Well I guess the movie will not be about beer.

Agree 100%. Those films are so good I don't understand why all of his others miss the mark. He has like a .150 bating average, but every hit is a home run.

Lee draws fire not just for what he says but the way he says it. If Lucas said, “We never went to the studios with this film. I bought a camera and said we're gonna do this mother fucker ourselves. I didn't need a motherfucking studio telling me something about Red Tails! They know nothing about black people! Nothing!" People would think Lucas was an asshole who was acting inappropriately given the situation (a film festival screening). Calm the fuck down and be civilized.

Lastly, I refuse to believe that Spike said it that way. I guarantee it was more like, “We uhhh never went to the studios, like, let me just be clear. We never went to...(long pause)...studios. I bought a camera and said we’re gonna do this motherfucker ….(inaudible)…need a motherfucking ummmm, uhhh, studio ….(inaudible)…something about ….(inaudible)…. And you know they know nothing ummmm (long pause) about black people. Nothing.”

That's how he comes off in every interview on his DVD’s. Nothing can be gleaned from anything he says. He’s far more articulate with a movie camera than with his mouth.

So, basically it's his usage of one word that causes the entirety of your ire towards him?

That's pretty motherfucking ridiculous.

That is the most perfectly written impression of a celebrity I have ever read. You captured exactly the way he talks!

I guess he didn't realize there wasn't a part for him in the movie until it was too late to write one in. "Fuck it... (long pause) ...I'll (inaudible) just, um, play, ummmmmm... motherfuckin' Mookie (inaudible)."

While there is an argument for this, it is also true that white people can generally get away with pointing out the racism in a white-dominated system without drawing a lot of heat. When a famous black person talks about institutionalized racism in America, a media shitstorm almost always results. Cries of reverse racism, playing the race card, death threats, etc. - it opens up the ugly side of a lot people. It's like when you point out that a cop is abusing his authority, and he responds by pulling out his truncheon and promising to show you what abuse of power really looks like.

(long pause)..........(inaudible)!!

I don't dislike him because he's a racist (although he is definitely a racist), I dislike him because he's a fucking idiot.

And what exactly makes him a "racist"?

I doubt a "fucking idiot" would've been able to make as many brilliant movies as he has.

And he's not a racist, but you're certainly painting yourself as one.

Huh, no Malcolm X? To me it is his greatest. Crooklyn is also excellent. In fact i think he is the best american director to emerge in the 80s, his work is as stylish and meaningful, and personal as martin scorsese or woody allen. People really need to re watch Spike Lees work and see how special it is

I think his good friends Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg & John Torturro would disagree with that.

Forgot about Crooklyn. I saw it when it came out and remember enjoying it, I should watch it again some day.

Same with Malcolm X.

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I don't know what to make of that trailer. I like Spike. He's made some real shit movies but he's also made Do The Right Thing, 25th Hour and He Got Game which are some of my all time favorites. So I'll wait to see how this plays out. The got no indication from the trailer.

Lester Freaman

I can't fully agree with this, but he's said enough in the press to make me think that he doesn't really like white people. Kind of like Sam Jackson.

I love the title for this film, something about how the words roll off the tongue, but I'd never see it. His movies do nothing for me.

Dunno if i want to see this or not. Could be solid but is this a film I feel the want to see, you know?

After seeing that trailer all I can say is that your time would be better spent reading James Baldwin's somewhat similarly-themed novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain.

Or watching CROOKLYN, if you haven't already seen it.

Well I guess no one ever actually saw this, but I just did on Blu-ray and enjoyed it.

This is not a typical Spike Lee joint, sure there are allusions to his other films all over the place, but stylistically and in terms of narrative, Lee has essentially moved beyond contemporary American cinema here. Maybe it is just b/c the last film I watched before this was Godard's Weekend, but Lee's shooting style here is more in line with what one would expect from an avant garde filmmaker. Obviously, this film is not on par with Weekend or any of Godard's work during that period, but if I would have watched something American and contemporary yesterday, I think I would not have been as well calibrated to be receptive to this film's style.

He is blunt with his message without being jingoistic or using stock genre characters. He simply has a message and goes about saying it exactly as he wants to say it. There are creative tics and stylistic choices that I don't think work, but it is easy to see people hating this movie. It is talky and child actors act like children, they say corny stuff and stupid stuff that we are not used to seeing in movies because now every teen/pre-teen talks in pop culture references penned by a former stripper.

Red Hook Summer, if taken as an art film or better yet a foreign film if you must, since people grant such films (generally once they are released by Criterion) much greater latitude to be personal almost to an audience ostracizing point, is a true and rare work of American auteurism that is fast slipping away into the sole province of genre work and unintelligible annoying self-satisfied and smug mumblecore.