Tonight, David Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia hits HBO, directed by Spike Lee. The acclaimed filmmaker has never made a full-blown musical, but music remains essential to his distinct artistic voice. Songs, performances, and even musical numbers have populated Lee’s work since his time as a film student at NYU.
“White Lines (Don’t Do It)”
During film school, Lee created an unofficial music video for Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel’s anti-drug song, with a very young Laurence Fishburne at its center. Despite their assumedly microscopic budget, Lee and his team craft a remarkably artful, energetic piece with impressive lighting and charming choreography. Lee also takes an unusual approach to anti-drug messaging: he simply depicts tons of young people snorting copious amounts of cocaine, and allows the images (and the song) to speak for themselves.
School Daze – “Straight and Nappy”
Lee’s sophomore feature, the college comedy School Daze, may be the closest the director has come to making a full-on musical. “Straight and Nappy” is his take on a Stanley Donen or Bob Fosse musical number –– there are two groups of Black women arguing about colorism and the benefits of different hair types through song and dance. Here, the director utilizes long takes and wide shots to capture the most theatrical choreography in his entire filmography. Spike enlisted the help of his father, jazz trumpeter and composer Bill Lee, to write the music and lyrics.
Do the Right Thing – “Fight the Power”
Rosie Perez passionately grooves to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” in the opening credits of Lee’s magnum opus, Do the Right Thing. Editor Barry Alexander Brown brilliantly cuts between footage of Perez in several different costumes and locations, creating a magnificent sense of urgency and cohesion. This song serves both as an anthem for key figure Radio Raheem and as a thesis for Do the Right Thing as a whole, so its placement in the film’s opening immediately sets its anti-establishment themes on the table.
Mo’ Better Blues – Grandstanding
The filmmaker’s follow-up to Do the Right Thing follows a cocky trumpeter (Denzel Washington) as he balances romantic and professional complications. The jazz club setting provides opportunity for numerous great musical performances, and one of the best ones comes in the form of this introductory scene, where Washington’s character attempts to musically wrangle control of his band from his talented saxophonist (Wesley Snipes). The scene is brief, but it effortlessly characterizes the entire band through each member’s body language and playing style.
Malcolm X – Lindy Hop
1992’s Malcolm X contains Lee’s most elaborate dance sequence, in which Malcolm (Denzel Washington) and Shorty (Lee) let off some steam at the Roseland Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan. Otis Sallid, who also worked on School Daze and Do the Right Thing, provides the endlessly energetic Lindy Hop choreography, which Washington and Lee appear to perform themselves, along with countless talented background dancers. This scene, set to a big band performance of Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home,” is one of the largest-scale sequences of Lee’s career, and also serves as one of the best showcases of Ruth Carter’s incredible costume designs.
Crooklyn – “I Woke Up in Love This Morning”
Lee’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie Crooklyn boasts one of the best pop soundtracks ever committed to film. Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Curtis Mayfield, and numerous other massive artists provide sonic backdrops for the hectic disagreements and poignant heart-to-hearts in the Carmichael household. Music also serves as a unifying agent for the family –– they dance to Soul Train episodes, and, In this scene, the five siblings unite through the Partridge Family’s “I Woke Up in Love This Morning.”
Chi-Raq – “Oh Girl”
Available on Amazon Prime Video — 1:21:22
Lee employs a particularly theatrical rhythm in Chi-Raq –– his take on Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, told almost entirely through rhyming verse, sees Chicagoan women protest the city’s violence by abstaining from sex until shootings cease. The poetry of Lee’s dialogue occasionally transitions into song –– about eighty minutes into the film, two massive groups of characters spontaneously break into the Chi-Lites’ “Oh Girl,” complete with some elementary dance choreography. The number arrives at the height of desperation for both the men and the women, who have broken into exclusively-gendered groups in response to the sex protest.
BlacKkKlansman –– “Too Late to Turn Back Now”
One of the only moments of pure, unmitigated joy in police drama BlacKkKlansman comes when its characters visit a disco club. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) does his best to impress Patrice (Laura Harrier) with his goofy dance moves –– but, as an undercover cop, are his intentions romantically pure, or purely professional? The club’s shiny atmosphere and the incredible song choice make it difficult to discern.
Da 5 Bloods – Marvin Gaye
Lee’s most recent film centers on four Black veterans who return to Vietnam to recover a hidden treasure from their past. The filmmaker brilliantly depicts the tragedy and brutality that most war movies cover, but he approaches them from a unique angle, as his soldiers repeatedly wonder why they’re in a position to die for a country that disregards their humanity. For the film’s soundtrack, Lee aptly turns to Marvin Gaye, who repeatedly condemned the war and fought for social justice. Gaye’s music fits Da 5 Blood with such precision and poignance numerous times, and it’s impossible to pick a standout moment. A vocals-only version of “What’s Going On” beautifully matches a tense sequence that precedes heartbreaking bloodshed, while “Got to Give It Up” serves as the perfect upbeat jam when the characters celebrate at the club in the scene above.
