Spike Lee Movies are Great

I've come to the realisation that I actually enjoy Spike Lee movies. This goes without saying usually, but while I'm watching them, I'm so engulfed in the experiences of the characters throughout the movie that I kind of "forget" the entertainment factor of the escapism. Movies like "Do the Right Thing" and "Mo' Better Blues" are two of the few of them I've seen recently.

I love the fact that in "Do the Right Thing", everything takes place in the course of one day. It's fantastic. The moment near the beginning of the movie when the elderly man tells Spike Lee character to "always do the right thing" was so powerful to me. It nails dramatic irony so well, especially when Spike Lee's character tends to ignore him a bit.

And in "Mo' Better Blues", I enjoyed how the Jazz feel works with the Spike Lee style of making movies. Jazz progressions are very free-form, fragmented slices of experiences that eventually hang together at the end of each phrase, or scene. It's very textured, and Jazz is a great allegory for Spike Lee films in general.

In "School Daze", I got caught up in the hyperbole of the typical American school hierarchy system. I enjoyed how the climax builds to near-complete destruction at the end and then is halted completely as they exclaim repeatedly "wake up". The message that one should constantly remove oneself from the situation and question it rationally is a very important message in life. The value of composure in situations can change them completely.

But seriously, the characters, the message, the poetry, the allegories, the satire... they all come together so well when Spike Lee controls what happens through the looking-glass of a camera lense. Spike lee movies are great. Go and watch one soon.