>Or maybe Spike's movies of the 1990s were just not as good?

I count 10 Spike movies made in the '90s, and 6 of them are certifiably good, and hands down better than anything BPKBP can deliver.

>I remember when Malcolm X came out, I got the sense that Spike
>was peaking and it worried me... I hoped it would not be the
>case. But look at what he followed up with:

I definitely agree that MALCOLM X is Spike's pinnacle achievement. But to be fair, most directors hit a lull after big bio films. Oliver Stone after JFK (unless you consider NATURAL BORN KILLERS a well made movie - which it's not), Richard Attenboroug after GANDHI, even Steven Spielberg got burnt a little after SCHINDLER'S LIST (how he pulled off SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is anybody's guess).

>Crooklyn was wild uneven.

Very true.

>Girl 6 was a disaster (even though I kinda liked it)

God how I hate this movie.

>Clockers (Spike's attempt to simultaneously essay and lambast
>the BPKBP genre) was too stilted and didactic.

And it's a shame because the book is sooo good. Do yourself a favor and read Richard Price's books.
But again, I think if you go back and look at directors who tackle huge subjects, you find they follow up with less developed work. Plus, starting with MALCOLM X discounts MO BETTER BLUES and JUNGLE FEVER - two great movies from that era.

>I think the problem Spike faced was not so much as the
>competition from another genre, but competition from a market
>full of black films, period.

His problem was the studio, who used BPKBP as a shield. The studios saw bigger returns with BPKBP than say, a movie about racial identity, and started pumping out/better promoting the BPKBP flicks. Couple that with Spike's attitude (which shouldn't be a factor, but hey, if attitude wasn't a factor, Edward Norton would be playing the Hulk right now) and it becomes very clear why DEAD PRESIDENTS had more commercials airing than CLOCKERS (and lets be fair, DEAD PRESIDENTS is not better than CLOCKERS). So yes, it's very much a case of Spike vs. a genre.
The "canceling each other out" factor is a big one here too. It's why you're not supposed to put out 2 similar movies at the same time - they both fail, and not just at the theatre. I know a lot of people who don't know which movie they saw, PRESTIGE or ILLUSIONIST, on cable the other day. Or the dozen war movies that came out in '07/'08 when you only went to see THE HURT LOCKER.
And unfortunately, "Black people are in it" is viewed as a genre instead of just as casting.

>Spike was basically allowed to rule the late 80s and early 90s
>because he was essentially the only game in town (or rather,
>the great white shark in a pond full of goldfish like Charles
>Lane, Charles Burnett, James Bond III, etc.)
>Most of Spike's films were viewed as problematic as any number
>of reasons but he was allowed to pass because really, what
>other options were there?

I don't think people ignored failures in Spike's films or in his catalog because his peers weren't as good as him. Nor do I think people "assume" his movies are good because there are few black films of that time period. SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT is a good movie, it doesn't matter who is or isn't making movies in 1980-something.
I think people confuse problematic with social commentary. More often than not, complaints about his work stem from that.

>Once you had a surfeit of black filmmakers out there, Spike
>had to find a way to tighten his game... and I don't think he
>did. Instead, he seemed to grow resentful of the audience for
>not paying him unconditional loyalty.

I never once got the impression he was mad there was a John Singleton or Hughes Bros. out there getting their work seen. I get the impression he's mad at the fact these movies that are about little more than glorified poverty and waaaay-overglorified violence get/got more attention than his films. Can you blame him? I don't think he got weak as a filmmaker just because there's more blacks making films. I think he was more like "I'm making a movie about the Million Man March and you're watching a movie about lesbian bank robbers?"

>I think you need to view it as a reflection of the times. The
>LA riots had cast a light on the west coast gang scene...
>hip-hop music had gone "that way," too... we had the hysteria
>about metal detectors being installed in high schools... there
>was a general fascination with the reality of black-on-black
>violence after a decade in which the primary media avatar of
>the Black community was The Huxtables.

I think the films were a catalyst as well as a product of that. The music was sampling the movies, so clearly one didn't come before the other. The issue is the lack of diversity. Every fucking movie was about four young black guys standing in front of an old brick building shooting or trying not to get shot. While there certainly needs to be some films about that, it shouldn't be 90% of the output.

>This is unfair.
>Wesley Snipes DID rise pretty high... unfortunately, some
>problems in his personal life have grounded him but you can't
>take away his accomplishments in the field. And you don't know
>what he's going to do later, either. Imagine if you had summed
>up Robert Downey Jr's life in the same way in 1996.

The comparison is where they were in the '90s to where they are now, and how that differs for those that were in the BPKBP genre as opposed to those in other, namely rom-coms, genres.
Look at Wesley's work in the decades since the '90s. What kind of movies is he making? The same kind of movies he was making in the '90s, only now nobody was seeing them. That's not advancing. He wasn't grounded because of his taxes, he was grounded well before that. He was making lame action movies in the '90s (DEMOLITION MAN, anyone?) and he was making straight-to-dvd movies in the new millennium (THE CONTRACTOR for example). I don't say this out of spite, I think Wesley is one of the most underrused actors working. He's one of a very select few who can do action and drama very well. He should be huge. Nor do I say it to make fun of his incarceration (six years of hard time for not paying taxes is bullshit). But think about it logically. It's the '90s: George Clooney has ZERO movie star bankability, can barely get noticed on two different TV shows and could not carry a movie (remember ONE FINE DAY or THE PEACEMAKER?). He's not a better actor than Wesley, and Wesley's been in the business longer. Cut to today: George chooses what movie he wants to make. Can Wesley do that? Could Wesley ever do that?
That's the major point here: the movers and shakers of '90s rom-coms can make just about any movie they want. The movers and shakers of '90s BPKBP cannot.

>Ice-T (boring, yes... but he is a working and essentially
>respectable mainstream actor)

I'm sorry, but I don't consider landing a steady TV job as an advancement of your MOVIE career. He's only considered a respectable mainstream actor because Law & Order is heavily syndicated. Don't get me wrong, he does a fine job on L&O, but he's only on that show because his movie career didn't take off. Or have we forgotten his wonderful turn in SURVIVING THE GAME?

>Ice Cube

Can't front, you got me with Mr. Cube. He's probably the only one out that genre who can make whatever he wants. As to why he makes family films...

>Nia Long

Note the difference between advancing and sticking around. She went from being the teenager in those BPKBP films to being the 20-something in the ensuing black romances. Chances are good she'll end up playing the 30-something mom on a sitcom in a year or two. That's not advancing, that's playing what ever game is being played.

>Jada Pinkett

Advanced? What has she been in that advanced her career since the '90s? She may have been in a few movies that are better (don't sleep on her performance in REIGN OVER ME or BAMBOOZLED), but she gets less work now than she did then (which sucks, because she's a better actor now). And she still gets passed over for Jodie Foster.

>Cuba Gooding Jr. (yeah, he's stalling now, but he won a Oscar! IT >COUNT!)

Consider me a member of that group that hates on Mr. Gooding, deservedly so or not.

>2Pac (YES! Both his acting AND musical careers advanced as a
>result of Juice)

No, he didn't advance - he never made it out of that genre!

>Regina King
>Larry Gilliard Jr.
>Omar Epps
>Hassan Johnson
>Sticky Fingaz
>Fredro Starr
>Larenz Tate

None of these names have really advanced. Again, unless you consider "doing whatever work comes my way" as advancing.

>Forest Whitaker (director)

People forget that Forest was doing steady character actor work in bland white movies before the whole BPKBP genre picked up steam - and it's the main reason he's continued to get work. I can guarantee you cats hire him because he's worked with Oliver Stone and Clint Eastwood and not because of JASON'S LYRIC.

>Ernest Dickerson (director)

Ernest's career has advanced because of Spike, not because of JUICE or the cinematic masterpiece that is BULLETPROOF. While it is certainly different for directors than it is actors, and while I think Ernest's camera and directing skills are great, he hasn't made a movie since NEVER DIE ALONE (remember that wonderful DMX vehicle) in 2004. You call NEVER DIE ALONE advancing from JUICE? Ernest gets work because he has a strong TV resume and his shit looks good in those Spike flicks.

>and there are more, of course.

Again, if we're talking about cats who've stuck around - not moved up - then yes, there are more.

>Is Hustle & Flow more violent than the average "white" drama
>of its kind?

Oh God no, but the reason it was able to get backing is because of the precedent set by those '90s BPKBP flicks.

>It's been a long time since we had really violent black
>movies, I think

Word? You mean other than the movie about the poor girl who's raped by her stepfather, has multiple abortions, then gets AIDS? Or the movie where the main character wins by beating up Ludacris and going to jail?
What you see now are movies that use this hyper level of violence to tell dramatic stories. In short, the grown-up versions of all those '90s flicks.

>... After Friday, broad comedy replaced
>violence as the defining feature of the "hood movie."

Historically, this is true in every entertainment medium. You go from ultra violent to ultra goofy. That's not particular to black films.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams