Underestimated?
Spike Lee is one of those directors that Hollywood hasn’t had the sense to fully acknowledge and appreciate, as they do with so many other directors. Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino among a few others are the big name directors of current Hollywood. Spike Lee, unfortunately, was not one of the bigger names in either era. This may be surprising since Lee started producing films in the early 80’s. Her first major hit was She’s Gotta Have It (1986).
So far, Lee has directed about 24 films, out of which about 17 out of 18 have been written by him! He wrote, produced, directed and acted in a good number of his early films. Notable among them were ‘Do the Right Thing’ – a film on racial issues in a black community. Spike Lee can be considered the first major American director who brought black culture into the limelight in the Hollywood industry.