Spike Lee Film: 14 Book Review

SYNOPSIS: German authors Gunnar Landsgesell and Andreas Ungerbock's tome SPIKE LEE FILM: 14 is a comprehensive, handsome-looking read featuring an interesting and extensive profile on the confrontational and immensely talented American filmmaker Spike Lee and his brand of cinema.

The text is written in the German language but the contents are universally received as the scribers serve up a hearty menu of Lee's filmography that includes his cinematic works from 1986's She's Gotta Have It to 2006's Inside Man. Among the film critics/film scholars that contribute their critiques to Landsgesell and Ungerbock's introspective movie book is well-known Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago-based Roger Ebert (he penned the 2004 review She Hate Me). Besides the notable contribution from Ebert, Landsgesell and Ungerbock tap the services from other revered American and European sources that serve up Lee's films in thorough, thought-provoking compositions.

In this 304-page entertainment book, there is other subject matter to consider besides the in-depth reviews of the contributors' written material. Accompanied by a general book Forward (or "Vorwort") by respectable actor Danny Glover, there are colorful interviews, observations, insightful commentaries and gorgeous black and white photographs that is all the New York-bred moviemaker Lee's universe.

As unlikely as it seems that these German writers would capture the essence of Lee's message-driven cinema saturated with racial/social rawness, their pages are blessed with informational vitality that explores the movie helmer's psyche while praising the stimulating films and documentaries that have emerged from Lee's creative consciousness. From European film studies courses to just plain avid movie fans, "Spike Lee Film: 14" is a must read for folks looking to grasp the intense perspective from one of America's audacious and progressive cinematic personalities within the last 20 years of incredible movie-making.

Whether as a casual printed page for Lee enthusiasts or just a working guide for budding filmmakers to check out the variety of Lee's cinematic sensibilities, Spike Lee Film: 14 is roguishly informative, insightful, rousing and captures the essence of an outspoken artist whose imaginative and in-your-face style of filmmaking has been a refreshing movement in contemporary movies. Lee may not be embraced by the complete masses and some may find him rather divisive and too daring for their taste but one certainly cannot deny his unique voice or his vision based on the craft he cherishes so much.

Spike Lee's featured filmography includes such entries as:

She's Gotta Have It/School Daze/Do The Right Thing/Mo' Better Blues/Jungle Fever/Malcolm X/Crooklyn/Clockers/Girl 6/Get On The Bus/4 Little Girls/He Got Game/Summer of Sam/The Original Kings of Comedy/Bamboozled/A Huey P. Newton Story/Jim Brown All-American/We Wuz Robbed/25th Hour/She Hate Me/Sucker Free City/Miracle's Boys/Inside Man