Spike Lee addresses war, success in life
Filmmaker Spike Lee received both cheers and jeers as he spoke to an audience of 2,000 in the Kent Concert Hall at Utah State University Tuesday afternoon.
First off, Lee spoke about his feelings on the war in Iraq so he could “just get it out of the way.”
“You can be in support of the troops but also not be in favor of the war,” Lee began.
He then talked about slavery and the treatment of American Indians in the United States, saying America wasn’t “squeaky clean” enough to be the world’s police. He told students to educate themselves about what’s going on in the world.
“We live in a very, very dangerous time right now,” he said. “Pull yourselves away from ‘Joe Millionaire’ or ‘Survivor’ or any of those other crazy reality shows, and think about what’s going on in this world.”
People fighting in their own country “go to the max,” something the United States should have learned in Vietnam, Lee said.
“When you don’t have the firepower or the technology to go toe to toe with the Unites States, you do what you have to do,” he said.
He then told how a farmer had shot down a U.S. helicopter with a rifle, which brought laughter from audience members. Lee said Americans shouldn’t be calling the Iraqi people cunning without taking a closer look at President Bush and the former election trouble in Florida.
“If you want to talk about trickery, let’s talk about Nov. 2 [2000],” he said. “If it wasn’t for the Supreme Court decision of 5-4, the world might not be in the position it is in now because the man should not be in office.”
Audience members both booed and cheered that comment.
“You can boo all you want, but that election was stolen,” was Lee’s reply.
Julie Dethrow, the Associated Students of USU Arts and Lectures vice president, said she liked how audience members had mixed feelings about Lee’s comments.
“The thing that I liked the most is that the audience cheered and booed,” she said. “It showed he was touching them.”
Bringing his speech from politics to film, Lee talked about Nelson Mandela. Mandela was seen as a terrorist in the 90s, but is now seen as a freedom fighter.
“It really depends on who’s telling the story, so that’s why film is so important,” he said. “I understood early on, growing up in Brooklyn, that it can influence people for good or bad.
Lee decided to become a filmmaker while at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. He went on to study at New York University.
“You become a filmmaker by mastering film grammar to tell a story,” he said.
Film grammar includes camera and actor placement, music, editing and production design, he said.
He encouraged aspiring filmmakers to simply produce films.
“You become a filmmaker by getting out there and making films,” Lee said. “Those who want to be filmmakers have no excuses. Because of technology today, anybody with a script, a couple of people and a camera can make a film.”
Lee said the way to succeed in filmmaking, as well as in life in general, is to work hard.
“The people who get ahead are going to be the ones who do the work, who do whatever it takes to get the job done,” he said. “Everything I’ve done is not just because of talent. It’s because of hard work and luck.”
Because of money, a handful of gatekeepers decide what films and TV shows get made, Lee said. He is looking for alternative ways to fund films outside of Hollywood so a wider variety can be produced.
He said he hopes more films showing the diversity of the black culture will be made in the future because there are only certain types of stories and roles available currently.
“We don’t really get the diversity of the African-American experience on screen,” he said.
Black children are faced with three stereotypes of what they can be when they grow up, he said. They can be an athlete or a rapper, but “that’s not going to happen,” or they can be a drug dealer, Lee said.
He said black students who do well in school are accused of trying to be white and criticized by their peers.
“All over America, there are black people in schools who fail classes on purpose because all of the gangster s—, excuse my language, has gotten turned around,” he said. “Intelligence is equated with being white, and ignorance is equated with being black.”
Some students were surprised by Lee’s stand on the issues he addressed. Mark LaRocco, a senior majoring in journalism, asked Lee about the film “Barbershop,” during the question-and-answer session following Lee’s address.
The film received criticism because of jokes made about leaders in the civil rights movement. Lee said the criticism was deserved, which surprised LaRocco.
“The character was supposed to be controversial, and I think the criticism is not justified,” LaRocco said. “I thought Spike would agree with me.”
But Lee said he thought the jokes went too far.
“I don’t think calling Dr. King a ho‚ is funny at all,” he said. “Saying all Rosa Parks did was sit on her big black butt wasn’t funny.”
Lee was originally supposed to come to USU in February but rescheduled because he was invited to the Berlin Film Festival, Dethrow said. Lee’s visit is the last in the Arts and Lectures series for this school year.
–kcartwright@cc.usu.edu
Film director Spike lee spoke to students during as part of the ASUSU Arts and Lectures program. Lee focused on becoming a filmmaker and issues that are facing society today. (Photo by John Zsiray)