Spike Lee is currently making the rounds promoting his new Kickstarted vampire film, ‘Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus’ (mixed reviews, though it does sound delightfully strange), and he wouldn’t be Spike Lee if he wasn’t constantly holding a harsh mirror up to society’s… uh… something.
It is a departure for the director, half art film and half social commentary. Lee says that the movie acts in part as a metaphor for addictions of all kinds, which he posits are at an all-time high in America, but was clear about which he thought was the country’s greatest addiction: violence.
“This country was founded on violence,” Lee told TheWrap. “Africans were brought here, to this land, and then the genocide of Native Americans, that’s the foundation upon which this country was built. It’s simple, not taught in schools. We’re taught some other stuff, and particularly, how we’re taught is through the media. And as African Americans, we were taught how barbaric Africa was, with the Tarzan movies and whatnot, and the savages of the Native Americans in the many, many John Ford, John Wayne films.”
Lee also thinks it’s only getting worse.
“And the NRA is responsible for it,” he said. “These video games are not helping either.”
Haha, didn’t you just remake a movie about a guy who kills people with a hammer?
What is the future of this movie? You financed it online, would you release it online, like a VOD situation?
I understand that the game has changed. My wife and I had this running discussion, she does not like the fact that I watch stuff on DVD. She wants me to do Netflix, where you, what do you call it, stream it! “Why are you still buying CDs?!” She watches everything streaming. I just want something in my hand.As a filmmaker, I don’t want my film to be seen on an iPhone. I understand the convenience. Even a TV [is fine], but this? It hurts me. Nowadays, there are very few repertory theaters that show old stuff like there was when I was in film school. We’d always go see stuff. So a lot of the stuff, you’re never gonna see it the way it was meant to be seen, projected. So I’m glad people are watching “Malcolm X,” but the first time you see it, it’s on your iPhone? [TheWrap]
Who is it that keeps telling the older generation that we’re all watching movies on our iPhones? Have you guys ever watched a movie on your iPhone? Does Spike Lee think that you’re only allowed to stream movies onto your iPhone? I would actually contribute to Spike Lee’s Kickstarter, if it was for a stage show where Spike Lee and Aaron Sorkin aimlessly complain about modern technology they don’t quite understand for a few hours. “And these kids, walking blindly into traffic with their Twitters, doesn’t anyone write letters anymore? I blame the NSA!”
I always feel a little weird making fun of Spike Lee, uneasy, like Anne Coulter is somewhere cheering me on. But honestly, his once-incisive social critiques are starting to make as much sense as Anne Coulter’s soccer rants. America is violent because of John Ford, John Wayne, the NRA, Tarzan, and video games. Soccer sucks because of liberals, faggy Europeans, ties, Ted Kennedy, the metric system, and evolution. I haven’t seen Spike Lee’s new movie yet, but you know what makes social commentary more effective? When you’re not just ranting about a series of vaguely-related things you dislike. “First my favorite restaurant switches from hash browns to home fries and then the Transformers movies? This country’s gone to pot, I tells ya, ta pot!”