There are few, if any, American directors who came to prominence in the 1980s whose early work remains as important as Spike Lee‘s. His first films are not only milestones for African American filmmakers, they also represent major breakthroughs for the independent film movement of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Spike Lee of 2013 finds himself in a very different position. His current release, a remake of the South Korean revenge film Oldboy, was a major bomb in its opening weekend, grossing less than a million dollars on a $30 million budget and ranking at #17 for the weekend. That alone is enough to hurt a director’s career, but for Lee that news is even worse: With the exception of 2006’s Inside Man, which is Lee’s highest grossing film by a wide margin, Lee’s narrative films over the last decade have all been critically panned and box office bombs. In what is otherwise a banner year for black film with critically acclaimed and commercially successful films like Fruitvale Station, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, 12 Years a Slave, and Best Man’s Holiday (directed by Lee’s cousin, Malcolm D. Lee), it is surprising to see Lee on the outside looking in, particularly with a movie so far out of his wheelhouse like Oldboy.
On one hand, there are many reasons why Lee’s recent narrative films have bombed spectacularly at the box office. Lee’s chilling and celebrated 2002 film 25th Hour was followed by the atrocious She Hate Me in 2004, which is arguably as offensive to lesbians as the “modern blackface” comedy he targeted in 2000’s Bamboozled (which I still think for all of its flaws is a brilliant, albeit heavy-handed, dissection on the harmful racial stereotypes still prevalent in American culture). Grossing only $366,000 in the U.S. and never playing in more than 28 theaters, She Hate Me ended up being little more than a blip on the radar for Lee between 25th Hour and Inside Man, his two best narrative films of the 21st century.
Unfortunately, it was just the first blip.
As talented of a filmmaker as Lee is, he was probably out of his depth with his next film, the World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna (2008). Not only was the film unpopular with critics and a box office bomb, the movie itself was overshadowed by Lee’s mouth. At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Lee criticized Clint Eastwood for not depicting black soldiers in his 2006 films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, which were both about the Battle of Iwo Jima. Eastwood not only pointed out that there were black Marines in Flags of Our Fathers and that they were depicted accurately (less than 2% of the U.S. invading force was made up of African Americans, and because the U.S. military was segregated then their units were primarily not involved in combat), but also accused Lee of criticizing his two year-old movies just to try to drum up publicity for his own World War II film, which was being released four months after Cannes. In the end, the film is more remembered for Lee’s charged comments rather than its own merits, grossing less than $10 million worldwide.
Nearly four years passed between Miracle at St. Anna and the 2012 release of Red Hook Summer, the longest gap between narrative films in Lee’s career. While Red Hook Summer was slightly better received by critics than She Hate Me and had a slightly wider release (41 theaters), it did comparable business in U.S. theaters ($338,803) and did not receive a significant international release. Though Red Hook Summer was promoted as a “companion” piece to Lee’s most acclaimed movie (Do the Right Thing) and even featured Lee as his character from that film Mookie in a cameo role, it had far less to do with his prior film than advertised. Though framed as a coming-of-age story in the gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood, the movie takes a unsettling turn in its final 45 minutes that many critics found it hard to swallow because they felt it was based more on shock value than storytelling value. Even Mookie’s cameo barely registers and is seemingly only there so it could be brought up while promoting the film. It also highlights the unfortunate reality that despite nearly a quarter century passing since Do the Right Thing Mookie is still working the same minimum wage job, though that might be intentional commentary on Lee’s part.
As for Oldboy, many thought that the remake of the acclaimed 2003 film seemed like an odd fit for Lee from the moment he was announced as the director. While Lee’s criticism of violence in his previous work has separated him from his peers, the ultra-violence of Oldboy occurs without any sort of commentary, not unlike a typical Hollywood action film. Its distributor, FilmDistrict, did little to promote the film, which makes sense considering the film’s heavy violence and the fact that FilmDistrict is being absorbed by Focus Features (Oldboy is FilmDistrict’s final release).
Variety reported that producers also edited Lee’s Oldboy from his 140 minute cut to 105 minutes, which suggests why Lee chose to replace his typical “A Spike Lee Joint” title card for “A Spike Lee Film.” It was released in less than 600 theaters during a busy release weekend typically reserved for lighter holiday films or blockbusters. While many of those issues were clearly out of Lee’s hands, his name is still the one most visibly attached to the film and the failure will likely damage him the most. Furthermore, the Oldboy bad news keeps coming, with a graphic designer accusing Lee of using his preliminary designs for Oldboy promotional artwork without compensation and Lee’s rather dismissive response. Regardless of the outcome of the situation, the accusation alone hurts Lee’s standing as a supporter of the arts.
While his narrative filmmaking has been largely unsuccessful, Lee has directed some tremendous documentaries during this narrative “down” period. It’s hard to not see Lee’s talent for weaving a story in his documentaries of the last decade like When the Levees Broke, Passing Strange, and Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. These are all examples of Lee’s ability and all contain sparks of his passion for filmmaking — the kind that really isn’t seen in his recent narrative films.
Box office receipts and critical opinion aren’t Lee’s only problems, but they certainly lend themselves to his ultimate problem: finding financing for his films moving forward. Lee turned to Kickstarter to fund $1.25 million that he needed for his next narrative film, Da Blood of Jesus, which some have taken as yet another sign that he’s having trouble finding financing and was a widely criticized move because of his celebrity status and his initial lack of information about the project made available to donors. Furthermore, HBO passed on a pilot that he created for the network, Da Brick, and despite Lee being very vocal about wanting to make a sequel to Inside Man he has never been able to secure financing for the film. The fact that his only other film to gross more than $40 million in the U.S. was 1992’s Malcolm X is likely why Lee isn’t considered for more studio projects — and Oldboy, regardless of who really deserves the blame for its box office performance, is another example why.
But that assessment is somewhat unfair because Lee has never been a “hit” filmmaker. However, in an industry where the bottom line has become increasingly important Lee’s unique voice is becoming increasingly marginalized. Curiously, Lee built his fame on modest-budget films with strong grosses, yet his greatest box office success remains the big budget Inside Man and his recent low-budget films (She Hate Me and Red Hook Summer) were box office failures despite their low budgets. Perhaps the ultra low-budget Da Blood of Jesus can bring Lee back to an era where he produced films on small budgets to strong box office success, because it’s clear from the performances of Miracle at St. Anna and Oldboy that films with $30-45 million dollar budgets do not typically lend to Lee’s best work (in other words, Inside Man is the lone exception, not the rule).
However, with the box office failure of Oldboy and Lee going to Kickstarter to fund his next film, perhaps Lee is exactly where both his fans and detractors want him: With his back against the wall, hungry, and having nothing to lose. They each want different outcomes, but the only one who will decide that is Lee himself.
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