Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an
American film director,
producer,
writer, and
actor. His production company,
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since .
Lee's movies have examined
race relations, the role of
media in contemporary life,
urban crime and
poverty, and other political issues. Lee has won an
Emmy Award and was nominated for an
Academy Award.
Early and personal life
Lee was born in
Atlanta,
Georgia, the son of Jacqueline Shelton, a teacher of arts and black literature, and
William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer. Lee moved with his family to
Brooklyn,
New York when he was a small child. (The
Fort Greene neighborhood is home to 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.
Lee and his wife,
attorney Tonya Lewis, had their first child, daughter Satchel, in December 1994.
Film career
thumb|right|Lee in 2007.Lee's
thesis film,
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, 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.
The reception of
She's Gotta Have It led Lee down a second career avenue. Marketing executives from
Nike offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company. They wanted to pair Lee's character from
She's Gotta Have It, the Michael Jordan-loving
Mars Blackmon, and Jordan himself in 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". Through the marketing wing of 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has also directed commercials for
Converse,
Jaguar,
Taco Bell and
Ben & Jerry's.
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 also deserved a Best Picture nomination.
Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture that year and according to Lee 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.
Themes and style
Many of Lee's films are set in
Brooklyn. 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, which is 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 are in a world of their own. Usually the actor is on a
camera dolly, framed in a way that the viewer cannot 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 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 multiple Spike Lee productions.
Joie Lee (Spike's sister) and
John Turturro lead the list, each having appeared in nine Spike Lee films. They are followed closely by
Roger Guenveur Smith and the late
Ossie Davis, who each participated in seven of Lee's projects.
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
- Jim Brown (He Got Game, She Hate Me, Sucker Free City)
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 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 did not want to read in the papers, 'Shoot Charlton Heston.'" Insisting that he has 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.
In October 2005, 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, Lee 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 has also fielded charges of
antisemitism, and once claimed "Jews run Hollywood."
Lee sparked controversy on a March 28, 2004 segment on
ABC when he said that basketball player
Larry Bird was overrated because of his race, saying, “The most overrated player of all time, I would say it'd be
Larry Bird. Now, Larry Bird is one of the greatest players of all time, but listen to the white media, it's like this guy was like nobody ever played basketball before him--Larry Bird, Larry Bird, Larry Bird, Larry Bird, Larry Bird.”
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Lee, who was then making
Miracle at St. Anna, about an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during
World War II, criticized director
Clint Eastwood for not depicting black Marines in his own WWII film,
Flags of Our Fathers. Citing historical accuracy, Eastwood responded that his film was specifically about the soldiers who raised the flag on
Mount Suribachi at
Iwo Jima, pointing out that while black soldiers did fight at Iwo Jima, the U.S. military was segregated during WWII, and none of the men who raised the flag were black. Eastwood also pointed out that his 1988 film
Bird, about the Jazz musician
Charlie Parker featured 90% black actors, and sarcastically said that his upcoming movie about post-apartheid
South Africa will not feature a white actor in the role of
Nelson Mandela. He angrily said that Lee should "shut his face". Lee responded that Eastwood was acting like an "angry old man", and argued that despite making two Iwo Jima films back to back,
Letters from Iwo Jima and
Flags of Our Fathers, "there was not one black soldier in both of those films".
He added that he and Eastwood were "not on a plantation." In fact, black Marines are seen in scenes during which the mission is outlined, as well as during the initial landings, when a wounded black Marine is carried away. During the end credits, historical photographs taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima show black Marines. Although black Marines fought in the battle, they were restricted to auxiliary roles such as ammunition supply, and were not involved in the battle's major assaults, but took part in defensive actions. Lee later claimed that the event was exaggerated by the media and that he and Eastwood had reconciled through mutual friend
Steven Spielberg, culminating in his sending Eastwood a print of
Miracle At St. Anna.
During a lecture at
Concordia University in
Montreal, Canada on February 11, 2009, Lee criticized how some in the black community wrongfully associate "intelligence with acting white, and ignorance with acting black", admonishing students and parents to maintain more positive attitudes in order to follow their dreams and achieving their goals.
