BREAKING GROUND
In a nicer parallel universe, he would have been head of the Cannes Film Festival Jury, showcasing his latest film Da 5 Bloods out of competition (it would be a rare chance to see the Netflix epic on a big screen) and deep into prep for his next film, Prince Of Cats , an ’80s hip-hop retelling of Romeo And Juliet set in Brooklyn. But instead he is stuck in New York, or what he calls the “epicentre” of COVID-19. Typical of his work ethic, Lee knocked out a Super-8 Insta ode to his beloved Big Apple. New York New
, York , scored to the Sinatra standard written for the Scorsese musical, is a love letter to a locked-down city, full of the poetry of the streets and appreciation for the care workers. It seems an unforeseen side-effect of coronavirus is that one of cinema’s greatest agitators, provocateurs and shit-kickers has mellowed.
“I’m taking it day by day,” Lee begins brightly. “The weather’s getting nice. I’m getting good at bike riding. This is the new Spike Lee, especially during this epidemic.”
But if you think Spike has lost his, well, spikiness. don’t believe a word of it. As Da 5 Bloods proves, both literally and figuratively, Spike Lee is about to go to war.
IF ALL WAS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD, MAY 2020 WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFERENT FOR SPIKE LEE.
SINCE HIS film-school days, Spike Lee has picked at the scabs of America — its politics, itsis no exception, and this time Lee’s battleground is Vietnam. The movie centres on four Black Vietnam vets — Paul (Delroy Lindo, a Lee regular), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis) and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr) — who return to the scene of the war crimes to bring back the remains of their beloved leader Stormin’ Norman (played in flashback by Chadwick Boseman). Yet the friends — along with Paul’s son David (Jonathan Majors) — have another agenda: to recover the gold bars lost long ago by the CIA in the heat of battle.
