Ten Days, Ten Movies, Ten Images: Day 3

Anguish and grief, following anger, incendiary wit and laughter.

This image is from the climax of one of the ten films that had an unforgettable impact on me.

The film is one of the trilogy of masterpieces from its at-long-last Academy Award winning writer-director-actor.

Look at that woman's face, and tell me you don't want to know the story behind why she's reacting that way.  You do, even if it makes you uncomfortable, even if you have to question your long-held assumptions.

"Do the Right Thing" (1989)
Directed and Written by Spike Lee
Image: Ossie Davis ("Da Mayor") and Ruby Dee ("Mother Sister")

One of Spike Lee's three great films (the others are "Malcolm X" and "BlacKkKlansman"), this is innovative American movie making at its finest. It's a funny film. It's an angry film.  It is a movie filled with fascinating stylistic choices and inventive ways of seeing a message through the presentation of images (with boundless credit to cinematographer Ernest Dickerson).

 Spike Lee as Mookie.  Lee also wrote, directed and produced "Do the Right Thing"
 

 "Sam" (Samuel L.) Jackson takes to the airwaves as Mister Señor Love Daddy.

I wish the film felt like ancient history, but its reflections on how we can live side by side and still not understand or respect one another ring all too true, as well as the portrayal of how some of those in authority exploit their power to crush those who dare take one step out of line. 

 The great Bill Nunn as Radio Raheem; "Da Mayor" tries to keep the peace.
 

 Tensions rise in Bed-Stuy:  Spike Lee as Mookie, Danny Aiello as Sal, Richard Edson as Vito and John Turturro as Pino



I've never worked with Spike Lee, but I had the great honor of working with those icons of acting and activism, Ruby Dee on Alan Rudolph's film "Love at Large" and Ossie Davis on the miniseries "Alex Haley's 'Queen'". What a pleasure to sit at the foot of masters, a feeling I am sure I hold in common with Spike Lee.

With Ossie Davis on the set of "Alex Haley's 'Queen'" in Charleston, South Carolina.

After a career that has spanned four decades, Spike Lee was presented with an honorary Oscar - and won a competitive one the very next year for his screenplay for "BlacKkKlansman."  Whether his films succeed or fail, they are never dull.  He has pushed the edge of the envelope until it is reduced to shreds, and the best of his films convey stories we need to hear, from people who too rarely have a voice in the social conversation or a seat at the tables of power.

Spike Lee's best work is exhilarating, even when it breaks my heart. He makes me proud that I have a small place in the same industry.  He shows the value of including diverse voices, in cinema, and in society.


I hope that every one of us will listen.