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WHat is your ranking of spike lee films?


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The following is my thoughts to Elliot SMith's ranking of spike lee films

 

interesting that the first movie spike lee didn't appear or use his artistic norms was get on the bus. I have many feelings about the million man march not appropriate for her.

 

Awww crooklyn or school daze got less than chi-raq awwww I oppose that.

 

Mo better blues , da 5 bloods ok

 

clockers is one of his most common appearing films

 

he got game ahhh, is it denzel

 

summer of sam is better than crooklyn aww

 

jungle fever , another provocative movie but is it really better than the one's before? 

 

she's gotta have it, his first film, that is always a complex thing

 

Inside man, the criminal caper part was nice, good ensemble

 

Bamboozled is five, no way, that movie I do not care for and it isn't the blackface alone, it is deeper than that, the story is poor for me. I get the message lee wants to convey but i think he covneys it poorly or rudely

 

black klannsman ahhh

 

I never saw 25th hour

 

again, denzel washington or his son is on this list combined 4 times. MAlcolm X 

 

Do the right thing ahhh no four little girls in here. ahhh no way this is trash. For me, four little girls is his best film. Most of his films I don't care for how he tells the story. Easy for a writer to say that and one who has never directed a film, but no I think a number of films I would replace and do the right thing, no way
 

IN CONCLUSION

Spike Lee makes obvious messages but the problem I have is his framework. I rarely find i care for it. I am one who is always willing to state flaws or critique in a negative tone in prose concerning the black community but in fiction, I dislike Black creators having a majority negative tone, which i find spike lee does in general. And to be blunt, i think he comprehends the black or white viewing market in the usa. most whites in the usa seem to  love to see black struggle, black difficulty. and most Blacks  in the usa seem to like it as well. Power/Empire are clear examples of my point.

 

link 

https://ew.com/movies/best-spike-lee-movies-ranked/

 

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@Pioneer1it seems of all the films the biggest distances in rankings occur with crooklyn side four little girls based on the both our commentaries. 

 

It is interesting cause crooklyn was based on a concept by spike lee's sister that she pitched to him. and four little girls which I place at number 1 is a straight documentary. 

of the three rankings, i am the only who mentions four little girls and two , you or I , place crooklyn higher in standing than the articled reviewer....

 

The question is why do those films have the biggest ranking gaps between ranking orders? 

 

@Troy any ideas. I imagine this connects to the peele post earlier in some way

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richardmurray


I'm not exactly sure why so many other people loved Crooklyn but I loved it because it got my on a deep level for so many reasons, as most of Spike Lee's movies do.

-Opening scenes of a block filled with Black kids out playing and doing their thang, immediate brought back nostalgic images from my childhood.

-The family going down South for vacation reminded me of my own childhood and that of others in my neighborhood.

-The family sitting around by candle light eating dinner after the power was cut.
Come on, if you grew up in the hood you CAN relate to that...lol

-How the neighbors would watch your home while you were away on vacation reminds me of how they used to do when I was a kid.  I don't recall anyone else putting that in a film or even on television

-There was a scene I'd never forget how when the family was leaving to go down South everybody on the block was waving them good bye as they were driving off.  That's EXACTLY what they used to do on our block when a family would take a trip out of town.  Everybody outside who saw you pull off would wave and bid you a good trip with love and smiles and promised to watch your house while yall were gone.

-How the little girl was hallucinating about her mother still being alive when she woke up and heard her father cleaning the stove.
Something most children who lost a parent can relate to.

-I can't forget all of the sisters, brothers, and cousins crowded together in a little room watching Soul Train.
Reminded me of my family every time we went over relatives houses...lol.



Spike Lee is a GIFTED Filmmaker...no doubt.
The brother has a way of taking AfroAmerican life and history and reality of AfroAmerican life and experience and presenting it on the big screen in a way that nobody had done before him.

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@Pioneer1

I guess my section of harlem growing up as a child was different. but in defense the black community of harlem in manhattan is significantly older than a number of black communities in  nyc, especially queens or brooklyn, or in other major cities.

The following are the differences. The first two points we are on in the same but the following are differences, between experiences.

Quote

-The family sitting around by candle light eating dinner after the power was cut.
Come on, if you grew up in the hood you CAN relate to that...lol

-How the neighbors would watch your home while you were away on vacation reminds me of how they used to do when I was a kid.  I don't recall anyone else putting that in a film or even on television

-There was a scene I'd never forget how when the family was leaving to go down South everybody on the block was waving them good bye as they were driving off.  That's EXACTLY what they used to do on our block when a family would take a trip out of town.  Everybody outside who saw you pull off would wave and bid you a good trip with love and smiles and promised to watch your house while yall were gone.

-How the little girl was hallucinating about her mother still being alive when she woke up and heard her father cleaning the stove.
Something most children who lost a parent can relate to.

-I can't forget all of the sisters, brothers, and cousins crowded together in a little room watching Soul Train.
Reminded me of my family every time we went over relatives houses...lol.

I never ate by candlelight as a child.

 

More people have had issues with crime in this section of harlem since white people became the majority. As a kid , my section of harlem was tranquil really.  

 

I went down south many times, but no one waved us away. 

 

I was fortunate to not lose either parent as a child.

 

My blood kin lived all over, some in new jersey, some in various southern states, georgia/tennessee/et cetera so we didn't have those kinds of mass gatherings. And I never watched soul train till teenage. 

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richardmurray

 


I guess my section of harlem growing up as a child was different. 

but in defense the black community of harlem in manhattan is significantly older than a number of black communities in  nyc, especially queens or brooklyn, or in other major cities

 

Yes, the Black cultural experience in Harlem goes back far deeper than it does in both Brooklyn and Queens and even the Bronx.
You have more of a multi-generational FBA culture that stretches back into the 1910s and 20s.

 

Much of the Black populations that settled in other parts of NYC are actually foreign....from Africa and the Caribbean where as Harlem is strongly FBA.  The only foreign influence that goes back several generations in Harlem of any significance is the Puerto Rican presence.

 

 

 

 

I never ate by candlelight as a child.


That means you never had your power cut off....lol.


 

 


I went down south many times, but no one waved us away. 


LOL....

 

 

 

 

 

And I never watched soul train till teenage. 

 

What???
How old are you?
 

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@Pioneer1 true history

 

no I am thankful I didn't either. but I am glad you at least didn't have too many nights like that. I feel children need to be happier not sadder. Too many black adults I hear preach the trial of hardship on black children like a smiling adult is supposed to arrive after a childhood of pains. 

 

:) we always came back... I am glad we did too:) 

 

:)

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