Since the release of Do the Right Thing in 1989; Spike Lee has established himself as a cinematic icon. Lees mostly independent films garner popular audiences while at the same time engaging in substantial political and social commentary. He is arguably the most accomplished African American filmmaker in cinematic history; and his breakthrough paved the way for the success of many other African Americans in film.In this first single-author scholarly examination of Spike Lees oeuvre; Todd McGowan shows how Lees films; from Shes Gotta Have It through Red Hook Summer; address crucial social issues such as racism; paranoia; and economic exploitation in a formally inventive manner. McGowan argues that Lee uses excess in his films to intervene in issues of philosophy; politics; and art. McGowan contends that it is impossible to watch a Spike Lee film in the way that one watches a typical Hollywood film. By forcing observers to recognize their unconscious enjoyment of violence; paranoia; racism; sexism; and oppression; Lees films prod spectators to see differently and to confront their own excess. In the process; his films reveal what is at stake in desire; interpersonal relations; work; and artistic creation itself.
#3003745 in eBooks 2014-07-31 2014-07-31File Name: B00MLD1EM2
Review
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Best critical tool for unlocking tragedy so far writtenBy Thomas De Voe WorthenFirst let me state that this book is NOT for a person untutored in Greek tragedy. You have to know the plays well to begin to fathom the exquisite sense Mr. Wiles analysis lends to an often mysterious performance-art form of which we have remaining only text.That done; I will content myself and the discerning reader with a single extended quote:"The Greek spectator did not leave his real physical environment behind and through his imagination somehow enter into a fictional universe where all spatial relationships are relative and the dramatic action is a closed structure. Fellow spectators were inescapably part of his visual field. So was the sun. His sense of absolute rather than relative space depended; above all; on the sense of the east; the direction of the sunrise which was near enough due east at the spring equinox when the City Dionysia took place. The temple of Dionysus and sacrificial rituals in the sanctuary faced east in accordance with standard Greek practice."From this resolution the author takes up in detail issues; sometimes controversial sometimes unexplored;drawn from scenes from almost every play in the corpus of Greek tragedy. In an amazingly learned tour de force he shows how the space of performance was organized along dual axes: up-down; east-west; inside-outside. The audience was at once outside and inside the performance.
