Even Spike Lee Has a Scene He Wishes He Never Filmed
Every director has a catalog that might include things they'd do differently.
Spike Lee has been directing movies for over 30 years, so it's safe to say that over that time, he's learned a thing or two.
Lee started out with She's Gotta Have It, but burst onto the scene with Do The Right Thing, cementing him as one of our most powerful American filmmakers. He's always been unafraid to tackle the big issues, or even the toughest ones. Over his career he's made a lot of very important movies, but there's only one scene he would like to change.
Some backstory—in a 2005 biography, Lee asserted that many of his films were informed by "unreconstructed male chauvinism" that he's been trying to fight in recent works. One of those movies made under that banner was his first film, 1986's She's Gotta Have It. In the movie, protagonist Nola Darling is a woman who takes on three men to see if they can fit her needs. Darling was supposed to be an empowered person who was choosing her own suitor and sexual equal.
But in the story, Darling is raped by one of the men. This comes off as punishment for her sexual freedom, and then gets more tricky when Darling dates her rapist.
Well, Lee sees the mistakes in the storyline now, even if he didn't in 1986. Lee said in 2014 that rape scene was his "biggest regret" as a filmmaker. He also asserted that if he had "any do-overs, that would be it."
Lee made good on that promise, reworking the 2017 Netflix TV show version of the story so that there was no assault. There was a woman who was scared by a catcaller, Lee saying at the time "any level of violence towards women" was traumatic.
As filmmakers, if we're not growing as people and learning empathy within our projects, then we're doing a disservice to ourselves. Making movies and TV shows is about learning the messages we want to tell the world and emphasizing them for audiences.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
