First published on the public account "Film Detective"
Public ID: ttyingtan
Author: Huang Shiro
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Director
At the Oscars in 2019, "Green Book" won the best film statuette as he wished. There was thunderous applause, and almost all the guests thought that the award was well deserved.
But there was an old black man who didn't think so. After hearing who the final prize won, he cursed and left the table angrily. This old man is Spike Lee .
In the same year, "Black Party" directed by him was a strong competitor of "Green Book". However, the guests present were not surprised. After all, this is not the first time Spike Lee "cannot afford to lose."
How to describe Spike Lee? This is really difficult to define. Although he has earned the Oscar lifetime achievement award, it proves that he has a place in the history of world cinema.
But he doesn't like the title "director" very much. Because he is more like an "opinion leader" than a director. Whenever something big happened in the United States, everyone looked at Spike Lee eagerly and would say what point of view. Other directors shunned the term "politics" and advocated the idea of "separation of art and politics" , but he was very keen on political criticism.
In other words, movies are just a medium for him to express his views. It is his opinions that make his films, not the films that make the views. And his political views are often to examine the issue of blacks in American society.
When it comes to "black movies", I believe some readers will frown again. But Spike Lee’s black films are definitely not politically correct. Just talk about his famous work "As It Should Be".
The black characters in this film are all domineering, troublesome, unpretentious, and idle. However, these characters are hateful, cute and pitiful. This is the brilliance of Spike Lee. As a black director, he understands the racial personality, education level, and social situation of blacks with empathy. His creation strives to be objective, true, and tangible.
Because of this, he is hailed as the great black director of all time- white people convinced him, and black people resonated with him.
But Spike Lee's personality is equally clear, and he is very true to his own works. In the competition for the Palme d'Or in Cannes that year, "As It Should Be" was upset and lost to another classic film "Sex, Lies and Videotape". Spike Lee was so annoyed that he let out ruthless words, saying that he would beat up Wim Wenders, the chairman of the jury.
The bad luck of "As It Should Be" continued until the Oscars. In the competition for the best picture, it lost to the same session of "Drive for Miss Daisy . " Now that he loses to the "Green Book" again, Spike Lee is dissatisfied. Because he believes that the "Green Book" beautifies and simplifies the brutal struggle of blacks with arrogant whites in the long years of the past, which is too trifling. In short, my old Li can lose to anyone, but I can't lose your "Green Book"!
In addition to the award ceremony, Spike Lee is also a small steel cannon with inexhaustible firepower.
He angered Quentin, thinking that "Liberated Jiang Ge" was too trifling on the history of black slaves and did not respect his black ancestors.
He bombarded Dongmu and bombarded "Iwo Jima Family Letters" with no black soldiers, which is against historical reality.
Even the Oscar where he won the Lifetime Achievement Award publicly refused to attend on the grounds that "the nominees are all white ."
It can be said that he has fought for the equal rights of blacks all his life.
There is always an indispensable anger in him.
In "Blood Oath Five", Spike Lee continues his unruly and anger. However, the film’s reputation has shown a trend of polarization-the freshness of rotten tomatoes is as high as 92%, while the popcorn index is only 61%. This also means that film critics treat him very much, but the people who eat melon are relatively indifferent.
It is said that Netflix originally found Spike Lee with a commercial film script that was purely adventure-seeking. But Spike Lee was dissatisfied with this overly entertaining script, so he relied on himself and his team to delete, modify, and sew it, which contained a lot of dry goods of his own style. This has also led to the fact that the interpretation of the film is very strong, but it seems that it is not very popular in terms of entertainment. But Shiro felt that Spike Lee tried his best. Perhaps without his tinkering pot, a big cool film in the pure sense would only dazzle everyone.
Therefore, if you not only focus on the story shell of the film, but also focus more on the core, I believe this film will bring you deep thoughts——
Vietnam War Haze
This film is a war-themed work rarely seen by Spike Lee.
Although the main core of the film is still race, the background of the time set in this film is equally important.
That was the infamous Vietnam War.
Unlike the epic anti-fascist war, the Vietnam War was an outright unjust war.
In order to restrain the Soviet Union in the international situation and continue to implement its own hegemonic strategy, the United States carried out aggression against Vietnam.
Under the banner of a beacon of democracy, untold atrocities were carried out.
At the beginning of the film, a set of precious historical images was used to connect the various ugliness of the invaders in series——
Internally, suppress the anti-war movement.
Externally, innocent people were slaughtered.
The various details in the plot are filled with shadows left over from the Vietnam War.
Otis, a veteran, gave birth to a mixed-race daughter with a Vietnamese comfort woman when he was young.
In the following decades, the mother and daughter have been humiliated because they were "sullied" by the aggressor.
Bauer had quarreled with Vietnamese vendors on a cruise ship.
The vendor said angrily: "You killed my parents!"
Bauer became angry when he heard it, and insisted on making two gestures with the vendor.
Has he been slandered?
Yes, it is not.
Perhaps he did not kill the parents of the vendors, but he also lost countless Vietnamese children to relatives.
Without the Vietnam War, none of these human tragedies would happen.
In the middle of the film, when the veterans walked out of the bar, they were mistakenly stepped on a landmine, and the little beggar who lost a leg was waiting for an opportunity to retaliate.
He lit the firecrackers and was still in front of them.
Unlike ordinary people hurriedly avoiding, the veterans chose to lie down subconsciously.
What a skilful action, what a ridiculous scene.
The shadow of the Vietnam War may never disappear from their hearts.
Mindful Homeland
As Spike Lee's work, he also found a unique entry point for the consistent "black problem".
The first shot of the film comes from an interview with boxing champion Ali .
He was sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War.
During the interview, Ali said sternly: "I have no grievances against Asians. They don't call us niggers. It is not them who enslaves and oppresses us, and I don't want to be a black man sent by the white government to kill the yellow race! "
In the feature film, Norman, who is regarded as a spiritual leader by his brothers, also exposes the unfair treatment of blacks: Blacks, who account for 11% of the total population of the United States, have a conscription rate of 32%! In other words, out of every 100 people in the United States, only 11 are black. But in the Vietnam War, 32 out of every 100 Americans were black.
Is this fair? Question marks floated in the hearts of the brothers: I love Uncle Sam, but does Uncle Sam love me? After Norman passed away, as time passed, they gradually compromised the society.
Even the purpose of treasure hunting is so material and utilitarian. But after experiencing the test of life and death again, they finally woke up. The gold was donated to a black affirmative organization in the United States. In the slogan " Black Lives Matter ( Black Lives Matter )", the huge sums of money were used to the best of their ability . Perhaps it is Spike Lee's lifelong dream to awaken every black brother from the heart.
It’s worth mentioning that there is another prop that can’t be ignored in the film, which runs through all the time——
A hat that says " Keep America Great Again ".
The absurd thing is that everyone who has worn this hat must not die well. This slogan is actually Trump's campaign slogan that year. Spike Lee used this setting and provocatively raised his middle finger to the Emperor Chuan.
And combined with the poor performance during the epidemic prevention period and the inaction attitude towards the Freud incident. We can be certain that Spike Lee’s anger is justified. But who is it that can make the United States truly strong again? It will not be the corrupt and incompetent politicians. It was a righteous man like Spike Lee who dared to speak up.
Text/Huang Shiro
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