The 12 Best Spike Lee Films

By Corey Atad. 1 Feb 2021 7:35 AM

Since bursting onto the New York filmmaking scene with his first film, “She’s Gotta Have It”, in 1985, director Spike Lee has left an enduring mark on the cinema landscape.

With 22 feature films, several documentaries, music videos and more under his belt, including 2020’s “Da 5 Bloods”, Lee has consistently challenged audiences and critics with his depictions of life in America, and in particular the experiences of the Black community in Brooklyn and beyond.

To help celebrate Black History Month and the work of a living icon, take a trip with us through some of the best “Spike Lee Joints” in the filmmaker’s singular career.

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'BlacKkKlansman'
Photo: David Lee /© Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection/CP Images
Lee won his long overdue first Oscar, for Best Adapted Screenplay, for "BlacKkKlansman", which dramatized the true story of police officer Ron Stallworth, played by John David Washington, who infiltrated a local Ku Klux Klan chapter in the early 1970s with the help of his Jewish partner, played by Adam Driver.
'Get On The Bus'
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In Lee's undersign road movie, "Get on the Bus", a group of African-American men take a cross country trip from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to attend the 1996 Million Man March.

Along the way, the men discuss and often argue over contentious subjects around race, sex, religion and more, facing racism along with other obstacles.
'Clockers'
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Based on the 1992 novel by Richard Price, Lee's crime drama "Clockers" stars Mekhi Phifer as a street-level drug dealer who finds himself caught in the middle of a murder investigation. The film also stars Harvey Keitel, John Turturro and Delroy Lindo.
'Girl 6'
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Lee made his first foray into black comedy with the thriller starring Theresa Randle as a struggling actress turned phone sex operator.

With a soundtrack composed entirely by Prince, the film also starred Isaiah Washington, Madonna, Naomi Campbell and more.
'4 Little Girls'
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In his first feature length documentary "4 Little Girls", Lee chronicled the 1963 murder of four young girls in a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.

Lee was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary, and in 2017 the film was selected for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
'Crooklyn'
Photo: David Lee/Kobal/Shutterstock
Lee's semi-autobiographical portrait "Crooklyn", starring Alfre Woodard and Delroy Lindo, gave audiences a personal, intimate look at a Black family living, struggling and growing up in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn in 1973.
'25th Hour'
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Written by future "Game of Thrones" series co-creator David Benioff and starring Edward Norton, "25th Hour" tells the story of a man who has 24 hours left of freedom before beginning his seven-year prison sentence for drug dealing.

Lee's 2002 drama stands as among the most acclaimed films examining life in New York after the 9/11 terror attacks.
'She's Gotta Have It'
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Lee's startling debut feature "She's Gotta Have It" starred Tracy Camilla Johns as Nola Darling, a young Boorklynite juggling three suitors.

Things get complicated when the three men meet and begin comparing their experiences with the sexually liberated Nola.
'When The Levees Broke'
Photo: David Lee / © HBO / Courtesy: Everett Collection/CP Images
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Lee went down to New Orleans to chronicle the effects and devastation left behind by the storm and its aftermath in the documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts".

The acclaimed docuseries was followed up in 2010 by Lee in the sequel "If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise".
'Bamboozled'
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Largely dismissed on release in 200, Lee's satirical drama "Bamboozled" has found new appreciation in the two decades since.

Shot mostly on consumer video cameras, the searing critique of American depictions of Black people in media over the centuries stars Damon Wayans as a television producer who recruits a pair of Black performers to stage a modern day minstrel show for television, complete with blackface, all to unexpected success.
'Malcolm X'
Photo: Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection/CP Images
Denzel Washington delivered perhaps his strongest performance ever in Lee's biopic about the life of Malcolm X, the controversial and influential Black activist assassinated in 1965.

The film chronicles Malcolm's rise from his early criminal dealings, to his time in prison and conversion to Islam, his pilgrimage to Mecca, his political awakening and finally his tragic murder.
'Do The Right Thing'
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In 1989, Lee debuted his more enduring work, "Do the Right Thing".

The ensemble portrait of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood in Brooklyn chronicles the hottest day of the summer, as residents go about their daily lives and racial tensions eventually boil over.

Controversial at the time of its release, the film has gone on to be regarded by many as one of the great American films of all time, selected for preservation by the Library of Congress and finding sadly renewed relevance for its fictional depiction of a Black man choked to death by police.

The 12 Best Spike Lee Films

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