Scene by Scene: A Breakdown of Essential Spike Lee scenes

One of the best summations of Spike Lee I’ve ever read came in Wesley Morris’s review of his latest film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (now available on Vimeo as well as iTunes on Feb. 13^th) by writing, “No one makes a mess like Spike Lee.” Spike Lee is a filmmaker that does not compromise his vision, whether or not it helps or hinders the film. This is what I’ve come to admire and champion about Lee, is that even in his most flawed work, it is unmistakably the film that Lee intended to make. At his best, Lee can create some of the most powerful and memorable scenes put to film. Here are some of them.

The Mirror Monologue – 25^th Hour

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgL_5QcZCMo&w=560&h=315]

25^th Hour is my personal favorite of Spike Lee’s films, and much of it is do to just this scene alone. Edward Norton stands in front of a mirror where the words “fuck you” are scribbled and begins a rant against the entire city of New York. What it ends on his him acknowledging that he is ultimately angry at himself. What compliments the power of this scene is near the end when Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) leaves NYC to go to prison, he sees the faces of all those that he condemned smiling and waving back at him. He now realizes that he is going to miss them.

The Pick-Up Game – He Got Game

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0OB2ZJEsl0&w=420&h=315]

I’m not a person who cries during movies. That doesn’t mean I am not incredibly emotionally affected by them, I just simply don’t cry during movies. However, I came incredibly close during this scene. One of my biggest emotional weaknesses in a film is father/son struggles. This scene finds the push and pull between these two men as father and son realized. For every act of aggression is an equal act of affection on Jake’s (Denzel Washington) part, as he eventually “lets” his son Jesus win the game.

Sam’s Soundtrack – Summer of Sam 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a-E4Q9CHSk&w=560&h=315]

Lee’s Summer of Sam is a bold if flawed meditation on alienation and paranoia. One of the most effective scenes in the film comes when Lee follows Sam around one night, but with a Yankee’s broadcast playing over the scene to make bold connections between the various iconic activities going on that year. When Reggie Jackson swings and knocks it out of the park, Sam succeeds in a grisly killing. The scene is up to interpretation as to what Lee is implying – did the city glorify the murders in the same way they glorified Reggie Jackson with all the attention that was given to these murders? – but there’s no doubt its an unforgettable one.

The Final Scene – School Daze 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg8Oq_Sd3Bw&w=420&h=315]

Spike Lee has an impressive talent as a director to skillfully forego all realism to make a bold and lasting point. The final scene in School Daze is a prime example of that storytelling, when Laurence Fishburne’s Dap runs around the campus calling everyone to wake up, wake up! With the whole school as the audience, Dap’s nemesis Julian (Giancarlo Esposito) approaches him and the two come together in blissful agreement and understanding before turning to the camera to plead once more, “Please…wake up.” The alarm clock goes off to heighten the urgency of this message.

The Ball Toss – He Got Game

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njLUPZr4DeU&w=420&h=315]

Similar to the final scene in School Daze, one of the final shots of Lee’s He Got Game finds the filmmaker relying on the similarly bold foregoing of realism to make a universal truth evident. The scene finds Denzel Washington’s Jake Shuttlesworth in prison, where he tosses the basketball over the wall. It then cuts to his son Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen) in a basketball court where the ball comes bouncing into from thin air. What this displays is that everything about Jesus – good and bad, success and failure – has come from his father.