Post 7 June 1991. Movie Review Query Engine. Web. 18 Apr. 2010.
This review focuses mostly on the feelings that Spike Lee invokes within viewers. More specifically, it focuses on Lee’s ability to take such a serious topic and turn it into a movie filled to the brim with irony and color. The mood, rhythm, and music are everything in this movie. Desson Howe focuses mainly on the musical choices in the film, claiming that they create intensity. Howe also comments on the way Lee approaches the topic of interracial relationships. Although he praises the feelings that are rendered by the combination of these different elements, Howe thinks Spike Lee lacks the ability to write a believable script. This review also commends Lee on his choice of actors.
2.Kauffmann, Stanley. "Intermittent Fever." Rev. of Jungle Fever. New
Republic 29 July 1991: 28-29. Film & Television Literature Index. Web. 18
Apr. 2010.
This review uses historical tools to analyze the plot of this movie. Author Stanley Kauffmann, recalls past plays and movies that shared themes with Jungle Fever. Kauffmann then goes on to call Lee's attempt at an ill-fated interracial love story below average. This review uses the multiple interwoven plots to discredit this movie, claiming that the presence of so many additional stories takes away from the main focus of the movie. Kauffmann credit’s the movies cinematic let down to two fatal flaws, poorly presented middle-class element and mechanical plotting. However, when it comes to directing, Spike Lee’s efforts are well received. The review
focuses in on the emotions that are invoked by the scenes portrayed by Lee. Some of the scenes in the movie display a gentleness that was absent from Spike Lee’s earlier movies. Kauffmann also comments on Lee’s choices in actors and music. Based on the review, both of these things seem to redeem Jungle Fever from its sinking plot.
3.Quart, Leonard. "Disk and Tape Reviews." Rev. of Jungle Fever. Cineaste
Mar. 1993: 99. Film & Television Literature Index. Web. 18 Apr. 2010.
Leonard Quart mainly uses this article to point out key flaws in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, although Quart does speak highly of Lee’s attention to various camera angles and techniques. The passage highlight the brilliancy that brought the film to life, focusing briefly on how Lee uses parallel cuts to bring his story of interracial love to life. This skill helps to viewer to distinguish both the racial and social difference between the two lovers. Along with the praise of Spike Lee’s camera work, this review criticizes the basic plot of this movie. Quart dislikes the
idea that the two lovers are only involved simply because of the racial bound sexual mythologies. The fact that Lee does not take the idea of class into consideration during the movie and presents a biased view of the two different races are also points that are highly criticized in this article. Within this review, Quart congratulates Spike Lee for the energy and caricature that is presented through music choice, camera angle, and intricate plots. However, the review shows dislike for the plot formation and the way the characters are portrayed.
4.Hicks, Chris. "Jungle Fever." Deseret News. Deseret News, 13 June 1991. Web. 14 Apr 2010.
This reviewer focuses on the style of Spike Lee in order to express the idea that “Jungle Fever” is a movie about racism and how love affairs ruin lives. As Chris Hicks, a movie critic from the Deseret News, analyzes the style of Spike Lee as a director and screenwriter, he makes two compelling arguments about the purpose of this 1991 film, including the destruction of love affairs, and Spike’s focus on the problems of racism. This reviewer argues that it was the affair of Flipper and Angie that caused the problems in the rest of the film, not the fact that they were of a different race. He later also states that Spike Lee made this movie that involved racism because he likes to bring up racial issues and make us think about them. Therefore it seems that this critic is stating that Lee likes to make movies about race, instead of taking into consideration that other factors of their relationship may have been the cause of problems in Flipper and Angie's lives. Although this critic does not present much evidence of these arguments, his analysis of Spike Lee and the characters of the film are helpful to his analysis of the film and director.
5.Ebert, Roger. "Jungle Fever." rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times, 07June1991. Web. 14 Apr 2010.
This critic analyzes the director’s intentions of “Jungle Fever” in order to present his argument that the movie is about racism. Roger Ebert, in this critique, expresses the director’s intentions (obtained through interviews) that this movie was supposed to express the fact that when white people and black people get together because of stereotypes, the relationship will fail. In “Jungle Fever,” it was thought that Angie was attracted to Flipper because of the stereotype of a powerful black man, and Flipper was attracted to Angie because of the stereotype of a beautiful white woman. Ebert seems to contradict this idea, because he notices that Lee does not focus on the couple so much as he focuses on the background, where racism is prominent. In this review, Ebert summarizes the plot, and focuses on the fact that, due to racism, everyone around them seems to disagree with Flipper and Angie's union. The families of both Flipper and Angie do not support their relationship, and Drew, Flippers wife, discusses that she fears that Flipper married her because of her light skin. Racism goes further when Angie’s ex-fiancé gets beaten up for deciding to ask out a black woman. In this review, Ebert simply states that this movie was not about Lee’s acclaimed hate for stereotypes, but instead of the harsh reality of racism.
6."Jungle Fever." Rolling Stones. Rolling Stones, n.d. Web. 14 Apr 2010.
In this review, Rolling Stone summarizes the major plot of the film in order to present the idea of interclass relationships as well as to counteract Lee’s idea that interracial relationships fail. Rolling Stone states that it wasn’t just the fact that Angie and Flipper were attracted to each other and they were of different races, but they wished to point out that Angie and Flipper were of different classes as well. Rolling Stone does this by describing the plot and major situations of the characters: Flipper is an upstanding architect that lives in elite houses of the African American community, whereas on the other hand, Angie is an Italian woman who cooks and cleans for her cheap, abusive father. This reviewer also seems to argue that Angie’s and Flipper’s relationship might have survived if the director did not focus solely on the downside of interracial relationships. The Rolling Stones stated that one scene where Flipper was almost killed by a cop who presumed him to be trying to rape Angie could have been used to strengthen their relationship, instead of dooming it. This critic seems to say that this movie made to show the failing of interracial relationships could have instead been a successful story about a relationship between two people who would fight to stay together despite racial issues.
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