Black Men Have To Jump?

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2000)

Spike Lee returns to familiar themes for this basketball drama, in which a talented young black man desperately seeks to escape from the black ghetto he has been brought up in. Such an overriding theme is almost identical to that of his previous venture 'Clockers'.
Lee teams up with Washington for the first time since their successful collaboration on the Malcolm X biopic. The actor plays the jailed father of basketball genius, Jesus Shuttleworth, who is ruthless in his attempt to ensure that his son escapes the ghetto through the sport. However, what also becomes clear is that his motives are not entirely unselfish in that he also puts the hopes of the entire family upon the boy's shoulders.
The son understandably resents his father; in fact it's a wonder he has any contact with him at all considering the crime he was put away for! Whilst the resentment towards his father may be justifiable, we also see that he feels that he is unable to succeed without turning his back on the neighbourhood which reared him. An example of this is when he breaks off from his relationship with his childhood sweetheart after we see him cheating on her with some white college bimbos.
However, Lee doesn't seem critical of the youth's ruthless desire, on the contrary the narrative seems quite sympathetic towards him as we watch him being pulled from all angles as to where his future should lie by people who have only their own vested interests in mind. Lee tries to focus on the fact that a young black man such as Jesus has very little choice even when it would appear from the outside that he has the world at his feet.

The situation of Jesus' character reminded me much of Morris Chestnut's Ricky in John Singleton's 'Boyz N The Hood', who was tragically destroyed by his society before he could escape. Unlike the football hopeful in Singleton's earlier film, Lee's basketball hopeful is prepared to trample on those closest to him to reach the lure of riches. Like the character of Flipper in Lee's 'Jungle Fever' he succumbs, all be it in a less literal way, to the white temptation and thus damages his own black roots. By placing his father as the film's central protagonist we gain a first hand perspective of the potential harm.
Basketball, a sport traditionally dominated by Afro-Americans, offers the ideal symbol for Lee's thought provoking critique of the flawed Afro-American Dream.