Still Doing the Right Thing: An Ode to Spike Lee

In 1986 Shelton "Spike" Lee burst on to the movie scene with his breakthrough film She's Gotta Have It, an intelligent and witty take on black female sexuality that was apt for its time. Lee's characteristic no-holds-barred portrayal of everyday black people heralded not only the start of a beautiful career but signalled the arrival of commercial black cinema. Since the late 1980's, Lee's body of work has comprised of a collection of thought-provoking and socially-conscious films that have chronicled the Black American experience and set the standard for others to follow. Do The Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Get On The Bus and He Got Game, to name a few, are black cinematic classics and triumphs over the big studio, big budget system that is symptomatic of the American movie industry.

While Lee's greatest successes have come off the back of his big screen offerings, the Atlanta-born director has used the small screen to tell the stories of real people and rarely covered events to powerful effect.

The latest addition to Lee's illustrious filmography is an incisive examination of the US government's response to the Hurricane Katrina crisis of August 2005. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts was screened on US cable TV station HBO last week. The four-hour documentary, which is divided in to four one-hour parts has received rave reviews and once again shows that Spike Lee is willing to tread where others won't. The fact that Lee chose to make When the Levees Broke as a TV documentary rather than a big screen blockbuster speaks volumes. Lee is a man on a bigger mission. Whereas box office receipts would’ve earned him big bucks, TV has the advantage of bringing in bigger audiences and this account of the US government's abandonment of its own people is one that needed to be told to as wide an audience as possible. Such integrity and shrewdness have been the hallmark of Lee’s career.

Twenty years after his first major picture Lee remains at the forefront of critical cultural cinematography, a maverick. Though arguments abound as to the consistency of his work, his legacy as a social commentator and documenter of truth is without question. Twenty years on, while others are mellowing and falling by the wayside, it's comforting to know you can still rely on Spike Lee to do the right thing. SA.