WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee - "Inside Man," "Do the Right Thing," "Summer of Sam," Malcolm X"
WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee
It's Movie Time: “Inside Man,” “Do the Right Thing,” “Summer of Sam,” “Malcolm X”
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, September 1, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .
The script:
Clay
The hard hitting documentary: “When the Levees Broke” mandates another look at some of the other films of Spike Lee . . .
“Inside Man “ is, ironically, full of more 9/11 relevancy than Oliver
Stone’s “World Trade Center” . . .
John
“Do the Right Thing” does the right thing to boost the career of Spike Lee . . .
Clay
“Summer of Sam” is a steamy plate full of coiled spaghetti, lumpy meatballs, and layered Italian Lasagna . . .
John
“Malcolm X” amalgamates Lee’s concerns about racism . . .
MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:
Richelle Antczak
"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .
MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT
John
I'm John DeSando
Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe (Intro & Inside Man - 156 words)
Folks, bravo to HBO for its support of Spike Lee’s four-hour documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” Few Hollywood directors have shown more care for America’s underclass than has Spike Lee.
Michael Moore has shoved his camera more often into the faces of the rich and powerful. And Oliver Stone has more brutally detailed the horrors of war. But no one has captured, more effectively, the urban beat of America.
In “Inside Man” (starring Denzel Washington) Lee’s ever moving camera details the efficiencies, and the confusions, of New York City’s Police Department as it moves into action. That the movie’s bank heist and hostage situation takes place just a few blocks away from the remains of the World Trade Center only further focuses the film’s power.
John
What a stretch-- EVERYTHING is a few blocks away!
Clay (Ignores him)
More than an action-thriller, however, Inside Man, is about human need and greed. And about how some people can rise above it, and some people can’t.
John ("Do the Right Thing” 133 words)
Here are some who can:
Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, John Turturo, and Spike Lee in Director Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing—Everybody’s career was ascending, not least of all Lee’s, soon to be the most recognizable African-American director in film.
What was revealed about an auteur in the making in Right Thing was his ability to take the hottest day in Bed-Sty and stir racial tensions to a
boiling point that resolved nothing about racism but showed everything about ignorance, both black and white.
What is the RIGHT THING to do? Murder, arson, cop brutality are just a few of the WRONG things on this poor city block.
What’s right is that with no answers to racial tensions in the late 20th
century, director Lee spreads humor and humanity, becoming the RIGHT director for our times
Clay ("Summer of Sam” - 130 words)
Well folks, the Summer of Sam (1977) was the wrong time for just about everybody in New York City but the New York Yankees - which Spike Lee duly notes throughout this film.
Set in a dead-end Italian neighborhood the movie features a gang of tough-guy hoods; a spiky-haired wanna-be rock star and a weirdo serial killer who talks to dogs and calls himself the Son of Sam.
The girlfriends and wives are a world apart from the macho men around them. You know, the guys who walk around clutching their crotches and try to bully everyone who’s different or smaller.
John
You don’t mean Cheney, do you?
Clay
Come on, show some respect for our President.
Anyway, Summer of Sam is a violent and angry film, because it's mostly about what
happens when the heat rises in the city and clueless young men feel their
hormones kick in.
John (“Malcolm X” 137 words)
You want “violent and angry”? I’ll give you “violent and angry.”
Spike Lee’s acclaimed biopic Malcolm X treats honestly the ill-fated life of the titular African-American leader. Although the name “Black Panther” immediately instilled fear in the general populace, Lee shows a sympathetic side to the most famous Panther.
From Malcolm’s early life as a gangster, his discovery of the Nation of Islam and writings of Elijah Muhammad, to his conversion as a Sunni Muslim and eventual martyrdom, Lee captures it all with his characteristic eye for the uncompromising truth and his affection for the weakness and nobility of
humanity.
Lee’s direction of Denzel Washington as Malcolm is successfully even-handed: Washington is memorable both as a Zoot-suit gangster and a peace–seeking preacher. Washington was nominated for an Oscar.
Although Malcolm’s life can still be argued as one of dangerous violence, Lee’s film is both dramatic and empathetic.
John (Continues with wrap up of Spike Lee 55 words)
There has never been such a boyish, basketball-loving director as Spike Lee. For the weightiest topic in the history of American culture, race relations, Lee brings an artist’s sensitive eye and sense of humor without sparing the violent ends still prevailing in the ghettos and battlefields.
And his films are entertaining. THIS is an auteur.
John
Clay, I have to find a BORING Spike Lee film to bolster my reputation as a “fair and balanced” critic who always “does the right thing.”
I’m outta here.
Clay
John, your reputation precedes you, because even your family knows you’ve got us all BAMBOOZLED . . .
I'm outta here, too
See you at the movies, Folks.
HIT MUSIC
Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.
MUSIC UP AND OUT
© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe