On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro.
13 songs in the Soundtracks. Fight the Power was composed for the film.
IMDb was not around when I saw this first in the cinema, but I wish I had recorded my rating at the time. I think it might be 9. I remember my reaction at the time was that Mookie did the right thing by throwing the trash can through Sal's window, because it focused the violence on the shop. Otherwise the violence might have gone toward Sal and/or his sons. Today at home, it wasn't so clear to me that more violence was ensured. In the c.track, SL did not confirm my original impression. He sums up his thoughts in the featurette Spike's Last Word.
This is an excellent film, with fewer characters developed in greater depth than was possible in School Daze ('89).
The region 2 disc (came in a box set of other films I wanted) has a c.track also, which began with the same SL intro with the same date, and I think I listened far enough to hear a second person. I think all the other featurettes are on the Criterion disc. The best feature of that disc is the press conference at the Cannes Film Festival (where SL was nom'd for the Palm D'or).
distr. Universal, dir. Lee; 8+
IMDb was not around when I saw this first in the cinema, but I wish I had recorded my rating at the time. I think it might be 9. I remember my reaction at the time was that Mookie did the right thing by throwing the trash can through Sal's window, because it focused the violence on the shop. Otherwise the violence might have gone toward Sal and/or his sons. Today at home, it wasn't so clear to me that more violence was ensured. In the c.track, SL did not confirm my original impression. He sums up his thoughts in the featurette Spike's Last Word.
This is an excellent film, with fewer characters developed in greater depth than was possible in School Daze ('89).
The region 2 disc (came in a box set of other films I wanted) has a c.track also, which began with the same SL intro with the same date, and I think I listened far enough to hear a second person. I think all the other featurettes are on the Criterion disc. The best feature of that disc is the press conference at the Cannes Film Festival (where SL was nom'd for the Palm D'or).
distr. Universal, dir. Lee; 8+
