Word: spikes
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...Spike Lee's much hyped film is a tepid, reverent biography...
...film arrives, in more than the usual storm of tumult and hype that attends the premiere of a Spike Lee Joint. Even before shooting began, Lee conferred with Black Muslim minister Louis Farrakhan, an early associate of Malcolm's who has vexed many with his antiwhite, anti-Jewish harangues. Lee also hired a Black Muslim security force as bodyguards on the set. He fought publicly with his distributor (Warner Bros.) and insurer (the Completion Bond Co.) when work on the overbudget film was suspended. Then he solicited and received gifts from black entertainers (Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey) to help...
...that is so, it is because the director sees so much riding on each of his films: the future of cinema, precious testimony from an African-American perspective and, not least, the reputation -- carefully nourished, always vulnerable -- of Spike Lee. "Spike was on the set," recalls an observer who was close to the shooting, "and a guy comes up and tells him, 'I know you! I saw your film -- Boyz N the Hood.' " Lee was miffed, but the crew members laughed seditiously. They surely knew that John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood earned about as much money as Jungle...
...Spike Speaks...
...think that it's such a radical idea. In fourth grade I had to go see Gone With the Wind for a class trip and then write a report on the history of the Civil War according to that film. Many people have come up to me and said, "Spike, I was taking the day off anyway, even before you said that." And they're going to go. I think there'll be black families in droves. That was our intent. That's why the film is rated PG-13. I've never made a PG-13 film before, ever...