Jungle Fever (1991) User Reviews

This was the era when Spike Lee got as good as he ever got.

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 20 February 2006]

Spike Lee made "Jungle Fever" in the era when he also made masterpieces like "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X". I will admit that the subject matter here is nothing that we haven't seen many times (an interracial love story), but Lee knows how to do without getting idiotic or manipulating emotions. In this case, African-American Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes) has an affair with Italian-American co-worker Angela Tucci (Annabella Sciorra), thereby setting off a racially charged chain reaction.

A previous reviewer said that Lee throws in so many subplots that the movie gets too confusing. I agree that the various subplots do this to an extent, but I think that Lee mainly wanted to show how people's lives were getting affected by the series of events portrayed. There were some clichés, namely the bigoted Bensonhurst residents, but this is certainly a well done movie. Watch for a young Halle Berry as a crack addict, and I believe that Queen Latifah appears as a waitress.

one of those cases where the acting and direction (most of the time) is better than the script

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 7 July 2006]

Spike Lee's films are consistent in one respect, even for the lesser ones, which is that they're always pressing buttons. In the case of Jungle Fever, it's another work where messages come out more than from a guy on a postal route. But that's perhaps part of the point, where such points come in many forms and sometimes like a barrage. This time, it doesn't completely gel as well as Lee's Do the Right Thing, which also held anger, contemplation, humor, and pathos about city life. But this time it's also a tale of sexual morays, where both white and black sides have their share of racism and prejudices, and at the core is a story of outcasts. The interesting thing then about Jungle Fever is how Lee's own decisions in casting and in the unique way he shoots his subjects and implements a subjective take more often then not trump what comes out in his script. Then again, maybe it's close to being inevitable with how the elements mix, and at the end there are some parts of the film that are the best that Lee's done so far as a filmmaker.

Wesley Snipes and Anabella Sciora star as the said 'jungle fever' couple, the man being married with a kid, of all things to a woman who is also light-skinned and with her own 'issues', and the woman having an 'old-fashioned' Italian father. When their affair becomes known to both sides, the costs come out and they both become outcasts. And at the end of all of the points that are made in Jungle Fever by Lee, even through the ones that are pounded and (of the period) quite topical and prominent, this notion of society and culture being the biggest culprit is hard to ignore. This main point is made very well by Lee's script, and even as sometimes the script doesn't have the best dialog or lines a little 'too easy', if that makes any sense, there are many scenes which do support this to the fullest. And as the job of any good director is to cast right, this film is filled with a who's-who's of professionals and character actors.

One could go on as to who appears in the film, from Anthony Quinn to Tim Robbins to Ossie Davis to John Turturro, and they all fit their parts and contribute to adding a level of fascination in each. When the less desirable aspects peak in even more, it only adds to what ends up working on screen. Sometimes the script, as mentioned, is a little derivative and trying to touch ALL bases, with a but the film is more often than not alive due to (some of) the music at times. Maybe the most genius pieces of casting were Samuel L. Jackson, in (arguably) one of his very best performances, and Halle Berry. In a sense there are similar points made in the "A" storyline and the "B" one, where there is some extra interest in the supporting characters and their connection with the main ones. Jackson and Berry are crack-heads, and outcasts, and to their own degree have the same crap end of the stick as the leads to. Among many scenes where confrontations reach a great emotional intensity, the best comes with Snipes going into the crack-house and seeing just the purest dark side of society, what really does bring people down.

In the end, Jungle Fever is one of the Lee movies that is worth seeing, that may prove on a repeat viewing to bring even more thought than previous. It's energetic, somber, occasionally funny and shocking in equal measure.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 6/10 · 1 July 2005]

With some interesting ideas about racism, some creative camera-work, and generally solid acting, there is enough in this film to make it worth checking out, albeit not enough to make it a great film. Spike Lee's depiction of a modern society build about racism lacks credibility, as it is hard to believe that the only thing the characters care about is racism-related. Lee's colour scheme hurts the film too, as the hues, in particular the oranges, are very harsh on the eyes, this distracting one from the on screen action. There are also some drug addiction subplots fitted in, to no certain advantage, and despite Terence Blanchard providing a nice multi-style score, it is used rather awkwardly throughout. Plus, there one large unanswered question: is Lee endorsing segregation and racism in the film? Believe it or not, in spite of these problems, the film has enough in it for adequate viewing. Seeing Halle Berry in her first big screen appearance is quite interesting, and Queen Latifah makes her debut appearance too as a waitress. It is very well shot, competently acted and it provides some things to think about, even if it is not too great overall stuff.

Fitfully interesting but lacks a strong point and doesn't hang together all that well

[bob the moo · 18 December 2006]

Flipper Purify is a successful architect with a beautiful wife and a smart young daughter back at his apartment. When he gets a new temp in to work alongside him he is not pleased that she is white but her hard work impresses him. Working late one night, chatting becomes a connection which becomes flirting which becomes sex. Their affair continues even as Flipper quits his job to branch out alone. However his life is thrown into chaos when his wife Drew finds out.

The opening credits are catchy and the material is just the sort of racial issue that Spike Lee made his name but somehow the film itself really failed to catch my imagination or hold my attention. The central plot is simple enough but Lee fills it out with characters, debate and a couple of subplots but yet somehow doesn't manage to pull it all together into one compelling film. Of course those that like Spike Lee know that even when he is at his most average he can still make an interesting film. And so it is here because the film does have plenty of interesting scenes but it is the narrative and formulation of his point where it fails to come off. In his defence Lee has written some convincingly real characters with unfortunately real attitudes but by leaving these people mostly unchallenged to deliver their opinions he allows two things to happen. Firstly the film feels like a series of disjointed conversations – most of which are interesting enough to listen to but don't a total film make.

Secondly, and more importantly, Lee appears to be in agreement with some of his characters that mixed race relationships are not a good idea. If this is not his opinion then he has done a poor job in putting his thoughts across. If he is in agreement then he has done a poor job in presenting this point in a coherent and convincing fashion. Instead it seems like the racists have won – which is maybe is his point but if so yet again he hasn't done a good job of putting it across. In fact thinking about it, his point probably is that it all isn't worth the effort but, like I say, it isn't very well delivered and a lot of the ideas are half-cooked. The cast make it well worth a look regardless thanks to Lee's usual skill in assembling his actors. Snipes has massively fallen from grace in regards his career and his personal life but here he is pretty good. The material is just a little beyond his range but he does the basics well. Sciorra is better and works well with him. Lee is Lee while McKee is rather wasted with her simplistic race rage. Quinn is a nice touch in support while Turturro is as good as I have come to expect from him. Davis and Dee are good but they exist in another film, albeit the drugs subplot is interesting and both Jackson and Berry are impressive but it doesn't really fit. Lee's direction is his usual style but his use of soundtrack is weak – the tunes themselves are good but he doesn't put them across the film with any reason or sense of meaning.

Overall then an fitfully interesting film as is usually the way with Lee but one that failed to come together or deliver a convincing central message. The depressing message that does come across isn't that well made and as a result isn't as thought provoking as it should have been. The casting is interesting though and the performances mostly do as required in the many good individual scenes. Famous but not as good as the names attached would make you hope.

More about sex than race

[msjpacke · 7/10 · 15 January 2006]

This movie is more about sex than race. Lee was quoted in the NYT as follows: "I hate this whole Hollywood process of breaking down a movie to one sentence," he said. "My films don't deal with one theme. They interweave many different things. You have to think. I'm not saying interracial relationships are impossible. Flipper and Angie are not meant to represent every interracial couple in the world. They are meant to represent two people who got together because of sexual mythology instead of love. Then they stay together because they're pushed together. They're outcasts. And since their relationship isn't based on love, when things get tough, they can't weather the storm." Thus at its core this film is a feminist critique of the nature of sexual attraction in contemporary America. These folks are wrong for each other but they both are stereotypically "attractive." There is "chemistry" between them, but no shared values that are the bedrock of a serious relationship. The "black stud"/ "sexy white girl" is just one way this could be instantiated.

In one sense, this is a serious issue and it is worth exploring. My own misgivings about this film is that Lee's moral seems to be: values = good, chemistry = bad, and this strikes me as somewhat simplistic.

New Mood, Lost Groove--Second Take on Jungle Fever

[secondtake · 7/10 · 22 May 2009]

New Mood, Lost Groove--Second Take on Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever (1991)

Was life so different 18 years ago that I would think this movie a brilliant if affected romance, and today I find its preachy stiffness clichéd to distraction?

If so, why? And when does a lack of realism rise above artifice to become art, and artful directing? I still admire Spike Lee, but with more caveats, more questions.

There are internal clues to Lee's choosing style over realism. The highly chromed gun, still hot from the preacher/father archetype killing his son the sweetly selfish druggie archetype, is set squarely on an open Bible. The black lead male, playfully wrestling with the white lead female on top of a car in what seems like a rape out in the street (like they weren't a little bit cautious?), of course leads seconds later to cops acting brutal and protective of the girl, guns pointing at heads, and there is the realization that a biracial affair might be nearly impossible. Snap, like that. It's all artifice. Even the steady flipping and exaggeration of stereotypes in the movie, and the drumbeat of political conversation about race, race and sexual stereotypes, reveals a director with a purpose, and a purpose that overwhelms the drama, the narrative romance.

Because this is a romance, plain and simple. And yet surely Spike Lee said to himself at an early stage: who needs another routine if well made romantic movie? Even if the two leads are of different color. And so we have a confession (if he ever said this) that he is after something more, and that something more is going to consume the romance. Fair enough. But do we need to be lectured to? Even if we agree, or especially if we agree, that people should love and make love to whoever they want, does it help to have transparent points about textbook injustice constantly scratching at us while wanting to just enjoy all the emotional, interracial conflicts?

Well, let's defer for a minute. Because it would frankly be easier to dismiss the movie as a heavy handed polemic failure. Which it is not. It has many moments of both cinematic and theatric brilliance (from a hugely talented cast). I really wanted to get sucked in, and when I sometimes did start to disappear into that world, I was pushed back out.

Take the scene with all the women, ostensibly black (or actually black) but of different color skin, talking with great elevation and personality about being of color, and of men wanting women of color (or not), and of them wanting men of color (or not), and really batting the issue around with a kind of grad school but earthy intelligence. Everyone is correct in their own context, and within their character roles they make their points vivid, and sometimes a camera angle or shift from one face to another is elegant and affecting in the best way. But hey, no matter how truly cerebral these women would be in real life, and how well meaning, and how well versed in these issues through life and on paper, would they have this kind of gem of a discussion the way Lee presents it? Unlikely. Or impossible. No, he compressed it into something unreal, something better than real perhaps, built on kernels of reality. We know it represents the truth, not just sociologically but as individuals with complex emotional responses. That's good. That it remains a represented truth lacking narrative transparency is less good, or less easy. We believe, we nod, we assent, and we nod off. Contrivance intrudes and rebuffs.

There are lots of high profile movies that live on their un-realism (they are actively non- real), from Night of the Hunter to Kill Bill with West Side Story and every other musical thrown in the middle. Certainly, the first five decades of film history are about stylized worlds that we must read through, suspending our realities, accepting the form. We are not usually made to believe we are watching reality itself. Jungle Fever is not like The Bicycle Thief, not one bit, and that's fine.

But then, accepting this (tentatively), we still need to care enough about the movie to watch it through. That is, of the many movie-making tricks for grabbing the viewers and holding them, one or more have to be persuasively in place. As a top-of-the-head counter- example, consider Crash, which a decade after Jungle Fever dealt with some of the same issues in a different kind of city, and in a more lyrical, almost dreamlike way. Crash held me with very few reservations from start to finish. It held me and sometime entranced me even though I knew it was as "false" and at times as obliquely preachy as Jungle Fever.

So I struggled this second and third time, even though I remember loving the movie when it was released. But look at it this way: if the movie said things we needed to hear in 1991 and we don't respond to as well now, it might be because we've moved past some of that in 2009. That's what my students say, and so that's a pretty terrific thing. If it means the movie is aging badly, let's wait for another decade to correct itself it once again.

Pretty good, but a bit dated

[zetes · 7/10 · 5 June 2006]

Definitely not one of Spike Lee's best films, and definitely a bit dated after 15 years. But it still holds some interest. It's a whole mishmash of racial issues, of the director and of the actors (many scenes seem to be improvised) dealing with their own thoughts. Often Lee shows his own prejudices. In 1991 at least, it doesn't seem like he thought black people and white people should be involved romantically. When Lee was promoting the film at the time, he implied that people of two different races were only attracted to each other because of stereotypes they had in mind. I think we still have a ways to go, but I think a lot of the barriers that may have been in place in 1991 have crumbled. The two main characters, played by Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra, are fairly weak. I don't think either of them are especially good actors. Snipes has always been rather mediocre. The film is much stronger with its supporting characters. Samuel L. Jackson was much lauded for his performance as a crackhead. He is very good, though I think Lee makes him a bit too humorous at times (though certainly he is downright frightening at others). I also thought John Turturro was excellent as the boyfriend Sciora dumps for Snipes. Honestly, I don't think Turturro can do any wrong. The film ends on the silliest note possible. Still, I rather liked it for the most part.

Superb; my favorite Spike Lee film

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 12 January 2014]

As I was reading through some of the other member reviews here, I decided to respond to arthurpewty's review. At quick glance, and in large part because of the title of the film, this appears to be about Black men wanting White women and White women wanting Black men. And if that's what you think this film is primarily about, then the way the film ends, and the subplot involving the crack-addicted son will be confusing. I actually think that the more definitive message of this film -- one that is explored through a racial theme -- is that lots of families (of all colors) are pretty screwed up. If you look at the film from that perspective, it becomes an ensemble film, rather than a "starring" film, and it explores how screwed up multiple families are, all tied together in some way.

There was a time when I thought that Wesley Snipes would be the reigning Black male actor for some time. This film was my introduction to him, and I was impressed. Then along came "White Men Can't Jump" and "Passenger 57", and "Murder At 1600" and several other films that I thought were cementing his future. And then he got way too wrapped up in martial arts and such, and his career fizzled. Unfortunately, he didn't learn to stay diverse in the roles he selected, and so we lost a very actor.

This was also my introduction to Annabella Sciorra, whom I also enjoyed very much in "What Dreams May Come".

As an actor, Spike Lee is nearly irrelevant in this film, but he deserves high praise for his direction. This is probably the only time I have ever been unimpressed with Ossie Davis; he seemed rather wooden here as the reverend who is Wesley's Snipe's father. On the other hand, I rather enjoyed Ruby Dee's performance. Samuel L. Jackson is not an actor I admire, but he was rather good here. I'm not much of a fan of John Turturro, but his performance here was very good (and this may have been the first time I ever really noticed him as an actor). Why did Anthony Quinn take this role? It was beneath him.

This is not a perfect film, and it is -- now -- perhaps a tad dated (although the sentiments expressed here still exist in many places by many people). Highly recommended.

United Colors of America ...

[ElMaruecan82 · 9/10 · 17 October 2011]

Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" is an eye-opening introspection into the limits of that so-called melting pot sold by America as the epitome of tolerance and universalism... yet contradicted by the statistics and all the racial tension that prevailed in the early 90's. As a social commentary, the movie raises many important issues about interracial relationships in a less politically lauded tone than the iconic "Do The Right Thing", which is a wise choice for a movie mostly centered on human relationships.

Through Stevie Wonder's titular song, "Jungle Fever" refers to the diagnosis of that strange mutual attraction between two persons from different races. The term strongly implies the idea of a relationship against Nature's law, if not a sickness, a deviation. And the central couple to deviate is Flipper, an ambitious architect, and Angie, his new secretary. He's Black, she's Italian. He lives in Harlem, she's from Benston Hurst, he's married with one daughter, she has three men, and two too many: her father (Frank Vincent), and her two brothers. Angie's doom is that she's young and single enough to be the overprotected sister, but mature enough to take care of the house. Angie dates Paulie, a shy and affable storekeeper (John Turturro) in a relationship that doesn't really ring true. Whatever is obviously lacking, Angie would find it in Flipper.

Spike Lee's direction patiently depicts the growing attraction between Flipper and Angie. Interestingly, the first door to a growing intimacy is opened when they break the taboo of races and talk about it in the most casual way. And after that, we stop looking at the difference of skins, and pay more attention to the contents of their hearts. So they have sex, and no sex scene is sugarcoated in Spike Lee's film, not overdone either, but what is Spike Lee's point? To insist that it's only sexual like in adultery, or because of the 'Jungle Fever'? Whatever theory we believe in, the relationship would be wrong, but Lee cares less about pleasing us ethically than inviting us to examine the aftermath of that pivotal night where a Black man and a Italian (Caucasian) woman … did it.

And the way the relationship evolves could be perceived as bad writing on the surface, while it's only extremely well-written 'bad reactions'. For one thing, the adultery is less condemned than its interracial nature. Flipper's wife, Drew (Lonette McKee) is from a mixed couple, and always feared to be only one step in Flipper's attraction process toward light skinned women, until he'd finally go with a plain Caucasian. Flipper's denial might be sincere but then why did he ask his bosses to only hire African American women? Did he know he would automatically fall in love with a Caucasian? The ambiguity remains and is displayed from a different perspective during a dinner with Flipper's parents played by the veteran actors Ossie Davis, as a fanatic preacher, and Ruby Dee, a loving mother and devoted wife.

Flipper's father reminds Angie that white women always sensed an exciting mix of fear and fascination toward Black men and this is what ultimately tarnished the purity of the race, by providing so many mixed ethnicities. While succeeding on the field of disturbing realism, this scene allows us to understand Flipper's background and the amount of pressure he and Angie would endure, Angie, almost beaten to death by her 'dishonored' father, is then coldly compared to a whore. The couple wouldn't survive this last display of hatred and rejection, and in a very thought-provoking approach from Spike Lee, Flipper breaks up with Angie with a very calculated arrogance by pretending it has never been love. In a way, he joined the cause of those who pretend it's all about black men seeing that white is right women-wise, and white girls seeing blacks as sexual supermen, Jungle Fever … again.

Flipper uses an obvious carapace to hide his own weaknesses. In many intimate scenes, he's the one lying beneath the shadow, while Angie's face shines under the window's light. She's genuinely in love with him while Flipper opts for a more convenient pragmatism. Again, no one is right or wrong, Flipper has many responsibilities and Angie's simply in need of a disinterested love, she's the victim of this relationship, as the one who lost the most, her 'honor', her boyfriend, and the man for which she took the risk to lose everything. The counterpoint of this failed relationship is Paulie's tender and more optimistic romance. Paulie who also grew up with an authoritarian fatherly figure (Anthonny Quinn) and endures the racist pressure of his entourage, but finally decides to date Ordyl, the woman who's always so nice to her, regardless of any skin consideration.

But Flipper and Angie's relationship is less the core than the starting point of the analytic journey into the myths that surround sex, part-pride, part-doom, total pressure, marked by a great deal of hypocrisy and suspicion, due to the weight of history. Here comes the most poignant subplot involving the crack addiction of Flipper's brother, Gator, Samuel L. Jackson in an Oscar worthy performance. Gator's descent into self-destruction is the emotional pillar of the film allowing us to put Flipper's romance into perspective. There's more to worry about for the Black community, which in quest of its identity is torn between two unacceptable realities: degradation or obedience to the white man rules. Is 'Jungle Fever' the first step of that assimilation? The ending is a father's cry of despair for never seeing his daughter falling in that trap anyway.

"Jungle Fever" works less as a romance than as realistic depiction of the racial myths poisoning the society. Through many secondary characters with an impressive level of depth and believability, we realize that most of them defines themselves through their ethnicity … as pure survival instinct. When the world is a jungle, it can only inspire self-preservation.

Let's talk about Jungle Fever

[Hint523 · 6/10 · 10 June 2008]

I am a huge fan of Mr. Spike Lee. I find his talent is overlooked by his radicalism. But if you ever study "Do the Right Thing", you can see that any man who can act, write and direct such a powerful, provoking, and funny film is genius. I have since then made it a goal to see as many "Spike Lee Joints" as possible.

Jungle Fever is the story of Flipper, a black middle-aged man from Harlem with a large constellation of friends and family. He is frustrated with his job, since he cannot seem to get a raise. At his job he meets Angie, a young Italian intern with a boyfriend and a family of 4 older men she has to take care of. When they meet, "it's Jungle Fever". It seems scores of famous actors portray members of either side's family and friends.

Jungle Fever is clearly a similar subject to Do the Right Thing, or any of Lee's films. All his films tackle race and one other thing. With He Got Game it's race and sports, with Malcolm X it's race and history, and so on. Jungle Fever is set up to tackle race and sexuality. Obviously this is what Spike enjoys and what he does best.

While I was watching this movie, I had hopes that it would become one of my favorites. For a while, it seemed it could. However, the film takes a sudden change when Flipper's brother, Gator (played by a very young Samuel L. Jackson), comes into the picture. Gator is a crack-head who mooches off of his parents (Ossie and Ruby) and is obsessive over getting some dope.

From that point on, the film becomes very little about the premise. It seems that from then on the movie is about the dangers of crack. This includes a long scene where Flipper is looking for his brother among a warehouse full of crack-heads, and many more scenes with this, all leading up to a horrible ending.

I think what happened was Spike Lee tried to cover sex, drugs, and race into one movie, and though attempts were good, it was not a success. I respect the movie, the music is great, the beginning is excellent, but eventually it drops off. I guess the moral is it should have been two movies.

Jungle Fever has a star packed cast that delivers marvelous performances. Unfortunately, they are wasted on Lee's loosey goosey directing.

[DemiRonin · 4/10 · 15 April 2011]

Jungle Fever has a star packed cast that delivers marvelous performances. Unfortunately, they are wasted on Lee's loosey goosey directing.

Jungle Fever opens with Spike Lee's favorite character of all time, New York. After a plethora of images of street signs, subways, Harlem, and the words "Spike Lee" we open on a slow motion shot of a newspaper flying through the air...which seems to have no other significance than presenting the words "The New York Times"! After which we see a sex scene with Flipper played by Wesley Snipes loudly making love with his black wife. Why mention black? Because this is a movie about race, and since Jungle Fever is not gonna put in the effort to tactfully express its theme neither will I.

Flipper is an upper-middle class architect working at a firm controlled by two white men. Although putting it in pen and paper that he requests a black secretary instead he is given a young Italian American woman named Angie. Angie lives at home providing the motherly stand in for her very Italian father and brothers. Flipper and Angie, never having been intimate with anyone outside their race (except for Flipper's half Caucasian wife) work late into the evenings and eventually build an attraction to each other which Spike Lee calls "Jungle Fever". Thus, their interracial affair begins causing tension to build and explode between a multitude of characters.

In addition Flipper also has a crack head brother played by Samuel L Jackson who runs around with his crackhead girlfriend played by Halle Berry looking to score cash from all his bloodlines including his poor mother who can't help but give into her 1st son when he does a little dance.

The film's time is split between an assortment of characters who make up a collection of stories on interracial relationships and the ethnic hardships of New York Blacks and Italians.

To give an example of how over handed and disjointed the racism is portrayed there is a scene where Flipper and Angie are pretend boxing. Flipper grabs Angie pinning her onto a car when Police officers show up forcing Flipper in a submissive position shoving a gun into his face. Obviously they had misread the situation but with Flipper screaming "I'm gonna kill you!" with his hands on her neck its understandable why the officers jumped to that conclusion. There's also a scene where Angie's father beats her for having relations with a "nigger". Perhaps it's the age of the film and people back then needed racism to be spelled out in a very overt and sensational manner.

Jungle Fever is without a center jumping all over the place with extremely poor editing. The editor Samuel Pollard has edited mainly documentaries since, which is fantastic. The further he stays away from narratives the better. I'm trying to figure out how these scenes possibly transitioned into one another in script. I know that Lee likes to do harsh transitions but this film is just ridiculous. Jungle Fever is littered with ueven pacing and scenes that lose their punch because people need to walk in and out of frame. Example: Flipper and Angie are being ignored at a restruant because they're interracial then at the end of the scene when Queen Latifah, playing the waitress, walks off there's a 3 second cutaway where two bystanders say "She's White!?" "Mhmm Hmm"

Jungle Fever is a film that indulgently satisfies itself. You feel ever bit of Lee's directorial manipulation while be beats you over the head with dialogue after dialogue about people's opinion on race & society. In fact there is a four minute scene of 5-6 black women just talking in a room about how about how they are disenfranchised. What is the point of a camera if you're just going to film taking heads?

The camera angles and techniques in this film are all over the place in this film. In a scene where Flipper is asking for partner the camera just spins around them for about 3 minutes. I'm sure it was hard technique to film but why do these obtrusive techniques show up randomly throughout the film. I'm wondering if Lee showed up on set and rolled a dice every day. "OH look It's a 3, that means today I wanna put me and Wesley on a dolly and we are just gonna do this scene like we're drifting like ghosts". Strange camera techniques like these make me believe that Spike Lee wanted to make an experimental film.

On the plus note all the actors are amazing and Spike Lee has a great eye for talent. Samuel Jackson STEALS this movie! Every scene with Jackson is a treasure and I'm sure when he's given his life time achievement award and there showing clips of his work, Jungle Fever will be contained in that reel.

This movie is fun to watch to watch for the acting but I would recommend a more contemporary film such as "Everday People" [2004] if you wanted to see a New York film dealing with race.

Really interesting and epic tale that deals with a sensitive subject but maintains other aesthetical qualities.

[johnnyboyz · 8/10 · 26 March 2008]

Lots of hate and not much love is the feeling I get when looking this film up; ironic then that the idea of interracial relationships in 1990s America has much the same stance on the idea – stick to what you know or else people who have long since died will be angry at you, oh and the current parent who hasn't died (the father in both cases) will either threaten to or indeed literally beat you senseless.

I don't think Jungle Fever, directed by Spike Lee, is all that bad in fact I found it interesting, engaging and somewhat tragic which means I liked it; I liked it a lot. I think one of the primary reasons this film works is that it achieves something extremely difficult and that's being able to get across a narrative of love, loss and temptation all the time being able to put across and offer opinions on race and ethnicity whilst also being able to merge in a healthy and satisfying amount of humour which, oddly enough, only really comes along when the film is dealing with its 'tragedy' sub-plot involving Gator (Jackson). The idea behind the character is tragic but it is Jackson's presence and approach to the material that makes it humorous: a crack addict that turns up at the most inconvenient of times asking for money, often doing a little dance in order to get it; but he does not learn the wrong of his ways and that's the tragic thing.

So you see, the fact that Spike Lee has created this universe for all these issues to be digested and be put across all the time keeping you interest with some individual acting performances, good music and a fair amount memorable dialogue moments is extremely impressive – my favourite of which is Spike Lee himself portraying a character who goes up in extremities when he learns of an affair, the fact the wife doesn't know and then that the girl is actually white. Jungle Fever starts out in pretty humorous yet tragic circumstances, echoing the atmosphere to come for the rest of the film; the pre-film titles have road signs displaying things like 'drugs, left; crack, right' which is a damned if you do, damned if you don't idea that works amongst the upbeat music. It's this sort of juxtaposition in visuals that works and challenges the viewer as well as possibly being Lee getting across what life is like in these sorts of places 'No matter where you turn, you cannot escape certain failure'.

So, to have the rather oddly named Flipper Purify (Snipes) as an architect who is living a good life with a great job with great prospects with a wonderful wife and kid gives us the sense he is an achiever but he cannot live in a district that is pleasant, so that 'tag' that you never escape the ghetto is present. Likewise, Flipper is a big cheese in his company but he must answer to two white yuppies ahead of him and when things get a little heated, it seems the two white men have defeated the hard working black character. But it is Flipper's own stupidity that sees him go on his journey of hell and self-discovery and all in the name of curiosity which is the film's only real flaw but I cannot hold it too much against it. This is a film in which everybody gets a bite of the cherry; the African-American characters in the film are people who are striving to survive (the credits suggesting the ghetto is a no win place suggests this) doing whatever means necessary no matter how high up you are (crack head or rich architect); Italians are people who perhaps come across as quite needlessly aggressive and yet are the sorts who hold onto values and friendships despite whatever situations arise – they are also people who look out for their sisters.

Then there are the women; in what is one of Jungle Fever's more remarkable scenes, a half dozen women sit around and consolidate Drew (McKee) as she comes to terms with the affair. It is remarkable because it shows women have a voice and they are voicing their opinions in a true-to life manner – remarkable that Lee scripts this scene and shoots it not in a voyeuristic manner but one that lets us know how they feel; I wonder how many other films revolving around an male instigated affair would stop to include this scene? Jungle Fever is a film that has heart but it has brains to boot; there is another great scene when Frankie Botz (Badalucco) is being wound up over his girl and he slams people who are Aryan, blaming Hollywood (another Spike Lee scripted dig?) for it but this is right after heart of gold Italian Paulie Carbone (Turturro) points out that Italian's several decades ago who paid the blacks equal wages were hung for doing so; this echoes the overall theme of the film in a single scene, that being that "it is the 1990s, things like this happen" says Debi Mazar's character and that the disapproving parents should not be too affected by something that supposedly insults tradition.

Jungle Fever is not about 'x' is black and shouldn't date 'y' because they're white; if anything it's about the reason to stick with your partner: if Flipper was curious as to what 'white' would've been like, surely that echoes compliment to Drew because he doesn't consider he so; even though she has been bullied over the light tone of her skin. Spike Lee has made something here that is epic and intriguing; tragic and yet funny at times. This is a modern piece trying to push out what's wrong and what's right: 'stay with partner' is better than 'stay with race' but that doesn't mean you have to choose the latter if you cannot keep the former.

Edgy 90s classic

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 22 May 2018]

Unless you were an adult in the 1990s, Jungle Fever probably won't strike a chord with you, so you might want to keep looking for tonight's evening entertainment. In 1991, it was a big enough deal for a black man to have an affair with his white, Italian secretary to inspire Spike Lee to make one of his controversial, heavy dramas he's known for. People who weren't even born yet might not be able to relate; Moonlight might be the movie they talk about with their friends instead.

Wesley Snipes is married to Lonette McKee, but when he has an affair with Annabella Sciorra, everyone's world gets turned upside down. At first they keep their affair a secret, no only because he's married, but because an interracial relationship wouldn't immediately be accepted by their friends and family. But, of course, since this is a Spike Lee Joint, you can bet on the secret getting out, tensions reaching their boiling points, and lives getting destroyed.

What I like about this movie-Jungle Fever is my favorite of Spike Lee's films-is there are many more issues discussed than race. Samuel L. Jackson plays a junkie, and the relationship between him, his brother Wesley, and his parents Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, is truly accessible and heartbreaking. Lonette and her friends have a heart-to-heart about what it's like to be a black woman trying to find romance in a culture that doesn't generally link beauty with dark skin. In one of the most memorable scenes for me, Wesley and Annabella are playing around, having a good time on the sidewalk; an outsider mistakes their interaction for attempted rape and calls the police. It's a very chilling scene, one that's still incredibly applicable today. Much of the movie is, but since it's very obviously a "90s movie", modern audiences might not find it edgy enough. Grown-ups remember how edgy it was, and when we re-watch it-if we choose to; it is very heavy-it'll still seem edgy.

Keep an eye out for Halle Berry and Queen Latifah in very small parts. Halle plays Sam's junkie girlfriend, and while her performance looks like a bad community theater rehearsal, Queen's small part as a tired, overworked waitress is much better acted. On the Italian side, John Turturro and Anthony Quinn add to the cast.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to graphic sex scenes, language, and violence, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

Did somebody leave the radio on?

[msmith40 · 2/10 · 27 June 2019]

Soundtrack was too loud, and at the oddest moments. How this movie was released with no one checking the soundtrack volume is puzzling.

parental relationships in "Jungle Fever"

[lwhite01 · 4 April 2001]

In his opening sequence to Jungle Fever, Spike Lee introduces the pervasive theme of the appropriateness of sex. Through the red haze of a Harlem morning, we are introduced to Flipper and his wife Drew in a very compromising position. Entangled in both the sheets and a moment of passion, the couple begin their morning in copulation, all the while trying desperately not to `wake the baby.' This `baby' could be a child who they've already produced or a child who is potentially in the making.

This notion of sex as a means of producing children runs throughout the film. We find that even after Flipper has begun his relationship with Angela Tucci, he would never think of having children with her. Flipper's fear of having mixed (`octoon, quadroon, mulatto') children is very high. We learn that his wife is mixed herself. Her father is white and her mother is black. During the scene in her office, we get a glimpse of the kind of heartache that she has suffered from her skin color, a result of the intermingling of the two races of her parents. This sex-and-its-aftermath theme manifests itself in the dysfunctional parent/child(ren) relationships throughout the film. Angie is tied to her father and two brothers as a sort of domestic slave. Not only does she have to work hard in a distant part of town all day, but she also has to return home to cook for and clean up after her three male family members. She seems to receive no financial or emotional support for her efforts either. This becomes very clear when her father beats her up after learning of her relationship with Flipper. We see a similar relationship develop with Paulie and his father. His father's constant nagging about the number of each of the periodicals that he orders on a daily basis coupled with his lack of gratefulness for the meals that he cooks for him each day drive Paulie mad. Though Paulie's father isn't as physically abusive as Angela's father is, we see his proclivity toward violence we he forces his way into the bathroom and whaps a teary-eyed Paulie on the head with a magazine. Eventually, Paulie is able to stand up to his father, telling him `I'm not your f***ing wife; I'm your son.'

The most powerful and destructive parent/child(ren) relationship that unfolds on the screen is that of Flipper's family, including his brother Gator and both of his parents. Lee's choice to introduce the reverend doctor and his wife as parents of Gator first necessarily colors our impression of them as good parents. What type of parents produce a crackhead? Certainly not the same type of parents that produce an upstanding architect, but maybe the type of parents who would rear an interracial adulterer. Other than Drew, who we really never see interact with her child, Gator's mother is the only mother to which we're physically exposed in the text. She loves both of her children and would rather not talk about the problems that exist in their relationships. Instead, she closes her eyes to the truth of Gator's drug habit and hands him money while he does the dances that she likes, and she would rather change the subject at the dinner table than broach the topic of adultery. This approach to parenting doesn't work any better than that of her counterpart. The reverend doctor doesn't ever want to really talk to his kids about their problems without using biblical metaphors. These one-sided diatribes seem to drown out any potential discussions just as much as the wailing of his favorite Mahalia Jackson records. In the end, he must kill his neglected son because he has deteriorated so extensively from crack use. The film's concluding sequence has brought us full circle. The framing of the newspaper landing on Flipper's stoop initially suggests that everything has returned to normal - that Drew has accepted her husband back into her life. Their daughter's smiles and giggles also point to the same conclusion. But we find, as Drew rolls over in bed and tells Flipper he better leave, that the sex is only a temporary fix for a desire for pleasure. The sex will not solve the problems that it has created. In the film's resolution, we see echoes of Paulie's father's former explosion in the bathroom: `All they think marriage is for is humping.'

The final, seemingly confusing line of the film - `Yo, daddy, I'll suck your big black d*** for $2.' - sums up this theme well. It both mirrors in video and echoes in audio an almost identical part from earlier in the film. When Flipper was walking his daughter to school, a crack whore approaches him with the offer, `I'll suck your d*** for $5.' By the film's end, the price has lowered, the sex has been cheapened, and the whore is addressing Flipper as `daddy.' In this final line, the importance of parent/child relationships is emphatic. Sex, a supposedly physical manifestation of love, often results in a product - a child. This child will then live in a society where sex and love is misguided or undirected altogether.

Messy and Clumsy

[itamarscomix · 6/10 · 28 July 2012]

Jungle Fever was a disappointing follow-up to what I consider Spike Lee's two finest films, the celebrated Do The Right Thing and the subtle, underrated Mo' Better Blues, and it turned Lee overnight from one of the most critically acclaimed and promising directors of his generation into the butt of everyone's "has-been" jokes. With Jungle Fever the hype was too big, the expectations too high, and the ideas too complex to make a solid movie. The highly stylized camera work with its vivid colors, the extroverted acting and the prototypical characters - all of which worked very well for the morality tale of Do The Right Thing - feel clumsy and distracting in Jungle Fever which is a much more realistic story at heart.

That doesn't mean Jungle Fever is a bad movie; Spike Lee has some very interesting things to say about racism in modern culture, and it makes for a very thought provoking and even eye-opening experience. Interestingly, while it's often mentioned as the ultimate 'interracial romance' film, this film doesn't really deal with romance; rather, it's about sex, about social norms and family relationships, and about two people who use each other to fulfill their rebellious fantasies and rise against society. Lee refuses to use clichés, or to turn it into a sappy 'love beats all' fairy tale.

The big problem is, Lee has so much to say, a lot of it is completely lost. The most obvious example is Samuel L. Johnson's character, which is supposed to say something about family and society, but because it fits so loosely into the rest of the film - and because Jackson's over-the-top acting makes it hard to take him seriously - it feels very forced and out of place. Jackson is just one of several excellent character actors - Frank Vincent, Anthony Quinn, Ossie Davis and others - who deliver performances so intense that it's hard to focus on any of them.

The only actors who show any kind of subtlety are the leads - Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra (also Spike Lee himself and the wonderful John Turturro, but their roles are quite small), and their story is the heart of the movie, as well as the only aspect of it to really challenge conventions and say something original. The problem is that once you peel everything else away, you're left with a very thin central story, that just can't hold a film together.

Gritty, counter-racist throwdown of blackness

[Satchmo_on_Satchmo · 6/10 · 30 August 2010]

Jungle Fever, the feature film by Spike Lee directly preceding his well-respected biopic Malcolm X, is a whopping statement against drugs and white supremacy. To reference an earlier Lee "joint's" title, it explores the respective dazes of two African-American brothers - Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes), who's mesmerized by a white woman's lure, and Gator Purify (Samuel L. Jackson), a crack addict. Lee's thorough investigation of the drugs and race issues is undercut by his inability to write a truly satisfying narrative featuring Flipper and Gator's plot lines.

To return to the film's central issue of delusion, its most problematic viewpoint is that of extensive judgment of architect Flipper's affair with his Italian-American secretary, Angie (Annabella Sciorra). Lee's title, Jungle Fever, slyly refers to a psychological haze experienced by some people in interracial relationships. The rub comes in Lee's obvious statement on what Flipper - and perhaps all black men who are involved with white women - want, in the character's name: "Flipper Purify." Could a more ham-fisted summary be presented in film? In addition, Snipes' character is rebuked for his taste in women repeatedly in the film's diegesis: by his father the Good Reverend Doctor Purify (Ossie Davis), by his wife Drew (Lonette McKee), and by a nosy, grating, black waitress played by Queen Latifah, to name a few. So condemning is Lee's treatment of Flipper and Angie's desire for one another, by the film's end, it's rendered as a drug like Gator's crack cocaine. No intrinsic, long-lasting value can be drawn from it.

This moral is the film's worst flaw. Technically, it is very accomplished, even if the central "romance" is empty and unfulfilling. There are several great acting performances, among them Ossie Davis' turn as the Good Reverend; John Turturro as a store clerk who is jilted by Angie and looks for love with an African-American woman; the great Anthony Quinn as the clerk's father who holds onto bigotry as a source of personal identity; Wesley Snipes, towering as he navigates Lee's elaborate story realm; and Samuel L. Jackson as the witty crackhead brother Gator. While on the subject of Jackson, he has revealed that he was actually addicted to crack when he learned he got the role of Gator. The judges at the Cannes Film Festival created a new award specifically to honor Jackson's vivacious acting. Ernest Dickerson functioned well as the film's director of photography, bringing vivid colors to the story. The film's music stays interesting, being a collage of mainly Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra, with a bit of vintage Public Enemy thrown in for good measure.

Some words should be allotted to mentioning the film's centerpiece, a subplot sequence wherein Flipper goes looking for his brother and ventures into a den of iniquity called the "Taj Mahal." This is a building where hundreds of crackheads go to enjoy crack, trade sex for drugs, etc. Snipes gives a singular effort with the search scenes, backed by a very well-planned soundtrack pick of Stevie Wonder's "Livin' For the City." Gator explains to Flipper that the television set Flipper's mother wants has been "smoked" away. Afterward, Jackson does a superb job of portraying the damned while Flipper treads away, and Halle Berry could be said to do a good job in her first movie role as a crack addict, if a good job constitutes growling lines like "Eat me, mother*$#@er!" Lee's drug expose should move many - a cinematic uppercut just as sobering as when Drew suggests to Flipper during an argument that "white people hate black people because they're not black." Drew's harrowing narrative of being a mixed, light-skinned black woman in a race that is obsessed with color is a tear-jerker. But Lee has no problem summoning powerful scenes. Rather, it's his inability or unwillingness to link his plot lines more cohesively that pulls down the work. As a whole, Jungle Fever remains much less captivating than the sum of its parts.

Where's the 'fever'?

[higherall7 · 6/10 · 11 February 2014]

The theme of 'forbidden love' is a fascinating one, and will be with us for all time. But the truth is, I felt very little chemistry between Flipper and Angie! Times have changed, thank god, and people are a little more relaxed about relationships between races of all kinds, but when it comes to interracial love relationships there are still certain things that I find arresting and certain things that fail to capture my interest. JUNGLE FEVER is about many things except what the title implies. This is okay, and a few other themes in the film are well explored. Everything except the core concept which gives a title to this film.

After all, what is JUNGLE FEVER? What generates or causes it to come about? Is it Eldridge Cleaver's concept of the Super Masculine and Super Feminine? A woman of high social standing granting sexual favor to a man of low social standing because of sexual attraction between them? Or perhaps it's the exact opposite? When you have JUNGLE FEVER what are the signs and symptoms? What should you look out for and what should you avoid? Is it something you are bound to catch no matter how much you strive to resist it? Can you somehow guard against it? How do you catch it and what is the antidote for it? Before the turn of the 21st Century, people did not particularly look to have love relationships outside their race. The passion usually had to be great enough to compel one to cross the color line. For every man or woman there were perhaps a handful of people they would be willing to cross the color line for at the risk of social condemnation. But it was usually understood beforehand that this was a minority or nonconformist choice.

Now when it comes to interracial relationships in films there are two things that I find appealing. The first is does the couple in question look physically compatible? Do they look like they belong together despite the physical difference of color? The second is whether or not you can sense magnetism between the couple in question or what people call these days 'chemistry'. Can you sense now or developing within the narrative a sense of 'bonding'? There was much ado about Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X and having his little interracial affair with Kate Vernon playing a blond white woman named Sophia. But when they sat together and spoke no lines you sensed a physical parity between the couple. They were both very good looking people of somewhat similar features and you could reasonably and easily see how they might come together on the basis of physical attraction or magnetism. Later on, in scenes with Angela Bassett playing Betty Shabazz, you also felt physical and emotional parity between Malcolm X and his wife.

Between Wesley Snipes playing Flipper and Annabella Sciorra playing Angie I didn't sense any particular physical or emotional parity or when they were in the same space did it feel like they 'belonged' together. Nor did it seem to me either of them was resisting or fighting against catching the 'fever', before finally succumbing to it. It just seemed like Flipper and Angie got to know each other and decided to have casual sex. This is not particularly flattering, but it is as though Angie could have been anybody.

Sidney Poitier was in two films where physical parity and emotional parity were either present or in the process of developing. In A PATCH OF BLUE there was some physical parity between the female lead and Sidney and you got the feeling you would not mind seeing them together. There was a certain dignity to them being together despite any social or cultural objections that could be raised or voiced. This was also true in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER where there was less physical parity, but you felt there was some kind of emotional bond already established between the man and the woman that would brook no interference and could not be revoked simply to meet the approval of others.

Most films about interracial relationships swing between the extremes of being too staid or verge upon the pornographic. Both forms have their particular beauty to them. JUNGLE FEVER has a little of both approaches, but is actually more about the reactions of family and friends to this 'odd couple' rather than the intensity of emotions that have somehow bonded them together.

Paulie and Orin

[Duffman88 · 6/10 · 30 July 2015]

Jungle Fever focuses on two characters from different ethnic backgrounds who fall prey to forbidden lust/love. Although this is considered a romantic film with racial themes, I believe it was executed poorly. Granted, the main characters endured some bigotry from both eyes of the black/white spectrum due to their unorthodox relationship, however their situation made them both more unlikable to begin with. To explain, I think Flip( Wesley Snipes' character)was an asshole for cheating on his wife. There is no excuse for that. As for Angie,( Annabella Sciorra's character)she was a b!tc# for "succumbing to the devil and tasting the forbidden fruit" as the good reverend( Flip's dad) would say. I mean, She knew he was married and had a kid. Though without discrimination, they were both unlikable. All in all, it was a decent movie, but I did not care much for the main characters at all. They were too flawed, ordinary and despicable. However, Paulie(played by John Turturro) and Orin(Tyra Ferrell) were far more believable and likable characters. Although they only had about 10-15 minutes of screen time, they shared more chemistry than the main characters throughout the whole film. Minor SPOILERS, At least, Paulie had the balls to stick up for the girl he liked despite the hate he endured from his friends and father while walking to her house.

Excellent piece of African-American cinema!

[Catherine_Grace_Zeh · 9/10 · 31 August 2016]

JUNGLE FEVER, in my opinion, is an excellent piece of African-American cinema! I thought that Gator (Samuel L. Jackson) really needed to grow up and get a life. The Good Reverend Doctor Purify (Ossie Davis) really scared me when he got angry. When Mike (Frank Vincent) assaulted Gloria (Annabella Sciorra) after finding out what happened between her and Flipper (Wesley Snipes), my mouth dropped open and I gasped. After Drew (Lonnette McKee) got mad, I wanted to cry. Still, this was a very good movie. Everything about this movie was good, especially the costumes and performances. In conclusion, I highly recommend this movie. You're in for a good time, I guarantee it!

Almost great

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 8 March 2022]

Really good for the most part. It feels a bit all over the place at first, but it comes together as it goes on. It's better if approached as an ensemble movie, sort of like Do The Right Thing, even if Wesley Snipes' character's affair is the most prominent storyline.

Speaking of Snipes, he's great here, as is the rest of the cast (many of whom also make appearances in either Goodfellas or The Sopranos or both, funnily enough). Samuel L Jackson deserves particular praise, too. He's great here, and plays a very different character to the kind he'd become famous for playing once he became more famous.

The themes about race and modern-day segregation between two different New York neighbourhoods are pretty in your face, but the film's honest and upfront about that, so it works. And it's highlighting important issues that you can tell Spike Lee as a filmmaker feels passionate about.

I also enjoyed the Stevie Wonder-filled soundtrack, and the usual Spike Lee stylistic touches. Still, I'll admit I don't know what to make of the very last scene, and there are a couple of dramatic moments near the end that don't really get the follow-up you'd expect. It means Jungle Fever doesn't really stick its landing, but otherwise the film is another solid watch in Spike Lee's excellent filmography.

Too highly stylized and stereotyped

[yossarian100 · 2/10 · 27 January 2004]

Jungle Fever is too highly stylized, stereotyped, and comes across as essentially dishonest. Wesley Snipes was wrong for the lead and there was no chemistry between him and Annabella Sciorra. Even though there's plenty of talent in this movie, it's mostly wasted because the parts are reduced to little more than decorative cameos. Also, instead of simply showing racism for the ugly and stupid thing it is, Spike Lee chooses to wave it around like a flag in a most whining and irritating manner. I made it through most of the film but I couldn't quite finish it, and that, for me, rarely happens.

Spike Lee's JUNGLE FEVER is still grievously topical for its content, but in its narrative form, it is one of his most lucid, cohesive practice

[lasttimeisaw · 8/10 · 4 March 2020]

"The truth is, there is another violent sting in the tail, but that doesn't concern racism and it occurs behind the closed door, that manifests the topos rampant among the key demographic, the drug addiction, yes, the Purify family has a black sleep, the firstborn of The Good Reverend Doctor Purify and his wife (Davis and Dee, both as expected, are terrific as a stern father and a doting mother, respectively), Flipper's elder brother Gator Purify (Jackson), is an out-and-out hophead who spends the whole film soliciting money from his kindred, a breakthrough turn from Jackson which notably earned him an acting award in Cannes, not for BEST ACTOR, but a special BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (an award they don't accord annually), here Jackson is so lived-in in that jittery, jacked, importunate state as to dwarf Halle Berry's big screen debut as Gator's fellow crackhead into affected rants of profanity, and Lee also vehemently ram the hellscape of a crackhouse into every viewer's throat, if that doesn't dissuade you from shunning the substance abuse, nothing ever will."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

Fever Jolly Good Fellow.

[jobberishness · 7/10 · 10 March 2008]

Someone above made a terrible comment on this, implying that Jungle Fever is, for some reason, hateful towards Christians. It's important to stress that while Spike Lee often comes under fire from all sides for allegedly putting his own views across - be it homophobic, sexist, anti-semitic, or most commonly, racist - this is more a measure of the issues his films cover, and a strange excuse to pick holes in great films, than a genuine argument.

No, Jungle Fever is a brilliant film that both answers questions of his critics and raises new ones. With a similar cast to Spike's classic two years previous, Do The Right Thing (which, if you haven't seen, look up or watch), with future stars Samuel L. Jackson and Halle Berry, there's a sense of the familiar. Samuel in particular gives such an incredible performance that at the Cannes Film Festival, a 'Best Supporting Actor' award was created especially for him.

For those who have seen Spike's previous work - it's similar to Do The Right Thing, in a way. Most of the characters are characters are hard to warm to the same way as that film, and, overall, it's not as good a film - but it's not the same film. It concerns sexual myths, and somehow managing not to feel tacked on, drugs (critics demanded to know where the drugs were in Do The Right Thing upon release - Spike responded by asking where the drugs were in Oliver Stone's Wall Street, then obliged with Jungle Fever).

If you haven't, expect a look at the issue of mixed relationships, tinged with humour and tragedy, and a rather good soundtrack. But come armed with an open mind.

Lee Once Again Shows His Bigotry

[ccthemovieman-1 · 2/10 · 6 November 2005]

Director Spike Lee is famous for making films pointing out racism. In many of films, such "Do The Right Thing," most of the white people are all brutal racists. In this movie, interracial marriage is the subject, with racism once again being the entire issue.

What Lee does, however, is once again demonstrate his bigotry against Christianity. It's amazing the double standards that exist in the film world. If Lee or anyone else ever produced this kind of bias against another group he would be vilified, but Christians? Hey, it's "open season" on them.

Ossie Davis, a reverend in this film, shoots his son and then puts the smoldering gun down on top of his Bible. They zoom in on that for another closeup just in case you missed it. Hey, folks, here's another Bible reader and look what he''s like! Lee does this sort of thing in just about every movie he makes.

He shows the same hatred when dealing with race relations. Who could argue with portraying racism as an evil thing? However, Lee perpetuates it in this film as he has in his other films. His obvious bitterness toward white people doesn't help the situation. It only adds fuel to the fire.

Hey, Spike: start "doing the right thing" and leave your prejudices in the closet. Better yet, "get over it."

This is too bad because the subject matter could have made for a thought- provoking film if it had been done with objectivity and intelligence.