Spike Lee’s films’ depiction of race

[自発展開型]
宇津木 謙（経済学部3年）
指導教員：エインジ, マイケル
2008年2月29日

要旨

One of the most famous and powerful African American film directors, Spike Lee challenges the racial problem in America. He inserts his notion about the racial problems rather black people should integrate or/and separate both intra-racially and interracially.

As a tool to investigate his perspectives, I will use three methods of analyses, auteur, socio-historical, and technical analysis. Auteur analysis fits with a way of Spike Lee’s filming, which he participates throughout a development of his film. It is obvious that his works are affected by its historical background and socio-historical analysis is needed for analyzing. Technical analysis is necessary for any film directors, since they use techniques to reflect their ideas in pictures. These elements perfectly match the characteristics of Spike Lee and help me to come up with a precise conclusion.

I would mainly focus on six of his major films such as School Daze, Crooklyn, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Get on the Bus and Malcolm X. School Daze and Crooklyn are interpreted with auteur analysis since they both are influenced by Spike’s earlier life. I use socio-historical analysis to analyze Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever. Get on the Bus and Malcolm X have unique similarity, which they both are about African American leaders, Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X. I tried to suck up Spike Lee’s vision by focusing on how they are depicted in his films. Basically, I used these three steps to get the precise message of Spike Lee.

After the exploration of his films, I come up with his conviction. Intra-racially, he urges the integration between two black communities and also in a family. In addition, there is no exact position that Spike Lee maintains through interracial conflicts. However, throughout his career, he clearly encourages spectators to wake up, open their eyes and face the disgraced reality.