Jungle Fever (1991)

Friends and family of a married black architect react in different ways to his affair with an Italian secretary.

Director:

Spike Lee

Writer:

Spike Lee

Stars:

Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee

6 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wesley Snipes	...	Flipper Purify
Annabella Sciorra	...	Angie Tucci
Spike Lee	...	Cyrus
Ossie Davis	...	The Good Reverend Doctor Purify
Ruby Dee	...	Lucinda Purify
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Gator Purify
Lonette McKee	...	Drew
John Turturro	...	Paulie Carbone
Frank Vincent	...	Mike Tucci
Anthony Quinn	...	Lou Carbone
Halle Berry	...	Vivian
Tyra Ferrell	...	Orin Goode
Veronica Webb	...	Vera
Veronica Timbers	...	Ming
David Dundara	...	Charlie Tucci

Storyline

A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.

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Plot Keywords:

interracial romance | interracial relationship | architect | interracial affair | harlem manhattan new york city | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sensuality, strong language, drug content, and for violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 June 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jungle Fever

Filming Locations:

Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,332,860, 9 June 1991

Gross USA:

$32,482,682

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$43,882,682

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Debi Mazar tells her boyfriend in the car that she wants to listen to Madonna. Mazar is a longtime friend of Madonna's, having been her make-up artist before getting into acting, and later appeared in a few of her videos including "Papa Don't Preach", "True Blue", and "Music". Mazar also threw Madonna her bridal shower, prior to her marriage to Sean Penn.

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Goofs

Cameraman's shadow on Flipper when he is telling Cyrus he cheated on Drew

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Quotes

Flipper Purify: There's something you should know. I'm having an affair.
Cyrus: H-bomb! H-bomb!
Flipper Purify: It gets worse. She's white.
Cyrus: Nuclear holocaust!

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are printed on roadsigns that move across the frame.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Soapdish/What About Bob?/Hudson Hawk/Only the Lonely (1991)

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Soundtracks

Hello, Young Lovers
Written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
Courtesy of Williamson Music, ASCAP
Performed by Frank Sinatra
Courtesy of Reprise Records
by arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Judging it again years later

I saw Jungle Fever for the first time years ago, when it first came out on video. By the movie's end, I was lost. Part of it may have been maturity - I was in junior high - and part of it was that the movie I was sold was not the movie I got. Part of this selling is Stevie Wonder's title song, which frequently finds its way into my tapedeck. And the kind of color-blind love Wonder sings about is not the relationship in this movie. Something I feel now as I felt then was that the film does not let us get close to these people, let us see them in love. Only now do I realize that this is because the film is not about two people in love. When I first saw it, I thought the film was advocating segregation from the "other side." Now I realize that it just showing the complexity of issues which come to play when a black person and white person from separatist neighborhoods come together, and mostly how those environments are changed. There are things to overcome, but this relationship will not overcome them. I am still puzzled by the rather large subplot involving Samuel L. Jackson as Wesley Snipes's crackhead brother and by the final shot where Wesley Snipes clutches a crack-whore to himself and screams "NO!" while the camera rushes from halfway across Harlem to end in a close-up on him. It's indelible - most of what has stuck with me about this movie over time involves this subplot and that shot - but I am still puzzled by its intention in the overall scheme of what the film is trying to say. Something about the endless problems facing black people?