![]() ![]() “It used comedy as a device to expose sexual stereotyping. ![]() ![]() “But our intentions were pure: We wanted to make a funny movie that had a message about racism.” Conversation over, you can’t win,” said Howell. (The poster’s tagline was not nearly as bad as the trailer’s: “He didn’t give up… he got down.”) “A comedy with heart and soul,” read the tagline for the film, written by Carol Black (creator of future TV hits The Wonder Years and Ellen) and directed by Steve Miner. Indeed, Soul Man was posited by its creators as exactly that: a well-intentioned comedy that teaches a white man he can’t understand racism until he’s the one being discriminated against. “They’re trying to pass it off as an attack on racism. “The whole premise is that he’s passing as Black, and it’s so phony, that means all the Black people in the movie are idiots… that they could think that this guy is Black,” said Lee, who had watched clips from the movie but refused to see it in full. And a young filmmaker named Spike Lee, who was just breaking out with his feature directorial debut She’s Gotta Have It, put it on blast during an uncomfortable appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. “We find the Al Jolson-like portrayal of the main character offensive and trivializing,” wrote the university’s Black American Law Students Association, referencing the infamous blackface performer and star of The Jazz Singer. Students at UCLA protested outside of a theater screening it. Upon its release, the NAACP railed against it. Taking tanning pills to darken his face, wearing an Afro wig and putting on a one-man minstrel show, Watson was the ‘80s cinematic equivalent of disgraced former college instructor and Spokane NAACP chapter president Rachel Dolezal. Here was a film that’s main character Mark Watson (Howell) wore blackface throughout. ![]() box office, making it a commercial success that out-grossed other popular films that year like Wildcats, Three Amigos!, Iron Eagle, Spies Like Us, F/X, Flight of the Navigator and Children of a Lesser God. The film, reportedly made for a budget of $4.5 million and distributed by New World Pictures, hauled in $35 million at the U.S. Thomas Howell) who poses as a Black man in order to qualify for a scholarship to Harvard was canceled almost immediately after its release.Īlmost, that is. Released in theaters 35 years ago today, the comedy about a rich white law student (C. Whether it’s the effects of a continually progressing society or the more diabolical wrath of so-called “cancel culture,” there have been countless movies from decades past - fair or not - being re-scrutinized through a contemporary lens in recent years.Īnd then there’s the case of 1986’s Soul Man. (Photo: ©New World Pictures/courtesy Everett Co) Thomas Howell and Rae Dawn Chong in 1986's Soul Man. I am delighted to be celebrating his enormous talent and individuality with a BFI Fellowship.”īFI Fellowship recipients include Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, Satyajit Ray, Tilda Swinton, David Lean, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Steve McQueen, Akira Kurosawa, Nicholas Roeg, Orson Welles, Ridley Scott, Ousmane Sembène, Bernardo Bertolucci and Souleymane Cissé.C. A true renaissance man and pioneer, he has excelled in so many art forms, staying original, fresh and as relevant to contemporary audiences as those who have enjoyed his work for over thirty years. Lee has such a distinctive voice as an auteur, unafraid to challenge ideas of race, gender and class throughout his career with his unique cinematic style. Tim Richards, BFI Chair, said: “I am honoured and excited to be awarding Spike Lee the prestigious BFI Fellowship. I Thank The BFI For Helping Me in Continuing My Generations Of Family Legacy. Lee commented today: “I’m Blessed To Live Up To My Ancestors Credo “DEEDS, NOT WORDS”. Lee has also directed TV (Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It) and documentaries including Oscar-nominated 4 Little Girls and Emmy winner When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) and If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise (2010), both for HBO, and Michael Jackson docs Bad 25 and Off The Wall. After graduation, he founded 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, based in Brooklyn.Īmong his string of acclaimed movies are Cannes title She’s Gotta Have It, Oscar nominee Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, the aforementioned Malcolm X and Summer Of Sam, and Oscar winner BlacKkKlansman. BFI Hires Senior Sales And Distribution Executiveīorn in Atlanta in 1957 but raised in Brooklyn, New York City, Lee received his MFA in Film Production at NYU/Tisch. ![]()
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