'Jungle Fever' 20 Years Later…

WOW! Times really does fly by! It was exactly 20 years ago - June 7, 1991 -  that Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever first opened. Made at the time when Spike was THE director of the moment, and a film, like other films that Spike made during that period, which had its staunch defenders and detractors.

Personally it was the first film where I really noticed Spike’s tendency to crank up the music REALLY LOUD so it’s hard to hear what people are saying, and for his actors to overact. But despite those minor problems, like any good film, it’s one that still resonates and perhaps is more relevant today then it was back then; especially with all this endless talk and articles about black women unable to find good black men, and those who are losing them to white women. It might have been an issue 20 years ago, but now it’s REALLY a big issue.

And just look at the people in the film - Samuel L. Jackson , back then a unknown struggling actor who had just fought his own drug addiction and who knocked out people with his performance as Wesley Snipes’ crackhead brother. Who knew he would go on to make 15, 578 movies since then?

Then there was that young unknown actress making her feature film debut, playing Jackson’s crackhead girlfriend, Halle something or other. Whatever happened to her? And by the way, what ever happened to Lonette McKee who played Snipes’ long suffering wife?

As for Snipes, well all we know where he currently is… unfortunately . Life sure takes some unexpected turns along the way doesn’t it?

So what are your feelings about the film? I still think it’s one of Spike’s best, but does it still hold up for you or has its luster worn off for some of you over the years.

**Standing and applauding**

JMac, woman, you handled this (me and Sergio, and the black card) with class and brillance.  I love how you opened with…  “Alright negroes… It sucks to be truthful but I ain’t gonna back down”

When you said “alright negroes” I knew you were coming with something we could relate to, with a touch of sensibility.

And I don’t know/couldn’t repeat one thin line from The Color Purple but I’ve seen it several times…  but my lady knows the whole damn script. I’ve seen Lean On Me a few times, but all I rcan remember about Mr Clark is the chains he put on the door, and Bill Wither’s song.

Home Cinema @ The Digital Fix - Mo' Better Blues

Mo’ Better Blues begins with a group of children asking the parents of young Bleek Gilliam is he can come out and play. No, says Bleek’s mother: he has to finish his trumpet lessons. Cut to the present, and Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) is a leading jazz trumpeter, and leader of the Bleek Gilliam quartet. Bleek has to juggle the attentions of Indigo (Joie Lee) and Clarke (Cynda Williams), the two women in his life, as well as keeping his band together – saxophonist Shadow (Wesley Snipes), pianist Left Hand (Giancarlo Esposito) and bassist Bottom Hammer (Bill Nunn). Add to that their manager Giant (Spike Lee). Lee followed Do the Right Thing with Mo’ Better Blues , intended as a tribute to the jazz music he grew up with. (Lee’s father, Bill Lee, composed the score.) The original title was A Love Supreme , after the John Coltrane classic. It’s a character-led piece and as such seems less urgent than the more issues-led films that preceded and followed it – the latter being Jungle Fever . Somehow Lee seems disengaged, a feeling enhanced by the fact that he plays out the final credits with a song called “A Jazz Thing” which is actually nothing of the sort: it’s a rap by Flavor Flav of Public Enemy. The film is also far too long at two and a quarter hours. There are certainly compensations. Musical performances are numerous, and that will be enough for jazz fans in the audience. Together with Ernest Dickerson’s warm-toned photography, this creates a distinctive mood. The film also goes a considerable way on the charisma of Denzel Washington, here making his first film for Lee, of four to date. (As an aside, Washington and Snipes learned to play their instruments especially for this film.) On its release, Mo’ Better Blues was seen as something of a disappointment, and it remains so. Lee would soon recover his form again, though, with his next feature, Jungle Fever . Mo’ Better Blues just preceded the digital sound era, and was shown in cinemas with a Dolby SR (matrixed) sound mix. This is transferred to DVD as a surround-encoded Dolby Digital 2.0 track. The surrounds are mostly used for the music score and ambience, but dialogue is always audible and, just as importantly for this film, the music – both on-screen and on – sounds as it should. There are eighteen chapter stops. As with all the other discs in this set, there are no extras.

Mo' better blues

Mo' better blues

Ebony

New York Magazine

Jet