Wednesday, August 30, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee "Inside Man," "Do the Right Thing," "Summer of Same," "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

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, you should respect 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