Spike Lee’s First Joint, A Seriously Sexy Comedy

Nola’s Birthday Dance, from Spike Lee’s movie “She’s Gotta Have It”

The first art house film I saw was Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It”. While it was a breakthrough for both black and indie filmmaking, its most notorious legacy was its introduction to the world of that nerdy b-boy Nike spokesperson Mars Blackmon. I, er, bootlegged movie when it was released on VHS and I had the opportunity to watch it multiple times, so the score and dialog are etched on my brain.

So, this past weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it has held up pretty well over the 22 years since it was released. Now that I live in NYC, it is doubly satisfying to recognize the locations where the film was shot around Brooklyn. There is the still photography of David Lee (Spike’s brother) showing a pre-gentrification Fort Greene. There is the jazz score by Spike’s dad Bill Lee. To this day, when I see a beautiful Black woman sashaying down the street ala Nola Darling, the score from the scene when Jamie and Nola meet automatically cues up in my internal soundtrack. The film was shot in black and white out of necessity (cheap film stock) but I can’t see it any other way now, and it makes the dance piece shot in color pop out in contrast. The dialog still sounds hackneyed, but it is so consistent it’s become part of the film’s aesthetic. At that time, it was still quite unusual for me see black folk doing “the wild thing” on screen (to quote Fab 5 Freddy from the “dog” montage in the film).

In the interim the dominant portrayal of Black women has gone from strong, independent black boho woman to video ho. The Black bohemian was marginalized even further by the “keepin’ it real” aesthetic that washed over Black pop culture courtesy of gangsta rap and thug life. While other filmmakers like the Wayans brothers, Robert Townsend, Hudlin Brothers followed in his footsteps, none succeeded like Spike in presenting real Black people with wit and insight. To me, “She’s Gotta Have It” is a part of the essential black film canon ala Charles Burnett’s “Killer of Sheep“. Definitely worth watching (again).

Angela (played by Angela Burnett) and neighborhood boy in the film “Killer of Sheep”, a Milestone Film & Video release.