There’s nothing like a Spike Lee Joint. His pro-black, beautifully and artistically crafted films are layered with messages conveyed through his one of a kind imagery and dialogue. A Spike Lee Joint is guaranteed to make you laugh, maybe shed a tear or two and think. After you finish watching a Spike Lee Joint there’s bound to be discussion. Being that love is the strongest force it our world, it only makes sense that it shows up in several of his films.
Check the love lessons we’ve learned from some of our favorite Spike Lee joints.
**Spoiler Alert ** (if you haven’t seen some of these movies you might want to scroll on.)
“School Daze”
Love has a limit
Poor Jane Toussaint (Tisha Campbell-Martin). Baby girl definitely drank the Kool-Aid her boyfriend Julian (Giancarlo Esposito) was feeding her. He had brainwashed her into doing anything for him…and I do mean anything. Jane was a member of his fraternity’s women’s group the Gamma Rays. As he’s pledging a new line of men into Gamma Phi Gamma, Julian asks Jane to sleep with “Half Pint” (Spike Lee). Being the dumb “ride or die” chick that she truly is. She reluctantly gives it up to ole boy only to be duped by Julian who says he can no longer be associated with her. Wompity womp womp. Jane taught us never to get lost in the sauce. Your dignity is far more important than being associated with some letters.
“Jungle Fever”
“Make sure you’re sure.”
Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes) had it all. A good job, a loving wife and a beautiful little girl. But he jeopardized all of that when he decided to sleep with his temporary secretary, Angela Tucci (Annabella Sciorra). Stepping out on your wife is one thing but the fact that his mistress happened to be white added insult to injury for several of the black women in the movie. When his wife, Drew (Lonette McKee) who has her own color issues being a biracial woman, learns of his affair she is too through. Throwing his clothes out of the couple’s Harlem apartment. Flipper continues to see Angela and the couple try to make it work, even moving into an apartment together. But things get waaay too heavy as Angela’s Italian father cannot fathom having a “n*gger lover” for a daughter. He beats the mess out of her and puts her out of his house. Flipper catches flack from other blacks in Harlem when he brings Angela around and is almost arrested when the police think he’s raping Angela when the two are fooling around in the street. At the end of the day Flipper realized what he and Angela had was a little less than a love thang because when stuff started hitting the fan the brotha had to be out.
“She’s Gotta Have It”
“Ladies is pimps too…”
Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) could have easily been the prototype for Destiny Child’s “Independent Women” when they said “Do them boys like they used to do you.” Girlfriend had wised up to the game and decided to have everything she wanted in a relationship even if she had to date and sleep with several men to get it. She dated three very different men from the comedic and corny Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), to the sweetie pie gentleman Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks) to the conceited, pretty boy Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell). And even though all three men knew what time it was from the beginning, as their relationships progressed all three of them starting sweating Nola to date them exclusively. Nola taught us that we don’t have to be at the mercy and whim of a man.
“Crooklyn”
There’s nothing like a mother’s love
As children we don’t realize how big of a role our mothers play in our lives until we’re much older. But for the Carmichael children in Lee’s semi-autobiographical film “Crooklyn” that lesson came earlier than expected. With a struggling artist for a husband and five rowdy children to raise, the family’s matriarch, Carolyn (Alfre Woodard) often goes underappreciated. In fact one of her sons Clinton (Carlton William) says he’d “rather have a father than a mother any day.” You know how kids are. As the movie progresses the children and their father learn just how much their mother and wife meant to them.
“Girl 6”
Know what you’re getting yourself into
What would you do to pay your bills? Making a little money on the side sounds fine and good until somebody gets hurt. Judy, who would eventually become Girl 6 is a struggling actress with morals. She refuses to take her clothes of for movie roles and subsequently doesn’t work that often. This would be cool if it weren’t for the fact she’s months behind on her rent. With no acting jobs coming in she tries her hand at a few part time jobs before she finally settles on becoming a phone sex operator. Girlfriend is getting paid and eventually she starts to let her clients in, agreeing to meet them in real life and everything. (Stupid.) Eventually her work starts taking a mental and psychological toll on her and it comes to a head when she realizes one of her clients knows where she lives. At that point baby girl had to get out before it was too late. While this may not sound like a love lesson, it definitely is. You have to love yourself enough to know when you’re about get yourself caught up.
“Mo’Better Blues”
He’ll be back
Men sometimes get their priorities messed up and it may take them longer than we’d like for them to get their priorities back in order. But don’t get it twisted it’s not your job to chase after him. Whether, he’s the one or not men have a tendency to come back. Such is the case with the characters in “Mo’ Better Blues”. Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) was living the life as a trumpet player. He had relative fame, his talent, good looks (as we all know Denzel was truly scrumptious back in the day) and women. Yes, plural. He was dating Indigo Downes (Joie Lee–Spike’s sister), and Clarke Bentancourt (Cynda Williams). The women know of each other because they show up to one of Bleek’s shows wearing similar dresses he purchased for the both of them. Scandal. While both of them are willing to ride it out, tensions come to a head when Bleek calls each of the women by the other’s name. Neither one of them will stand for the foolishness and are done with Bleek. He goes about his day to day until he gets caught in the middle of a gambling debt racked up by his manager. Ultimately the loan sharks rough Bleek up, to the point where he can’t play anymore. It’s only after his music is taken away from him that he realizes he needs Indigo in his life.
“She Hate Me”
We can still be friends
Former lovers, Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) and Fatima Goodrich (Kerry Washington) took this love lesson to the absolute extreme. (It really is a stretch.) Jack proved he was ready to move past the bitterness when he agreed to impregnant his former fiancee, Fatima, who left him to be with another woman. And they didn’t use technology–just good old fashioned humping. Jack originally decides to do this favor just for her until she introduces him to all of her lesbian friends who are also trying to conceive. Jack is such a good friend (plus he desperately needs the money) that he ultimately fathers eighteen children with these couples. So in the end they both benefit. Fatima was a friend in that she provided Jack with a source of income during his time of need and he hooked Fatima and all her friends up with babies.
“He Got Game”
Love can overcome anything
Watching Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) try to win back the affection of his son Jesus (Ray Allen) was painful to watch. You could sympathize with both characters. Jake was fighting to establish a relationship with his son. But Jesus had every reason to hate his father considering he unintentionally killed his wife and Jesus’ mother during a heated argument. There was so much dysfunction in their family. But the two bonded over basketball. Jake was ruthless in his efforts to get his son to forgive and let him back into his life. And even though their story is not wrapped up in a neat bow at the end of the movie, you know they’re moving in the right direction. From this film we learned that the strongest love doesn’t have to be the romantic kind.
