Spike Lee, The Conscience of Hollywood

He might not be the most unoriginal, but he hasn't made a good movie since Malcolm X.

Reply

Well, he's kind of right. Yeah you can shell out the whole "he's one to talk" argument, but I'm sure most of us agree this whole built-in audience trend Hollywood's got itself on needs to quiet down soon. We need some more originality. I wouldn't mind seeing another spec script boom. Why not? The talent is out there.

Reply

Oooh, Film Cynic, I'd have to disagree. 25th Hour is one of my favorite films of recent years, and I don't think either He Got Game nor Summer of Sam are failures. Now, She Hate Me, on the other hand ...

Reply

"The only major filmmaker with any brains"? So, you're not counting Steven Soderberg? Atom Egoyan? David Lynch? Sofia Coppola? Ang Lee? Woody Allen? John Waters? Christopher Nolan? Jim Jarmusch? Christopher Guest? And what about the directors outside the US - Pedro Almodovar? Won Kar-Hai? Ingmar Bergman?

There's plenty of great, original stuff out there. Much of it gets featured on this site. I understand the adoration for Lee, but let's not fetishize him like he's the lone island in an ocean of shit.

Reply

I think the point being made is that he is the only filmmaker that has been willing to place the blame on the quality of films that he and his cohorts are producing, not that he is the only filmmaker producing nonderivative material.

Reply

But, don't ya think that at the same time as, yes, studios are making more derivative pictures than anytime since just before the foreign and indie boom of the seventies. There is way more good stuff too. It's more and more. The leaps of mass communication, like this one, has made it so that we all know immediately when any given random little film is being made. And there are more being made as well. Maybe not enough, but more.

Reply

25th Hour had its moments but I really don't know what people saw in it. Aside from the fact that Paquin is in it, that Russian mafia scene is ridiculous. The best part about it, the bathroom montage is just a retread of the slur bit from Do the Right Thing. If not for Pepper, the movie would have been unwatchable.

Reply

This article clearly states the mindset of the author. It is intelligently drafted to create intrest of the reader. It brings out the worth of the subject.

Reply

I wonder what filmmaker-turned-confectioner Steven Spielberg has to say about all this...

Reply

Ask yourself what was the cinematic moment of the summer, What made you want go out and spend $10? There has been a mindlees stream of overblown ,overpriced, and unimaginative product coming out of holiday to a theater and a kids meal near you. junkfood movies for a junkfood nation that is waiting for the next movie-restaurant tie-in. And at least Bamboozled made you think

Reply