There’s no mistaking any other film from aSpike Leejoint. The director’s vibrant personality and distinct iconography are imbued into his films, from his searing dramas to inventive genre exercises. RemakingAkira Kurosawa’sHigh and Lowis a fool’s errand on paper, but Lee, whoseupcoming film,Highest 2 Lowest, is a reinterpretation of the legendary crime classic from 1963, will undoubtedly place his authorial stamp on it, taking its DNA and reshaping it to fit his unique vision and sensibilities. It’s hard to imagine anyone else directing any Lee picture, but if there’s one fellow director of his who carries a similar level of auteurism and creative panache, it isMartin Scorsese. One of Lee’s most overlooked gems,Clockers, a gritty, soulfully charged New York-set crime drama,was almost directed by Scorsese, and Lee did his best remix of the archetypal Scorsese crime saga.
‘Clockers’ Was Almost a Martin Scorsese Film
A decade followingThe Color of Money, written byRichard Price, Scorsese would team up with the crime novelist again, this time for a more personal film.Clockers, based on Price’s novel, who adapted his own book for the screen, looked like a slam dunk for Scorsese. Instead, he opted to direct anothercrime epic for Universal Pictures,Casino. Having already madeDo the Right ThingandCrooklynfor the studio,Lee was brought in as a replacement, while Scorsese, a mentor, peer, and friend of Lee’s, stayed on as a producer. Despite their intersection of styles and interests, particularly as the prominent voices of New York City,Clockerssaw an overnight transformation upon the change in the director’s chair, likely including the budget and marketing push. When Lee signed on, hedrastically altered the script, shifting the focus away from the trials and tribulations of the white cops and toward the relentless cycle of violence and peril in the lives of drug dealers.
While the poster prominently highlightsHarvey KeitelandJohn Turturroas homicide detectives,Clockersfollows Strike (Mekhi Phifer), a street-level dealer whose constant battle to evade the law and satisfy his druglord boss, Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), takes a complicated turn when he becomes entangled in a murder investigation. The film, followed from the perspective of the criminal gangland and the day-to-day fatalistic threats that follow its inhabitants, draws instantparallels to Scorsese’s oeuvre, particularlyMean Streets,Goodfellas, andThe Departed, and its political commentary surrounding the futile war on drugs in America would later be echoed in theacclaimed HBO drama,The Wire. From classic noir to the Black New Wave of the 1990s, headlined by films likeBoyz n the HoodandMenace II Society,Clockerssamples all forms of cinematic language and social reflection into one indelible expression.The film’s poster, modeled afterAnatomy of a Murder, may have leaned too far into homage and veered into plagiarism, asrenowned poster artistSaul Bassdenounced the poster for its apparent similarities.
Spike Lee’s Soulful Reflection of Crime and Reformation in ‘Clockers’
Where Scorsese depicts the criminal underworld with a documentary-like grain, Lee deploys his familiar heightened style inClockers. The director’s showy formalist aesthetic, one that rejects any notion that directing should be a passive art form, is more than just a stylistic touch, as it complements theemotionally operatic narrative. Most filmmakers would dismiss the various complexities of a morally conflicted character like Strike, butLee extracts the dramatic pathos from this low-level dealer desperate for a guiding figure,whether it’s Rodney, his older brother Victor (Isaiah Washington), or Det. Rocco Klein (Keitel).
Lee uses a story that easily could’ve been converted into pulp or exploitation of the urban panic in America into a mournful examination of the drug trade as a reflection of capitalism in America, where its participants are weaponized as transactional cogs in the machine. Instead of winding up in a body bag or a police informant,Lee idyllically envisions a world where a young Black man in America can find reformation and walk his own path.The concept of a criminal’s redemption in the face of a bleak reality would be perfected by Lee in his2002 post-9/11 masterpiece,25th Hour.
Beyond its immense thematic weight,Clockersis a fascinating insight into a director actively subverting audience expectations based on its own source material and the contemporary media landscape. Although Spike Lee strips away from the methodical police procedural writing of Price’s novel, the film remains engrossing, telling the story through our broad understanding of race and crime in America.Rather than indulging in the tropes of Black cinema during the decade, Lee studies his troubled but emotionally rich characters through an austere lens.Called up from the bench to replace the starter in Martin Scorsese,ClockerspresentsSpike Lee at his full self.
