1083. BlacKkKlansman

BlacKkKlansman
2018
Directed by Spike Lee

Finally, a movie that deserves its place, that isn't just here because it will attract normies to the List. While I wish some moments of this film had been handled with a bit more subtlety, I am still very glad I saw this. I hope it isn't replaced in future editions with Marvel's Phase Two of Chapter whatever the hell.

In the late 70s, Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs, fools a local division of the Ku Klux Klan into thinking he is white over the phone. He recruits a Jewish coworker, Flip Zimmerman, to act as him to meet the Klansmen. The division of the Klan is predictably made up of braindead rednecks united by their hate and inability to pronounce certain words. Ron suspects they are planning a terrorist attack. At the same time, Ron grows closer to Patrice, the president of the Black Student Union, who doesn't know his J-O-B is a police officer. Patrice thinks all police officers are pigs but Ron thinks he can change things from within.

My sister is a kindergarten teacher, and a student asked her the other day "why do police shoot people?" I guess she didn't feel like explaining institutionalized racism (which goes beyond one racist cop just spoiling it for everybody in the department, Lee!). Lee draws very strong parallels between Ron Stallworth's world in the late 70s and today's political climate. Despite the 70s hair cuts and slang, you can tell he is not very interested in creating a period piece. This was a bit heavy handed at times; I felt I was being spoon-fed certain points. I do feel like there is more power in subtlety. No white person is going to watch this and see their own behavior in any of the racist white people's actions in the film, or if they would they wouldn't be watching this movie in the first place. Although I guess Lee's never been interested in studying microaggressions. For the most part, I enjoyed the grim foreshadowing, though it makes me feel very hopeless (I don't think there is a shot in hell that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named isn't reelected).

As a side note, does the KKK still make its members watch Birth of a Nation? That would mean they hate black people SO MUCH they are willing to pretend to like silent movies. Very chilling.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Ron Stallworth actually never used a "white" voice on the phone and still got away with passing as white. So put that in your pipe and smoke it (at least five feet away from me).

Topher Grace said playing David Duke left him so depressed that he edited Peter Jackson's The Hobbit into a two hour movie for fun. Is this available?? Toph, DM me.

Jordan Peele pitched the idea of this movie. Why couldn't he have directed?

804. Do The Right Thing

Do The Right Thing
1989
Directed by Spike Lee

This is one of those movies that I feel like I should judge on a different scale than I usually do.  I can't honestly say I enjoyed it, but it is powerful and, unfortunately, still relevant today (especially the police brutality bits).

In a predominantly black neighborhood, Mookie is a pizza delivery man who works for Sal, an Italian American.  Sal is...well, he is pretty racist, but at the very least is less racist than his son Pino.  On the hottest day of the summer, Mookie's friend Buggin' Out decides to protest Sal's Wall of Fame, which only displays pictures of Italian Americans.  Tensions escalate to tragic proportions and the film ends with a quote from both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

I don't think I have been to a family run Italian restaurant that didn't have its walls covered in pictures of Italians.  Buggin' Out was such an asshole; in fact, everyone in this film was kind of an asshole and really, that is what is great about this movie.  No one walks away blameless.  I was surprised by how even handed and mature this was.  I suppose I was expecting a movie that radiated anger, instead of profound sadness. A lot of white people seem to think because they don't consciously hate black people or use the word "nigger" that they can enjoy their white privilege in peace.  In this film, Lee forces us to confront the fact that there is a lot more to resolving racial conflicts than just being friendlier to each other.

I am really struggling with this review so I will end it by hiding behind a Jon Stewart quote I like: "We have made enormous progress in teaching people that racism is bad.  Where we seemed to have dropped the ball is in teaching people what racism actually is."  So in conclusion, if you don't like this movie, you are racist.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The word "fuck" is used 240 times.

741. She's Gotta Have It

She's Gotta Have It
1986
Directed by Spike Lee

Okay, how many movies did we get through before there was another rape?  Two?  That's not an exaggeration; we only had a brief break in between this and Blue Velvet.  I am somewhat mollified by Spike Lee's later quote on the scene: "You know what my biggest regret is?  The rape scene in She's Gotta Have It.  If  was able to have any do overs, that would be it.  It was just totally stupid.  I was immature and I hate that I did not view rape as the vile act that it is."  Of course, he might have just said that to get us to watch his the television series he plans on making based on this film, but it still made me feel a bit better.

Nola Darling is a young attractive African American woman who has three lovers (Jamie, Greer, and Mars) and no intention to settle down.  The men find out about each other and are angered by the way they are treated.  I suppose they believe (and the audience is supposed to believe) that if a woman loves sex she ultimately is asking to be raped.  She is, by Jamie, although apparently we are still supposed to hope that those crazy kids work it out.

Obviously, this film is so infuriating and hypocritical that it has to be intentional...right?  Based on the ending, I am not so sure.  I certainly don't think Lee had the best intent with the rape scene, and he seems to agree with that. I am glad we had a movie featuring a sexually free black woman, but I can't help thinking that the whole thing was handled rather badly.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts: