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IMDbPro

She's Gotta Have It

  • 19861986
  • RR
  • 1h 24m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
15K
YOUR RATING
Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
Watch Trailer
Play trailer2:11
2 Videos
41 Photos
ComedyRomance
Story of a woman and her three lovers.Story of a woman and her three lovers.Story of a woman and her three lovers.
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
15K
YOUR RATING
    • Spike Lee
    • Spike Lee
    • Zora Neale Hurston(opening quotation)
  • Stars
    • Tracy Camilla Johns
    • Tommy Redmond Hicks
    • John Canada Terrell
    • Spike Lee
    • Spike Lee
    • Zora Neale Hurston(opening quotation)
  • Stars
    • Tracy Camilla Johns
    • Tommy Redmond Hicks
    • John Canada Terrell
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 50User reviews
    • 49Critic reviews
    • 79Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos2

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:11
    Watch Trailer
    Spike Lee: Four Decades of 'Wake Up!'
    Clip 3:05
    Watch Spike Lee: Four Decades of 'Wake Up!'

    Photos41

    Spike Lee and Tracy Camilla Johns in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Tracy Camilla Johns in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
    Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Tracy Camilla Johns
    Tracy Camilla Johns
    • Nola Darling
    Tommy Redmond Hicks
    • Jamie Overstreet
    • (as Redmond Hicks)
    John Canada Terrell
    • Greer Childs
    • (as John Terrell)
    Spike Lee
    Spike Lee
    • Mars Blackmon
    Raye Dowell
    • Opal Gilstrap
    Joie Lee
    Joie Lee
    • Clorinda Bradford
    S. Epatha Merkerson
    S. Epatha Merkerson
    • Doctor Jamison
    • (as Epatha Merkerson)
    Bill Lee
    Bill Lee
    • Sonny Darling
    Cheryl Burr
    • Ava
    Aaron Dugger
    • Noble
    Stephanie Covington
    • Keva
    Renata Cobbs
    • Shawn
    Cheryl D. Singleton
    Cheryl D. Singleton
    • Toby
    • (as Cheryl Singleton)
    Monty Ross
    Monty Ross
    • Dog #1
    Lewis Jordan
    • Dog #2
    Erik Dellums
    Erik Dellums
    • Dog #3
    Reginald Hudlin
    Reginald Hudlin
    • Dog #4
    • (as Reggie Hudlin)
    Eric Payne
    Eric Payne
    • Dog #5
      • Spike Lee
      • Spike Lee
      • Zora Neale Hurston(opening quotation)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The movie was shot in 12 days. Because the budget was so tight, there were no retakes.
    • Quotes

      Nola Darling: It's really about control, my body, my mind. Who was going to own it? Them? Or me? I'm not a one-man woman. Bottom line.

    • Crazy credits
      "This film contains no jerri curls!!! And no drugs!!!"
    • Alternate versions
      The Director's Cut of the film on the Criterion Collection Laser Disc, features 4 minutes of additional footage.
    • Connections
      Edited into She's Gotta Have It: Nola (1986)
    • Soundtracks
      Nola
      Words and Music by Bill Lee

      Performed by Ronnie Dyson

      Courtesy of New Version Music

    User reviews50

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Very well done first effort about a sexually liberated young woman BUT...
    ...for God's sake woman get rid of those candles! The idea of falling asleep with one hundred lit candles sitting directly on an extremely combustible wooden moon étagère would scare the crap out of me more than the idea of you needing more than one sexual partner! But I digress.

    This was Spike Lee's first directorial and writing effort. Since this was Spike Lee BEFORE he was a brand name, nobody was going to cut him any financial slack in his filmmaking. He had to cut corners everywhere. He got his family into the act - one plays main character Nola Darling's best friend, another plays Nola's dad. And Spike Lee even acted in the film himself as Mars, one of Nola's three lovers. He managed to shoot the whole thing for 175000 dollars and grossed almost eight million at the box office. Who knows what he's made off of it due to cable broadcasts and home video.

    The film explores the life of a young African American female artist, Nola Darling, living in Brooklyn, who has the same view towards sex and sexuality that many men have - she wants to play the field. She's not lying about anything, she just doesn't talk about any of the others to the one she is with at the time. Nola actually has three lovers - Mars - the fun and goofy one, Greer the sophisticate who hardly needs to eat because he is so full of himself, and Jamie, probably her soul mate. These guys rather meld into one entire man who is able to keep Nola happy. And then they find out about one another, with Jamie being the most wounded by the news.

    Years before "The Red Pill" and "Men Going Their Own Way", that seems to be exactly what is going on with Nola, minus the bitterness. In fact, during the film she is torn between cutting herself off from men sexually for awhile - going her own way - and this Red Pill life in which there is no dishonesty but many lovers. Nola LIKES sex in and of itself, isn't looking to settle down, likes her Bohemian lifestyle.

    For Law and Order fans, S. Epatha Merkerson shows up as Nola's therapist. The film was unique for its time because it had a completely African American perspective, was shot in black and white, had the characters talking to the camera about what they were feeling at the time, and had no pat answers, no neatly sewn up ending. As for me, I would have picked Mars. All he needed was a little career direction, and he was fun. But then I've always been a one man gal. I recommend it. I think you'll find it fascinating.
    helpful•3
    0
    • AlsExGal
    • Mar 21, 2016

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 8, 1986 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks
      • The New York State Council of the Arts
      • New York Foundation for the Arts
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 24 minutes
      • Black and White
      • Mono

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    Spike Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Tracy Camilla Johns, and John Canada Terrell in She's Gotta Have It (1986)
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