"He Got Game" - The Father, the Son, the Holy Game

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2008)

The Spike Lee joint "He Got Game" is one of the director's most passionate films because it's about his own personal passion for the love of basketball, one of the richest and most mythic of sports. But to Lee, it's also the most holy and with that said, "He Got Game" has no shortage of religious undertones, symbolism, and imagery.
Now, as a sometime fan of the game and occasional player of the game (though I was never really any good, and former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan ranks as my greatest athlete), I can see why Lee feels the way he does about the game and his film. "He Got Game" looks at the sport, the behind-the-scenes corruption and capitalism, greed, temptations, the relationship between father and son, and the Holy Game.
But "He Got Game" is mostly about the relationship between the father and the son. Denzel Washington (in one of his best performances, and the third time he has worked with Lee) is Jake Shuttlesworth, a convict doing time for the manslaughter of his wife. Looking for a chance at redemption, he gets it when the governor, an adamant basketball fan, hears that Jake's son is the number-one basketball prospect in the country. In a once-in-a-lifetime chance, the governor, using the warden (Ned Beatty) as his go-to guy, agrees to reduce Jake's sentence if he can get his son to attend the governor's alma mater, Big State University.
In order to do this, Jake is given a one-week temporary release from prison, with two parole officers (Jim Brown and Joseph Lyle Taylor) watching his every move. The deal is easier said done. Jake's son, Jesus (Ray Allen, of the Milwaukee Bucks), has nothing but contempt for him and while his younger sister Mary (Zelda Harris) and cousin Booger (Hill Harper) have forgiven him for his sins, Jesus's heart is still filled with hatred and resentment for his father. It just becomes a question of whether or not the son will forgive the sins of the father, and whether or not the father and the son can come together as one.
"He Got Game" is a powerful movie, rich in performances, imagery, and story. It is true that Lee has never made a "bad" film in his 20+ years as a filmmaker. Every film he makes is a new experience and will always keep you watching. While suffering from an overly long running time, a few under-developed characters (like Milla Jovovich's Dakota) and occasionally uneven storytelling, "He Got Game," like all of Lee's work, keeps you watching.
It's mostly the father/son angle of the story that kept me watching. Washington is one of the strongest actors working in the industry today (some of his best moments are flashbacks to Jesus's childhood and why Jake pushed him so hard to be the best ballplayer that he could be, and the reasons behind Jake's incarceration, which are revealed to be far more complicated than first thought); while it is true that Allen is no great actor (he is an athlete, after all), he is at his best during his scenes with Washington. On his own, it's a bit of mixed effort. Lee's composer has frequently been Terence Blanchard, but replacing him this time is the emotive, driving score by Aaron Copland, blaring up during many of the film's strongest moments. Rap group Public Enemy also composed many of the songs appearing on the soundtrack; it marked their triumphant return to the rap game after a few disappointing albums.
While I don't consider myself much of a religious person (despite a Baptist Christian upbringing), there is a lot of religious allegory in "He Got Game." Like his biblical namesake, Jesus is seen as the savior, the second coming and the resurrection of the game, and there are a number of temptations, many of which are of the flesh, that he has to overcome - from the dangers of being a young black man on Coney Island (where so many other promising talents have become victims), to the cash hand-outs, promises of fame by bypassing college altogether and going straight to the NBA, and finally to the young women luring him to the big universities with questionable "recruiting" practices, and there is also the sultry, Delilah-like girlfriend Lala (Rosario Dawson), who states point-blank that she's out to get hers too because once Jesus goes pro, she'll be forgotten. The only person capable of steering the son clear of these dangers is the guidance of the father, who's seeking his own redemption as well as the forgiveness and love of the son.
"He Got Game" remains one of Spike Lee's most passionate and cinematically mature efforts, despite a few missteps along the way. The ending is a great step from the usual "reality" of most traditional Hollywood endings, yet a further sign that Lee is maturing as a filmmaker. It's powerful, it's moving, and it has game. "He Got Game" proves once and for all, that the man behind the camera also has game.
9/10