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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Anti Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1989 |
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| Genre: |
DRAMA
OVERRATED
COMEDY
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
120 |
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Italians who own a New York pizza parlour spark off a riot with local black youths.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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Much overpraised by critics who wanted it to be a great film and elevated Spike Lee well beyond his capacities, into a cultural and political guru - an elevation which predictably destroyed his potential as a film-maker and made him incorrigibly pompous. Energetic and well photographed (by Ernest Dickerson) but shambolic as narrative, this is a film in which virtually every character from a racial minority, regardless of colour or creed, behaves like a jerk. The claim of Mr Lee and some critics that this was a work of social realism was absurd. The characters were didactic caricatures, and any film about black street life in 1989 which tried to get away without mentioning crack was plainly escapism. Lee was even confused about whether racial violence was to be condemned or condoned. At the end, he offered contradictory quotations from Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: a blatant cop-out.
"I'm not advocating violence. I'm saying I can understand it. If the people are frustrated and feel oppressed and feel this is the only way they can act, I understand."
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| (Spike Lee) |
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, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee
