Do the Right Thing

Thursday, May 1st: Spike Lee is not angry. But he thinks that “anger is good” and cathartic. The outspoken and controversial director of such independent films as Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Summer of Sam, and When the Levees Broke, was in Denver to talk to UC Denver film students. Interviewed on stage by NPR film critic Howard Movshovitz, Spike ironically got angry when Movshovitz mentioned that he films anger very well–on Movshovitz’s way to a larger point about Spike’s lyricism–provoking this angry tirade: “It’s easier to paint Spike Lee as an angry black man that’s on a rage 24/7. That’s an easy thing to say… I’ve had many interviews and they’ve asked me ‘Why are you so angry?’ As if all my films—and it’s not just my films, it’s me as a human being—as if I stay in a constant state of anger and it’s not the case. On the other hand, blacks have a lot of things to be angry about. Any anger that we show is justified. Not that I think that we should be burning s**t down. Anger is good… We have one of the lowest life spans because of hypertension, diabetes: we’re catching hell. And a lot of this stuff is if you keep all this stuff in, you’re just gonna combust. So, I’d rather scream than have an ulcer or heart attack.”

In His Own Words:

Howard: “You probably didn’t hear it back there, but I made a comment about how you have restored to the American imagination Brooklyn. I’m wondering if you would talk about Brooklyn both as a place where you have lived and the site of so many of your films.”
Spike: “I wasn’t born in Brooklyn. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to Brooklyn at an early age. That’s where a lot of the early films took place in the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Cobble Hill, and when I got a little older, that’s when my mother decided that we should get a brownstone.”
Howard: “What is the power of that place for you?”
Spike: “Well, I think that most people have a good feeling about where they grew up. And a lot of great people come out of Brooklyn: Woody Allen, Barbara Streisand, I’m always thinking about Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers that changed everything in the American landscape…”
Howard: “….Walt Whitman…”
Spike: “…Lenny Wilkins [famous NBA coach and player], Bernard King [NBA player], Albert King [blues musician], Little Anthony and the Imperials [R&B group], Billy Cunningham [NBA player] used to play for the 76ers…”
Howard: “Almost every person you’ve mentioned went to Erasmus Hall High School. Did you?”
Spike: “Nah, I went to John Dewey. Sandy Colfax went to Lafayette. Mark Jackson who will probably be the new coach of the Knicks. A whole bunch of people came from Brooklyn. And also, even before that, in every WWII movie there’s always some guy from Brooklyn. It’s true.”
Howard: “In your films, Brooklyn is both a real place and an imaginative place.”
Spike: “What?”
Howard: “An imaginative place… Could you talk some about what you did with Brooklyn and what you continue to do with Brooklyn artistically?”
Spike: “I don’t think it’s a big thing. The films take place there. And we shoot there. I know it very well. And a lot of stories have yet to be told. He doesn’t like to talk about it but Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn New York. In fact, him and Mike Tyson born in the same hospital. It was in my neighborhood. Cumberland Hospital. So there is a bunch of people out there. Biggie. Jay Z. On and on.”
Howard: “As I was looking over your films the last couple of weeks one of the things that gets me is that you hold back from interpreting. That you show things that are tremendously provocative—in Do the Right Thing that extraordinary ending where there’s so much going on but you never tell an audience how to evaluate it or what to think about it, but you just let it go.”
Spike: “I’ve always respected intelligent audiences. So for the most part, we try to put it out there and then let the discussion take place at the movies or over in the lobby or walking home or driving home or taking the subway home. That really happened with Do the Right Thing. When Do the Right Thing came out, for six Sundays in a row there was an article in the New York Times Art & Leisure section about that film. It really provoked a lot of discussion about race. At that time, New York City was a very racially divided city because of Mayor Ed Koch and Giuliani made it worse. Bloomberg’s been great. So the static that was there before has not been there in great amounts. But young black men are still being shot down by NYPD. The latest case Sean Bell. And those cops walked Scott free. And they shot him—unarmed shot him 50 times [he was actually shot at 50 times, killing him and severely wounding two of his friends]. This past Friday, the judge gave the acquittal. I really don’t know the judicial system like I should but why wasn’t it a trial by jury? It was given to this judge.”
Howard: “Another of the things that get me about your work is that while you have a reputation for being able to film anger exceptionally well, there are moments in every film and I think maybe more in—-“
Spike: “I can answer right now…”
Howard: “No, I’m going to a different place…”
Spike: “But it’s simple. It’s easier to paint Spike Lee as an angry black man that’s on a rage 24/7. That’s an easy thing to say.”
Howard: “That’s not what I was going to ask.”
Spike: “I’m just saying though. You talk about the anger because I’ve had that. And that’s not the first time I’ve had it. I’ve had many interviews and they’ve asked me ‘Why are you so angry?’ As if all my films—and it’s not just my films, it’s me as a human being—as if I stay in a constant state of anger and it’s not the case. On the other hand, blacks have a lot of things to be angry about. Any anger that we show is justified. Not that I think that we should be burning s**t down. Anger is good. African-American men—let’s take out of the equation the way we are killing each other. We have one of the lowest life spans because of hypertension, diabetes: we’re catching hell. And a lot of this stuff is if you keep all this stuff in, you’re just gonna combust. So, I’d rather scream than have an ulcer or heart attack.”
Howard: “What I was going to ask you was, contrary to your reputation, there are moments in all of your films—and the one that really gets me is When the Levees Broke—that are extraordinarily lyrical. And gentle and soft and beautiful… There’s a question there somewhere. I’m not sure what it is.”
Spike: “The answer is: I’m very capable of showing the many different emotions that human beings have, not just anger. That’s the answer.”