Lee: Gotta go No.1 with Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront," although it may be a little bit of stretch not a sports movie but a sports character in a movie, which opens up a whole bag. What performances by actors in sports movies have you liked? Lee: Sports film is a genre now, most definitely. So then are sports movies a legitimate movie genre now, like the Western, crime noir, heist, romantic comedy, biopic, etc.? Stay down, and keep your head up, though we may see a whole new wave.Ħ.
SPIKE LEE MOVIES TV
Lee: So often it's hard to re-create the great stuff you've seen live, on TV and even read about in sports for example, how are you gonna do a movie about Michael Jordan? Who's going to play Michael Jordan? And have you suspended disbelief? So it is possible that in the sports genre of film, sometimes, say in terms of a sports biopic, the next best thing to live is documentary. What role can documentaries have in sports movies or sports storytelling? You are, among many other things, a maker of outstanding documentary films of narrative and visual originality, on a par with Ken Burns, if not Sembene or Bunuel in that category. The great stories have to be found and told first as writing. The future will tell us, what we are able to do, and what technology can help us do. Other than boxing, what sport is most ripe for storytelling? Lee: Oh no, because making a great sports film is very hard to do it is so hard to duplicate the action, rarely can actors be as believable as athletes even stunt men can't great sporting events and teams are more intriguing than you could ever write, reality is so much better than stuff you could make up like in fiction, the best stuff is true.Ĥ. Have the best sports stories already been put on film or digital? Lee: Because it's just two guys in the ring, and physically it's easier to reproduce Robert De Niro is a great actor, we all know that, but he wasn't all that convincing as a baseball player in "Bang the Drum Slowly." But he was totally authentic as the boxer Jack La Motta.ģ. Boxing has produced more good films than other sports? "The Champ," "The Set-Up," "Body and Soul," "Rocky," "Raging Bull," "Hard Times," "Ali." Even Stanley Kubrick delved into it. That's why I like to try to get 'em, and right.Ģ. panning for trends, eh? Well, some of my associates growing up were Italian. Maybe you did a little bit of that in "Jungle Fever," too, and also in "Do the Right Thing," too. Yeah, you kinda did that in "Summer of Sam" yourself. The boxing you get as the setting, place, scene, historical backdrop make story seem even more real: Scorcese's '50s Italian Bronx. Beyond that? Because it's not really about boxing. Lee: Why is still the best? Because it's completely authentic. Depends on who's watching it, and what for.
: Is "Raging Bull" still the best sports movie? We decided to remedy that unfortunate hole in our package by sending 's Ralph Wiley up to New York to ask noted filmmaker and sports fan Spike Lee 10 Burning Questions on everything celluloid ranging from why he loved Gene Hackman as Norman Dale even though "Hoosiers" made him uncomfortable to the future of sports movies (and the Knicks).ġ. However, none of these "experts" had ever been involved with the actual making of any movie. But like I said up top, let’s discuss! Who’s your favorite Spike Lee character? Leave it in the comments.During the past four days, we've had a large number of people weighing in various sports movie-related issues for our Goes to the Movies package. There are several others I could have picked for this list (I’m probably the only person in America who likes Summer of Sam and John Leguizamo’s performance in it), but I feel like many people would agree with the eight I picked.
I’d actually really like to see that version of X since I love speculating on alternate realities, but the version we got is so good that I really couldn’t envision anybody else directing Denzel in the role than Spike Lee.Īnd that's 8 iconic characters. It was In the Heat of the Night director, Norman Jewison. In fact, if you were to ask me, what is the best performance in any Spike Lee movie, I’d easily say, “Denzel Washington as Malcolm X.” But here’s what’s interesting: Lee was actually not the original director for Malcolm X. What’s there really to be said? Denzel plays Malcolm X, and he’s amazing. Especially since he does such a spectacular job. Again, can a real person be considered “a character”? Well, when it’s Denzel filling those shoes, then yeah.