tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16164131.post112784648941240738..comments2008-07-27T03:45:27.296-04:00Thivai Abhornoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16164131.post-1159670098670300972006-09-30T22:34:00.000-04:002006-09-30T22:34:00.000-04:00Top Portion by Garrett GabehartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16164131.post-1159651189783737182006-09-30T17:19:00.000-04:002006-09-30T17:19:00.000-04:00First of all, let me begin by saying I have lost all respect for Spike Lee as a filmmaker. This is a man who has genius and vision exuding from every tip of his fingers. Yet instead of using his talent to produce art in it's purest form, he instead tackles these issues he believes "plagues" humanity. I don't necessarily have a problem with a director pushing his own personal agenda in a film, in fact, one could easily argue that's what film is truely about. I do have a problem with pushing an agenda that turns a promising movie into a joke.<BR/><BR/>But let me give an example to illustrate my point. Spike Lee recently directed Inside Man, a great movie that could have been so much better had he just stuck with the story he had in the first place. In a scene where a middle-eastern man is mistaken for a bank robber, the police grab him, rip off the mask concealing his face and say, "Oh shit, it's an Arab!" Then proceed to beat the man, rip off his turban and drag him to the secure zone. This all takes place in the middle of street where hundreds of onlookers are watching the police and most certainly within hearing distance. After I saw that, I wanted to scream "bullshit." In no way would a police officer ever do that in front of a crowd, I don't care what the situation. Not to mention that the Arab man was handcuffed on his knees when the cop said this, and two other people had already been mistaken for bank robbers that weren't. It was entirely unbelievable. I don't know whether Spike Lee was trying to say that America as a whole is sterotyping the Arab people, or that the NYPD is full of racist biggots or whether all police are out the get the Arab nation. Frankly, I don't give a damn, because the movie to me was a joke, from that point all the way til the end of the movie I couldn't get over how ignorant of a scene that was.<BR/><BR/>In Do the Right Thing, I saw early stages of the same thing. It seems to me that Spike Lee doesn't so much attempt to curb racism, instead he shows it in some of it's worst possible scenarios, and goes so far as to say "Look! This is happening everywhere." Do the Right Thing was probably one of the last films where he actually had an agenda that I even slightly agree with. As Anastatia stated, "He’s not saying that anyone here is a bad person for the things that they say and they way that they think, and he certainly doesn’t propose any kind of solution to the problem. On the contrary, he shows us how complicated he believes this subject to be. It seems to me that one of his main goals was simply to pose questions for viewers, to challenge us to think about these issues from different perspectives." I agree with that statement, but at this point, Spike Lee has shown me his side, he's shown me his angle on the situation. You would think that after a career like Spike Lee has had, maybe he would exert his influence to try and discover some solutions now rather than propitiate the problem?<BR/><BR/>In short, I agree with her about Do the Right Thing. He meant to get a point across, and he succeeded. But isn't it about time Lee took some responsibility for these concerns he has brought to light? Isn't it time he offered some answers rather than continue to throw it in our faces?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com