The Greatness of Spike Lee

well my suggestion - noted elsewhere - is he should do a film adaptation of Life is So Good a story of George Dawson's life, starring Morgan Freeman.

Not an idle suggestion... I think it would be massive. I'd like to see Morgan in a more solid narrative role.

My boo criticises Spike for not doing a historical drama. Perhaps, Spike is a contemporary filmmaker.

Perhaps it's a good idea to open up to the forum to discuss both the type of film people on this forum would LIKE and PAY to go and see, and then, what ideally, would we like Spike to make a film about.

In any genre of filmmaking there is always a commercial audience to consider.
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Malcolm X was a historical drama, was it not?

Spike also did a documentary called "4 Little Girls"

quote:

Originally posted by AudioGuy:
Malcolm X was a historical drama, was it not?

Spike also did a documentary called "4 Little Girls"

Talking more Egyptian/African history pre America.

Haven't seen or heard of 4 Little Girls, thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by AudioGuy:
Malcolm X was a historical drama, was it not?

Spike also did a documentary called "4 Little Girls"

"4 Little Girls" is great (and extremely difficult to watch at times). Another recent work by Spike is "A Huey P. Newton Story". This is fantastic! It stars Roger Guenveur Smith (Smiley from "Do the Right Thing") in a one man show. You can get info and purchase the DVD at

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000EMYBQ/qid=1137806...07846&s=dvd&v=glance

Editorial Reviews
Product Description:
A Huey P. Newton Story is an intimate portrait of Huey P. Newton, the late co-founder of the Black Panther Party. Director Spike Lee and Roger Guenveur Smith collaborate for the 7th time to bring Newton's thoughts, philosophies, history and flavour to life. Adapted from Roger Guenveur Smith's Obie Award winning off- Broadway solo performance of the same name, Spike Lee brings the play from the stage to the screen as only he could. Shot before a live audience, Spike Lee uses his signature mixture of film and archival footage, to capture Newton's "inner mind." The film is complemented by period material and original compositions from sound designer Marc Anthony Thompson, who received an Obie and Audelco Award for his work. Accompanied by an outstanding performance, starring and written by Roger Guenveur Smith, Nominated for two NAACP Image Awards and for winning the Peabody Award. This film is a piece of history that will bring the meaning to "Without Struggle There is No Life".

Get On the Bus was special.

Didn't Spike have something to do with CSA: The Confederate States of America?

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Man, I wish I still had HBO. I'll have to get it back again, soon!

Spike's Katrina
After watching the city get ravaged by the storm, Lee spent a year filming a wrenching four-hour 'Requiem' for New Orleans.

By Allison Samuels
Newsweek
Aug. 21-28, 2006 issue - Spike Lee is a proud New Yorker"”he lives for the Yankees, dies for the Knicks and bleeds for all things Brooklyn"”but for the past year, his heart has been in New Orleans. To make his new four-hour HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," the 49-year-old director visited the Gulf Coast region nine times and interviewed more than 100 people, including the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, Sean Penn, Soledad O'Brien, Kanye West, engineers, historians, journalists, radio DJs"”even the guy who spotted the vice president during a post-Katrina photo-op and told him, "Go f--- yourself, Mr. Cheney." But the voice you'll remember best belongs to a 42-year-old woman named Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, a survivor from the city's obliterated Lower Ninth Ward and one of the rawest specimens of classic Nawlins spitfire you'll ever find. In Lee's devastating film, LeBlanc is a frequent, and frequently hilarious, presence, a fuming Greek chorus of one who still can't believe that, for nearly a week, her country left her and her neighbors for dead. "There were two things I asked Spike when we first met," says LeBlanc, sitting in a lawn chair outside her government-issued trailer home in New Orleans"”the one she finally received four months after applying for it. "First I asked him, 'Are you going to tell the whole story and make it clear that all black people aren't poor, ignorant looters?' And then I asked if I could cuss." She laughs. "When he said yes to both, I said, 'Hot damn, we've got a deal!

Continued

quote:

Originally posted by ma'am:
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

I hope to watch it tonight and tomorrow (DVR'ing it in case I miss it).

Alternet's got two versions of an interview
Spike Lee did with ABC about the documentary. In the first one Spike's critical about Bush; the second one has been sanitized. Check it out.