Ground-breaking, but flawed...

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2019)

I cannot imagine the hoops Spike Lee must have had to jump through to get any form of investment into either the concept or the production of this truly groundbreaking study of a man who divided opinion in a way few others have since the end of the Second World War. I say a study of man, but this is way more than just about him, it identifies and develops themes about inter and intra racial and gender attitudes and leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. All of that said, it does struggle as a piece of entertainment. I don't mean to trivialise the subject matter, but if it wanted to be a documentary then it should have been more tightly focused on fact and less on the dramatisation of events, some real, some not. As a biopic, it kind of falls between two stools. We are presented with, essentially, a collective of unpleasant individuals who either started out that way, or were corrupted by the environments in which they existed and/or created - clearly illustrated, for example, by the way the women are treated by their husbands/bosses etc. This left me with an overwhelming feeling that had there been more general respect and decency on offer here - across the board - then a lot of the violence from both "sides" might have been avoided. It is a must see movie, but perhaps time has robbed it of much of it's potency and left us with a sad reflection of a time when vileness didn't care about your colour.