Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” Is a Meta-Reckoning with His Success

Although the Kurosawa classic presents the great Toshiro Mifune in the equivalent of the role of Washington, it does not rely on the celebrity of its main actor to build its ideas on the economic stratification of post-war Japan. The casting of Washington like David, however, featuring it alongside the temple of unofficial black renown on the walls of the penthouse, draws attention to the career of celebrity and decade of the actor. And to those of Lee, who has taken on a calendar similar to that of Washington, and whose work in the 1990s, in particular, was defined by their partnership. In this sense, The highest 2 the lowest, The fifth collaboration of Lee and Washington, is a “late” film par excellence, entering the social problems of the narrative of the source with a meta-refect of heritage and memory, in particular with regard to high-level black artists responsible for representative responsibility. David is taken between doing the right thing and reorganizing his career, which recalls the ultimatums facing popular artists in for -profit creative industries: speak a politically divisor problem, for example, and risks repressing your fans and hemorrhage sales. Expressively political director who was also called “corporate populist” and which embraces commercial genres and the investments of lucrative products (the Swag Nike is omnipresent), Lee is certainly listening to the difficulties of honoring its principles while maintaining the bustle.

Unfortunately, this first hour of domestic drama and soul creation is also constant. Its manifest symbolism (David Mont Olympus is the Dumbo’s Olympia building); Vast and theatrical performance styles; And the hyper-expression partition of Howard Drossin betrays a camaraderie with the conventions of the classic melodrama. However, the blunt sincerity of the script, associated with the strange artificiality of the hyper-organized house of the Kings, makes its great emotions victims and / or involuntarily kitsch. In other words, it somehow looks like a life film – more soap opera than psychodrama. The Leonine Washington, at the very least, is infinitely observable; His arrogant boastful and clear changes towards the intensity in dagger eyes give these conversational scenes a certain grain and sense of humor. There is a moment when, shaved with indecision and rhythm around his home office, David cries and invokes his ancestors: What would you do, James [Brown]? What would you do, Stevie [Wonder]? Jimi [Hendrix]? Aretha [Franklin]? It’s rather silly, but I can’t deny that Washington is delighted.

When David finally agrees to pay the Kyle ransom, his decision is fueled both by moral and practical considerations: the boy is an unofficial family member, of course, but not acting also means counterpouss that could compromise the stacks. Helped by a team of cops (Lachanze plays a brain detective; Dean Winters, the Muscle Meatound), David descends from his perch to carry out the exchange of ransom, and the change of landscape – from the bright high height to the wheelbarrow at the street – is marked by a passat to a format of bad mood. Here, Lee’s signatures appear: an ethereal shot with two double capture of detective bridges (John Douglas Thompson) in close -up while he explains the plan to grasp the captors. The drossin score becomes jazzy and percussive while David and two of the detectives take the metro line 4 across Manhattan and in the Bronx, where the kidnapper and his lacqua await the deposit. As demonstrated with his previous collaboration in Washington, Le Thriller de Bank-Heist Interior (2006), Lee has a gift to harmonize the sensations of multiple chests. With The highest 2 the lowest, He puts his New Yorker and his exciting sports references at work, presenting the common rhythms of the city and public rallies as unforeseen obstacles. The parade of the Puerto Rican day is in full swing, obstructing the streets around which the deposit is supposed to take place; The Yankees play a home match, and the rabid fans of Boston hatred are packed on train 4. The kidnapper, a paragon of street smarts, plays these factors with his advantage, securing the silver bag with a few lures and the bikers crossing the crowd. Brooklynite also that David is, his rival in the pot of pot proves that it is too high and forgotten how to fight on earth.