the most symbolic character--his knuckles, his boom box (symbolic of his culture which he wears for all to hear unabashedly), and the ultimate fall of a strongman.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't address the ending. Does Mookie do the right thing? The privileged may see incitement of a riot. But that is wrong. Mookie starts an uprising. Think of the 2015 Baltimore uprising. An oppressed people rising up in self defense a la Malcolm X. Oppression: Why do the majority African American and Puerto Rican population not own any of the businesses on their street? They point out the Koreans are new immigrants and yet they somehow opened their own business. It's not personal. And we see in the final scene that Sal understands that. Sal feels betrayed, but he reconciles with Mookie. The movie is so powerful because it's so real. And it's so real because it is drawn from real society experience.