She's Gotta Have It

...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.

This is a completely unique, humorous, sexy film from Spike Lee -- his first cinematic effort, using his friends from NYU film school as actors. He himself plays the role of eccentric Mars, one of heroine Nola darling's three lovers. Though I'm sure Lee wouldn't describe himself as a feminist, this film looks at so-called "promiscuity" from a distinctly liberated point of view. Perhaps women need more than one man, he wonders, because it takes several men to make up a complete person! The film is set in a rarely seen milieu, that of artistic, well-educated, middle-class, quirky urban African-Americans (like the view of black Chicago in "Love Jones"). It would be fascinating from that standpoint, even it if didn't display such ruefully witty characterizations of egotistical, clueless men.

You could spend an afternoon in far worse fashion than to rent this film, and view Lee's naked talent shining through in a film whose cost probably wouldn't pay the catering bill for one of his film projects these days. The fact that it is filmed almost entirely in black and white adds to its authenticity and charm.

So I finally got around to seeing the debut from auteur Spike Lee. I felt as though I knew the film before seeing it after reading an interesting history about it in John Pierson's "Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes". If you're a fan of independent cinema, you should check out both the book and film.

Spike's familiar style and approach is evident in this early indication of a talented filmmaker. Whatever shortcomings that revealed themselves were largely unavoidable in such a low budget outing, and usually quickly forgivable.

The film's testimony approach often gave characters some depth and clearly gave the film a more intimate relationship with the audience, but at times hurt the film with some unfortunate bad acting from names you never heard before and probably never will again. Again, not Spike's fault. It does include one of my buddy's favourite pick-up lines, "Baby, I'd drink a whole tub of your bath water." I'm sure most women would appreciate that sentiment as the way to their heart.

Spike's sister and father have small roles which must say something about the man's admirable family pride. Of course, with many of his films, it seems Spike can't resist the allure of the space in front of the camera while controlling all that's behind it. Not many directors divide their energy in such a manner, but some of the most notorious directors of our time do. Whether this divides their focus in a negative aspect or not is difficult to say. But if it's a distraction or handicap, Spike seems to be managing fine

But even now I haven't stated either way if it's a good, recommendable film or not. It's largely in black and white, which is a turn off for non-film lovers. I once overheard some one say of "Schindler's List", "It's a really good film, even though it's black and white." I'm sure with some films the inclusion of colour can enhance the enjoyment of the film, but some things are not meant to be in colour, some things are better without it. Films like this one are only possible in black and white due to budget restraints. Whenever I see the efforts of some colourization nightmare, it makes my stomach turn, but I digress.

What can I say, I am a film lover, and I enjoyed it. If you fall in the same category, you probably will too.

"She's Gotta Have It" was the beginning of an illustrious career for filmmaker Spike Lee. It starred Tracy Camilla Johns as the sex driven Nola Darling. Her three men were played by Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell and Spike Lee. All the three men had certain traits that stood out. Jamie Street (Hicks) is cool, calm and caring towards Nola. Greer Childs (Terrell) was the obnoxious, stuck up, rude pseudo black man that thought he was better than anyone else. And last but not least was Mars Blackmon (Lee), he was funny and outgoing. Annoying at times but his wit could win you over. This film is full of memorable one liners like "please baby baby baby please" and much more. This film was heavily criticized for it's depiction of women (like all of Spike's films), lesbians (the character Opal) and the reality of it. But nonetheless, "She's Gotta Have It" opened in 1986 to rave reviews and grossed 7 million dollars (not a lot but it is amazing compared to the thousands it took to make it). What made this film a gem is that you don't find characters like these anymore. They all had something about them that was hard to resist. Mars Blackmon became so famous that he was reprised by Lee in Nike Air Jordan commercials with the great Michael Jordan, airing from 1988 to 1995 (the Nola character also appeared in one Air Jordan commercial with Mars Blackmon, the commercial only aired once). "She's Gotta Have It" is a decent start for a young filmmaker and a must see for those that haven't seen it.

She's Gotta Have It- Rated R *** out of ****

I remember when this movie came out. Not Spikes first film but first to gain him some attention. A very refreshing black and white low budget movie, probably one of Spikes most dedicated and best work. All characters well developed and script carefully written. A good film to watch on a lazy Sunday, showing scenes of Brooklyn as it was in the 80s.