(Spike Lee, US 2020, 154 min., DCP)
The last film in our Spike Lee series is his most recent, and one of his best. Lee returns to war, the same ground he trod in Miracle at St. Anna, and again he follows a platoon of Black soldiers on foreign soil. This time, however, they are Vietnam veterans returning to the country hoping to find the treasure they buried years prior. Alternating between contemporary action and flashbacks to the war, the four surviving members of the troop struggle with infighting and the sacrifice of their fellow soldier, drawing parallels to John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Lee assembles a stellar cast including Delroy Lindo, Chadwick Boseman, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, and Jean Reno. Until Lee’s remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low is released, this is the last, best chance to see his work on the big screen.
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Wake Up!: The Cinema of Spike Lee
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For nearly four decades, Spike Lee has been one of the most inventive and provocative filmmakers working within the film industry. His films have challenged audiences at the same time as they thrilled them with bold cinematic techniques.