8/10
This movie was incredible. Spike Lee is a genius, and it’s hard to believe that this was only his third film. From the second that Fight the Power began to play, featuring Rosie Perez’s great dancing, I was hooked. This movie is especially relevant during a time of racial tensions and questions about the role of police in society, but it’s unfortunate that 30 years after this movie came out we are having the same conversations about race and policing.
This movie reads like a play, with little vignettes on different conversations and brief backgrounds for certain characters. Just the overall cinematography was so colorful and detailed, which is of course contrasted towards the end of the movie when the mood entirely shifts. In this, we can really see Spike Lee’s genius. This film highlights the Italian culture and its interactions with other minority groups. What is at some times friendly can soon turn deadly. This film shows a brief look into the hottest day of summer in Brooklyn—in a slowly gentrifying neighborhood, ethnic tensions are literally heating up.
I recommend this film to everyone, especially people involved in the current ACAB movement, or people who don’t know what it means. My mom says that when she first saw the movie she thought Spike Lee was radical and militant, but now his ideas seem tame to her. I think everyone can relate to the emotions in this film, even if they don’t understand the significance of what Spike Lee is saying.
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