This is the first Spike Lee film I've watched in years and years and I can see why he's known for being controversial. He does not shy from racial themes and in fact most of the tension in this film comes from them. I spent most of my formative years in a lily white part of West Virginia, but this film gave me a bit more insight to what it must be like growing up as a thinking black person. Not only do you have to deal with racist whites who judge you by the color of your skin but other folks with mixed heritage may buy in to that BS as well.
The depiction of life at a black college seemed quite accurate. I went to a big state school with a reasonably mixed student body, but most of the folks in my Marine Corps Reserve unit went to one of two black colleges and the stories they told match with what this movie depicts. The ending was very abrupt and unorthodox but was also fitting. The title does not refer to a Cheech and Chong like daze but the willful blindness that many folks have towards the problems with racial inequality in the US today.
This was actually a very entertaining movie AND I feel like I learned at least a little bit. The only major drawback I see is that at one point the protagonist (who was cool as hell through out the rest of the flick, to an almost superhuman level) was deriding his enemies as being "gay". I guess Spike Lee wants us all to be equal, except for the homos.
I give it a B+ and that surprises me.
No comments:
Post a Comment