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)ORULGD6WDWH8QLYHUVLW\/LEUDULHV 2021 Spike Lee: The Importance of Representing and Understanding the Opposite Perspective Nicholas Anthony Tracanna Follow this and additional works at DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] ! ! ! ! ! THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! SPIKE LEE: THE IMPORTANCE OF REPRESENTING AND UNDERSTANDING THE OPPOSITE PERSPECTIVE ! ! ! ! ! ! By NICHOLAS ANTHONY TRACANNA ! ! ! ! ! ! A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major Degree Awarded: SUMMER 2021 Th m mb rs of th D fens Committ approve th th sis of 0icholas Anthony Tracanna defended on April 5, 2021. Dr. Christina Park r-Flynn Th sis Director Dr. MaAin Bon s Cutside Committ M mb r Dr. Alisha Eain s Committ M mb r Doc ID: fe07d9d7cae9461b4e760d22762128fcf0d8080e Tracanna 3 Foreword Spike Lee is one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. His work towards universal representation and recognition for the unfiltered African American experience cannot be understated. Upon a deeper look at his filmography, with particular attention to Do the Right Thing, it is clear that Spike Lee recognizes the importance of depicting a wide spectrum of opinions regarding race relations. Artistic expression, and mass media at large, too often offer audiences a biased and heavy-handed portrayal of these complex issues on-screen. Spike Lee reminds audiences that racial issues are far more complex than being simply two-sided. There are plenty of complications that muddle these issues, rendering the one-dimensional narratives inaccurate. Through the unique circumstances and plotlines through which Spike Lee molds his stories, audiences are offered a glimpse into the complicated reality of race relations in America, ultimately forcing a greater dialogue regarding the status of this country and a necessary recognition of its biases. Part I: Black History of the Film Industry Black characters have a deep-rooted history in American cinema. They have been represented and incorporated on-screen since the earliest days of film production. The major issues, however, are the glaring inaccuracies and cruel stereotyping of black characters that ultimately had lasting effects on their public perception. Film historian Cara Caddoo writes in her book Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life, “Between 1897 and 1910, hundreds of black film showmen and - women exhibited motion pictures in black lodges, schools, and, most frequently, churches. Early black film exhibition developed in response to the dramatic changes African Americans faced at Tracanna 4 the turn of the century—migration, hardening Jim Crow segregation, and the growing demand for urban amusements” (Caddoo 15). Attending motion pictures at churches and social clubs became a popular act of leisure for African-Americans in the late 1890s. Films such as Something Good – Negro Kiss (1898) and A Fool and His Money (1912) are some of the earliest surviving examples of motion pictures starring black actors and laid the foundation for black representation in American cinema. While the historical relevancy of these early films is undeniable, major progressive steps came as a response to the racist depictions of black people that rose to popularity in the subsequent years. Much of the fight for proper cinematic representation of black people in American cinema begins with the controversy surrounding D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915). Originally titled The Clansman, Birth of a Nation is widely considered Hollywood’s first “blockbuster” as it unprecedently ran over three hours and was the most profitable film of its time. It dramatized the civil war and its subsequent reconstruction era over several years. Birth of a Nation is hailed by many as a revolutionary film that pushed the boundaries of contemporary filmmaking at the time. Film critic Mark Vance wrote, “Mr. Griffith, has set such a pace it will take a long time before one movie will come along that can top it in point of production, acting, photography, and direction” (Stokes). Despite its technical advancements for the film industry, Birth of a Nation villainized black characters (played by white actors in blackface) and celebrated the Ku Klux Klan’s eradication of them. It depicted black characters as dangerous threats to the white characters and as aggressive animals lusting after white women. This film was released in the middle of heavy racial conflicts within the Jim Crow era, where lynching and mob violence towards blacks reached a peak. Ed Guerrero asserts in his book, Framing Blackness: The African-American Image in Film, “This bloodthirsty climate, in combination Tracanna 5 with Birth's romantic depiction and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan, most certainly contributed to the public's tolerance of Klan criminality and its expansion to its greatest membership ever, about 5 million” (Guerrero). While many film historians praise Birth of a Nation, the film had disastrous consequences and gave way to a second uprising of the Ku Klux Klan. Spike Lee claims in a New York Times interview regarding his experience as a student at the NYU Film School, “My problem is that as far as Birth of a Nation goes, we were told D.W. Griffith is the father of cinema, but other stuff got left out. We were never told as students that this film gave a rebirth to the Klan; the K.K.K. had been dormant” (Tillet). The narrative surrounding the negative cultural effects of Birth of a Nation is often overshadowed in American cinematic history by its trailblazing storytelling and cinematic techniques. This is mainly since white media has been able to control this record of history, usually omitting the fact that the film inspired hate crimes and racist organizations to reunite. Films released after Birth of a Nation featured similarly written black characters with aggressive and nefarious qualities. In response to this early era of American cinema, African- Americans were forced to form independent film production companies that combatted the stereotyping of their contemporaries. Guerrero writes, “One of the most notable efforts in this direction was the black-produced Birth of a Race, released in 1919 and doomed to commercial failure because of its poor technical and narrative qualities as well as the economic problems of confronting an established, white-dominated, and white-monopolized monopolized film industry” (Guerrero). This becomes a common theme throughout the history of the American film industry in regard to the role and representation of African-Americans. A lack of universal support amid the overbearingly white monopoly of the film industry slows black progression and acceptance in this field significantly. Tracanna 6 Despite this lack of widespread support, there was a wave of black-produced films for black-dominated audiences from the late 1910s to the 1930s. Any attempt for success in diverse markets was immediately suppressed, and ultimately lacked sufficient funding for any film to transcend into various audiences. One of the earliest prominent black filmmakers was Oscar Micheaux, who began as a writer and eventually started producing his own films. He made immense strides for other black filmmakers to begin producing their own art. The primary difficulty he ran into was getting his films seen and accepted by wider audiences outside of the African-American community. J. Ronald Green writes in With a Crooked Stick – The Films of Oscar Micheaux: One of Micheaux’s early ideas about filmmaking that did not work was to market his first film to white as well as black audiences. He felt he knew how to sell to the white population of the Midwest, where he had raised significant amounts of subscription money for the publication of his novels, but when the returns from the first films started coming in he undoubtedly revised that tactic. By May of 1919, he was mentioning primarily black audiences, and his flyers for the film seem to be directed largely at fellow African Americans, who would remain the only focus of his attention for the rest of his career. The exception to Micheaux’s career-long focus on black audiences is in his fiction writing, particularly his later fiction. (Green 23) Many of Micheaux’s films catered to an African-American audience, including the 1920 silent film Within Our Gates which is widely seen as a response to the racist propaganda film, Birth of a Nation. In order to get many of Micheaux’s films funded, Guerrero claims, “he went from theater to theater, showing pictures of his glamorous stars, and urging investments always in his next film” (Guerrero). He sought to make films highlighting black lead characters in a Tracanna 7 contemporary setting that countered the deprecating portrayals of African-Americans in the early era of filmmaking. Micheaux marks a transitional period in black filmmaking history by beginning to functionally focus on and accommodate the desires of African-American audiences, rather than cater toward white ones. Especially since white support was inherently minimal for Micheaux’s works, his focus on creating films solely for black audiences proved to be an influential step in growing the African-American film industry. The 1940s and 1950s were eras of expanded inclusion for African-Americans in white films and even led to some of the first instances of Academy Award recognition for African- American actors. Despite these advancements, the 40s and 50s still featured a strong sense of pandering for acceptance in the white film industry with black actors playing familiar roles as housemaids and musicians. The more notable strides for black filmmakers were being made in the late-1960s, when blaxploitation films rose to popularity. Blaxploitation films leaned into the harsh stereotyping that black actors were conventionally subjected to and put them at the forefront of the narrative.

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