Brilliant

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2007)

For me, Spike Lee is erratic. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes not. But this movie is a fine example of what he can be. However, it's not for everyone. Those who love "action" movies, shoot 'em up, bang bangs will be disappointed, if not just plain hate it. It moves slowly. It has a labyrinthine plot. No money (from the bank) is stolen in a "bank robbery." You have to think. And worst of all, no one is killed in a hostage-hold up. Many will think, "Where's the fun in that?" While having a lot of tension and seeming violence, there is really little real injury done to anyone. The most pain is delivered by the police shooting the innocent bystanders with rubber bullets. But look at what happens...what the results of this story are: The robbers, who turn out to be the good guys (or as good as you can be when you're robbing a bank). They are rewarded with a fortune. The paragon of virtue, the Bank owner, turns out to be the bad guy and is exposed for what he is... a monster. Our hero, the detective, is promoted, cleared of erroneous, felonious charges and ends up with a fabulous diamond with which he can propose marriage. In other words, this is a truly perceptive, ingenious parody of American "gansta" movies. It parodies all the senseless violence we are usually subjected to and predictable plots. It parodies all the normal "good guys" versus "bad guys." It even has a moral. Although there is little violence perpetrated by the robbers, the most violent imagery is on a child's video game in which one "brother" slaughters another by shooting him and blowing him up. The child finds this machinima amusing and believes that you must get the stash and "Kill that nigga." Later, when Washington's character asks the cop who reported the robbery in progress if he's ever had a gun stuck in his face before, he responds, "Yes, by a 12 year old. He shot me in the chest." The juxtaposition of the faux robbery in progress with its lack of genuine violence is played off of the inhumanity of the child's game and the fact that the only time the officer has been shot was by a child. Lee's robbers are genteel. But in the real world, we teach children not to feel. Truly a remarkable movie...the camera work, the taut tale, the irony, the acting... Bravo.