I can only imagine how fresh, innovative and invigorating Spike Lee must have seemed at the time of his 1986 feature-film debut, when he emerged as a black filmmaker with a singular, vital voice. A provocative thesis on sexual politics, the movie focuses on Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), a woman with three boyfriends (Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell and Lee) and no intention of becoming monogamous. The picture is first off a visual feast. Beginning what would be a long and fruitful partnership with cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, Lee shot the picture in sleek black and white, carefully framing his characters around Brooklyn architecture. Like almost all of Lee’s work, She’s Gotta Have It is political at heart, even if its overall approach is comic. Whether you find it to be feminist or misogynistic (I’d argue it’s far more the former than the latter), She’s Gotta Have It gets you to rethink gender roles and sexual stereotypes. From the start, it was less important whether or not you agreed with Lee than if you appreciated him for stirring things up.
