A Downloadable Movie To See: Spike Lee’s He Got Game
In the nineties, Spike Lee switched his game up, going from being “the black Woody Allen”, to really exploring his own personal style. Between Clockers and He Got Game, he began exploring some of the same territory as Martin Scorsese, creating these gritty, urban films with a real sense of danger and focused on issues of family. He Got Game is one of Lee’s all time must download movies.
The story follows a young man named Jesus, yes, Jesus, not Hey-Zeus, but Jesus, as in Jesus Christ. As his father explains “What’s wrong with Jesus? It’s a Biblical name.” “Yeah no &*$# dad!” Jesus is a basketball prodigy being pursued by, well, pretty much everyone. Every college wants him, and they stop at nothing to try and lure him to their respective schools.
His father is played by Denzel Washington, serving a stint in prison for involuntary manslaughter. During a domestic altercation some years ago, he accidentally killed Jesus’ mother, shoving her. She slipped and broke her neck. Jesus has never forgiven him for this, although his little sister has. These family issues come up again throughout the film.
The warden of the prison offers the father a deal: Get Jesus to attend the warden’s alma mater, and they’ll look at reducing the sentence.
So the father is put out on the streets for a little while to try and convince his son. For the father, it’s not simply an assignment that will help him get a reduced sentence, rather, it’s a chance at redemption, a chance at forgiveness. It’s not really about the reduced sentence, it’s about finding his son’s love again. Not that his son sees it that way.
Along the way, the father falls in love with a street prostitute while Jesus tries to figure out the right thing to do, trying to avoid the temptation, the goodies the various schools dangle in front of him. They offer him everything, money, sex, drugs, fat wads of cash as bribes, to try and get him to choose their schools over all the others. He enjoys these bonuses, but ultimate maintains his composure and tries to make the right decision for himself and for his little sister.
The ending of the film is surreal, moving, and fitting. It defies all logic and laws of physics in order to give us a conclusion that is, while not entirely logical, is at least one of the most emotionally satisfying endings put to film.
The film has some shocking moments, but more importantly, it has some moments of real truth and honesty, and some fearless performances by all of the primary cast members. Since 2000 or so, Spike Lee has turned his attention towards more marketable, polished films. These are all good movies, but with films like He Got Game, Lee really carved out a niche for himself and created some true classics of the American cinema.
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