Spike Lee

I read this book and I hear Spike Lee in my head. This is a very good thing for a celebrity author. So often celebrity authors sound like they’ve been ghost written. This does not sound that way. Between the repetitiveness and the change up of the “please baby please” line the other thing that is done well is the simple concepts. The illustrator does a masterful job illustrating the words that show different points in a very busy toddlers day. The illustrations are amazing. I love how show more the illustrator did the curly hair. I just really liked everything about this book. I think it’s well done. I think it’s entertaining. I think it’s memorable and I think it goes way beyond the celebrity in the author. show less

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A career-spanning monograph, SPIKE is a visual celebration of acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee's life and work to date.

Spike Lee is a world-renowned, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, a cultural icon, and one of the most prominent voices on race and racism for more than three decades. His prolific career has included over 35 films, including his directorial debut She's Gotta Have It (1986), his seminal masterpiece Do the Right Thing (1989), and his show more Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman (2018). Spike Lee's provocative feature films, documentaries, commercials, and music videos have shone the spotlight on significant stories and have made an indelible mark in both cinematic history and in contemporary society.

Featuring hundreds of never-before-seen photographs by David Lee, Spike's brother and long-time still photographer, this comprehensive monograph includes behind-the-scenes, insider images that underscore his creative process and his significant impact on the culture at large. Also included here are his beloved commercials with Michael Jordan for Nike, which helped launch the billion-dollar Jordan brand product empire, as well as his music videos with Prince and Michael Jackson. From earlier films like the critically acclaimed Malcolm X (1992) starring Denzel Washington, to more recent films such as Da 5 Bloods (2020) featuring the late Chadwick Boseman, Spike Lee's work continues to resonate now more than ever.

STRIKING DESIGN: Featuring gold foil deboss on a vibrant fuchsia front cover, SPIKE boasts a bold and beautiful, eye-catching design. The custom blocky, typographic design is inspired by the LOVE/HATE brass rings that Radio Raheem wore in Do the Right Thing and that Spike wore at the 2019 Academy Awards.

GIFT FOR CINEMA LOVERS: This is a must-have collector's item and ideal gift for any cinephile and fan of one of the most prominent and influential filmmakers in history.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: You know and I know that one friend who loves movies, do pardon me films, is the right one to receive this as a #Booksgiving gift.

It is very much worth the price of admission. I happen not to be the biggest fan of Auteur Lee's work, but his impact and his great gift for telling stories are inarguable. The importance of his career, and the strength it took to make that career, make for good reading.

Given to someone whose appreciation is more vivid and intense than my own respectful admiration of the man, this is a Yule-maker. The gift that will be treasured and gloated over and fondled and enjoyed on every aesthetic level for ages.



The beginning was outstandingly fresh. The voice we hadn't heard; the perspective no one like me, an old white guy even then, could look away from or fail to believe was speaking truth.

The reward came in 2019...no one doesn't love to be told how wonderful you are at the career you love doing in front of a global audience. Applause from all corners. The actual success of your life's output validated. I hope that's the moment he relives when his internal highlight reel is unspooling.

The man himself. show less

When Ron Stallworth becomes the first Black cop in the Colorado Springs Police Department, he starts off in the Records room before being given his first undercover assignment, attending a rally where civil rights leader Kwame Ture is speaking. While there, he meets Patrice, the president of the Black Student Union at Colorado College.

After that, Ron is assigned to the Intelligence division. He calls the local chapter of the KKK and pretends to be a white man who's interested in joining and show more would like more information. Unfortunately, he accidentally uses his own name, and now the Klan members want to meet him. He manages to get permission to work with a coworker of his, Flip Zimmerman ("Chuck" in the original memoir), to somehow make it work - he'll be the phone voice of white Ron Stallworth, while Flip will be the in-person white Ron Stallworth.

So begins Ron's efforts to juggle multiple sides of his life. He begins seeing Patrice, who doesn't know that he's a police officer, occasionally deals with racist cops, and works with Flip to get in deeper with the KKK and monitor their plans.

I read the book this was based on back in 2018 and, although I had some issues with it, overall thought it was worth reading. I was wondering how the movie adaptation would be handled, since, in real life, the story pretty much just stopped - the investigation was suddenly closed. Although that happened in the movie as well, there were several things that were changed, I assume to add more satisfying moments to the story than the actual events provided.

For example, the movie spent more time paralleling the efforts of Colorado College's Black Student Union and the KKK, and made several members of the KKK direct opponents of Patrice, the president of the Black Student Union. It came to a head with a dramatic attempt on her life which, as far as I know, was completely made up, but which provided viewers with the action, police arrest, and some of the closure that the memoir didn't. I'm also pretty sure that the final scene with David Duke over the phone and the final scene with Landers (a renamed "Officer Ed"?) were both made up as well, again to provide more closure.

I wonder how the real-life Ron Stallworth felt about this adaptation? Just based on the way he wrote about "Antifa," I have a feeling certain moments wouldn't have sat well with him. For example, the movie's ending included footage of the protest against the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and the incident in which a car drove into the crowd, killing Heather Heyer and injuring others, as well as footage of Trump's "very fine people on both sides" comment. Personally, I felt that the way the movie linked its events and the KKK with current events at the time the movie was made (2018) was fitting.

Overall, this adaptation was kind of underwhelming. If you only have time for one version of the story, I'd recommend the memoir over the movie. That said, those frustrated with some of Ron Stallworth's interpretations might appreciate the movie's take on things.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I realized while watching this that I hadn't seen it since it first came out, when I was in college and more prone to see things in black and white. Even now, while watching the movie I found myself trying to figure out exactly which side of the peaceful vs. violent resistance Spike Lee falls on. I finally realized, from the conflicting MLK and Malcolm X quotes at the end, that the movie is more of a debate between those two approaches rather than the final word. The actual plot isn't even show more that tight, and the buildup to the violence at the end doesn't feel entirely organic -- but the neighborhood is drawn so vividly, with intriguing little allusions to mid-century ensemble plays & musicals (including the sudden imposition of corny upbeat string interludes over the otherwise hip-hop & jazz soundtrack) that that almost seems irrelevant. show less