Jungle Fever (1991) or, Black and White Difficulties in New York, USA

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A powerful image of the interlocked white and black hands of a black man and a white female evocatively used on the poster for Spike Lee's Jungle Fever

Explores the struggles of an interracial young couple, an African-American architect and an Italian-American secretary in New York, a crack addict and their more or less understanding surroundings.

 

Jungle Fever is written, produced and directed by Georgian master filmmaker Spike Lee (She's Gotta Have It (1986)), whose 5th feature it is. He also co-stars as Cyrus.

Jungle Fever is a very good 'local' film, - 'local' meaning that it is very much an American and a New-Yorker film, which may seem superfluous to audiences not Americans or New-Yorkers, or at least to those uninterested in America and New York. But as someone who falls into this third group, I find it absolutely wonderful. 

The film puts a spotlight on modern, American racism, which is a favorite theme of Lee's, and he certainly doesn't make it easy for the characters of Wesley Snipes (The Fan (1996)) and Annabella Sciorra (Luke Cage (2018, TV-series)), who venture on the extra-marital, interracial affair at the film's core. Besides these two blazing stars, the film enjoys strong turns from Samuel L. Jackson (The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)) (as the crack addict), John Turturro (The Jesus Rolls (2019)), Ossie Davis (Philly (2002, TV-series)) and Lee himself. There are fresh songs from Stevie Wonder to enjoy along with the film, and the dialog is great. SPOILER Only the somewhat disappointing "NOOOOO!" ending weighs down on this great piece of filmmaking.

 

Related posts:
 
Spike Lee: The day after the day after ... the 2019 Oscars

Top 10: Best heist movies 

Inside Man (2006) - Lee's delicious heist thriller 

She Hate Me (2004) or, Champion of the Lesbians 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

He Got Game (1998) - Lee's basketball classic

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 14 mil. $

Box office: 43.8 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.12 times its cost)

[Jungle Fever premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 132 minutes. Jackson had left crack rehab two weeks before filming and his ravaged look was reportedly caused by this. Shooting took place from August - December 1990 in New York. Universal Pictures made Lee scrap a prologue with his views on racism from the film. It opened #3, behind fellow new release City Slickers and holdover hit Backdraft, to a 5.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#4), grossing 32.4 mil. $ (74 % of the total gross). The film won a National Board of Review award and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. It lost the Palme d'Or to Barton Fink. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Lee returned with 9 music videos prior to his theatrical return with Malcolm X (1992). Snipes returned in The Waterdance (1992); Sciorra in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992). Jungle Fever is certified fresh at 84 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Jungle Fever?

The 1990s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Top 10 of the Decade

 

1. Farewell My Concubine/霸王別姬/Bàwáng Bié Jī (1993) - Chen Kaige

 

 2. The Idiots/Idioterne (1998) - Lars Von Trier

 

3. Fargo (1996) - Ethan and Joel Coen

 

4. Batman Returns (1992) - Tim Burton

 

 

5. Goodfellas (1990) - Martin Scorsese

 

6. Dead Man (1995)  - Jim Jarmusch

 

7. Zentropa/Europa (1991) - Lars Von Trier

 

 

8. The Big Lebowski (1998) - Joel Coen

 

9. Frasier - season 1 (1993) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee

 

10. Braindead/Dead Alive (1992) - Peter Jackson

 

Other masterpieces (in alphabetical order):

 

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) - Tom Shadyac  

Bad Lieutenant (1992) - Abel Ferrara  

Being John Malkovich (1999) - Spike Jonze 

Casino (1995) - Martin Scorsese  

The Celebration/Festen (1998) - Thomas Vinterberg  

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - Terry Gilliam

Frasier - season 3 (1995) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee

Frasier - season 4 (1996) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee

Good Will Hunting (1997) - Gus Van Sant 

Groundhog Day (1993) - Harold Ramis 

Smoke (1995) - Wayne Wang 

Three Colors: Blue/Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993) - Krzysztof Kieslowski

 

Great movies and TV-series (in alphabetical order):

 

54 (1998) - Mark Christopher

A Few Good Men (1992) - Rob Reiner

A Texas Funeral (1999) - William Blake Herron 

American Beauty (1999) - Sam Mendes 

American History X (1998) - Tony Kaye

American Pie (1999) - Chris and Paul Weitz

Amos & Andrew (1993) - E. Max Frye 

Anastasia (1997) - Don Bluth, Gary Goldman 

Army of Darkness (1992) - Sam Raimi  

As Good As It Gets (1996) - James L. Brooks

Barton Fink (1991) - Ethan and Joel Coen 

Bean/Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Bean: The Movie (1997) - Mel Smith 

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) - Mike Judge, Yvette Kaplan, Brian Mulroney, Mike de Seve 

Belle Epoque (1992) - Fernando Trueba

Blade (1998) - Stephen Norrington 

Boogie Nights (1997) - Paul Thomas Anderson  

Bound (1996) - The Wachowskis

The Boxer (1997) - Jim Sheridan  

Bugsy (1991) - Barry Levinson 

The Cable Guy (1996) - Ben Stiller

Candyman (1992) - Bernard Rose  

Carlito's Way (1993) - Brian De Palma 

The Commitments (1991) - Alan Parker

The Crossing Guard (1995) - Sean Penn 

Crumb, documentary (1994) - Terry Zwigoff

Dazed and Confused (1993) - Richard Linklater  

Donnie Brasco (1997) - Mike Newell

Dumb and Dumber/Dumb & Dumber (1994) - Bobby and Peter Farrelly

Elizabeth (1998) - Shekhar Kapur

Eraser (1996) - Chuck Russell

Exotica (1994) - Atom Egoyan

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Stanley Kubrick

Falling Down (1993) - Joel Schumacher 

The Fisher King (1991) - Terry Gilliam 

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) - Mike Newell 

Frasier - season 2 (1994) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee  

Frasier - season 5 (1997) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee  

Frasier - season 6 (1998) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee

Frasier - season 7 (1999) - David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee

Freaks & Geeks (1999) - season 1 - Paul Feig 

The Game (1997) - David Fincher 

Ghost (1990) - Jerry Zucker

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Jim Jarmusch 

Girl, Interrupted (1999) - James Mangold

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - James Foley

The Godfather Part III (1990) - Francis Ford Coppola

Gods and Monsters (1998) - Bill Condon 

The Great Day on the Beach/Den Store Badedag (1991) - Stellan Olsson

Hamlet (1990) - Franco Zeffirelli

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992) - Curtis Hanson

Happiness (1998) - Todd Solondz

Happy Together/春光乍洩 (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997) - Wong Kar-Wai

He Got Game (1998) - Spike Lee

Heat (1995) - Michael Mann

Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) - Jim Abrahams  

The Hunt for Red October (1990) - John McTiernan

Kids (1995) - Larry Clark  

Leaving Las Vegas (1995) - Mike Figgis

Meet Joe Black (1998) - Martin Brest  

Misery (1990) - Rob Reiner 

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) - Chris Columbus

Philadelphia (1993) - Jonathan Demme  

Pi (1998) - Darren Aronofsky  

The Piano (1993) - Jane Campion

The Prince of Egypt (1998) - Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells

The Scent of Green Papaya/Mùi đu đủ Xanh/L'Odeur de la Papaye Verte (1993) - Tran Anh Hung  

Seven (1995) - David Fincher

 

Good, recommendable movies and TV-series  (in alphabetical order):

 

12 Monkeys (1995) - Terry Gilliam 

The Adventures of Tintin - all 3 seasons (1991-92) - Stéphane Bernasconi 

The Age of Innocence (1993) - Martin Scorsese

Alien 3 (1992) - David Fincher 

Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, TV movie (1993) - Christopher Guest

Audition/オーディション (Ōdishon) (1999) - Takashi Miike 

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) - Jay Roach 

Back to the Future Part III (1990) - Robert Zemeckis 

Bad Boys (1995) - Michael Bay 

Basic Instinct (1992) - Paul Verhoeven  

The Big One, documentary (1997) - Michael Moore

Black Cat, White Cat/Црна мачка, бели мачор (Crna mačka, beli mačor) (1998) - Emir Kusturica

Black Sheep (1996) - Penelope Spheeris  

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez

Bleeder (1999) - Nicolas Winding Refn  

Bowfinger (1999) - Frank Oz

Boys Don't Cry (1999) - Kimberley Peirce 

Buena Vista Social Club, documentary (1999) - Wim Wenders  

Cape Fear (1991) - Martin Scorsese

Celebrity (1998) - Woody Allen 

Chinese Box (1997) - Wayne Wang 

Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) - John Glen   

Chungking Express/重慶森林 (1994) - Wong Kar-wai  

Congo (1995) - Frank Marshall  

Cop Land (1997) - James Mangold 

Dances with Wolves (1990) - Kevin Costner 

Death of a Cheerleader, TV movie (1994) - William A. Graham

Demolition Man (1993) - Marco Brambilla 

Desperado (1995) - Robert Rodriguez

Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) - John McTiernan

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) - Mel Brooks

East Side Story, documentary (1997) - Dana Ranga 

EdTV (1999) - Ron Howard 

The Eel/うなぎ (Unagi) (1997) - Shôhei Imamura 

Election (1999) - Alexander Payne

Enemy of the State (1998) - Tony Scott  

The Faculty (1998) - Robert Rodriguez  

The Flower of My Secret/La Flor de Mi Secreto (1995) - Pedro Almodóvar  

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) - Robert Rodriguez  

The Full Monty (1997) - Peter Cattaneo  

Get Shorty (1995) - Barry Sonnenfeld

The Green Mile (1999) - Frank Darabont 

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Steve Miner 

Hard Eight (1996) - Paul Thomas Anderson

Hard Rain (1998) - Mikael Salomon

Home Alone (1990) - Chris Columbus 

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) - Chris Columbus 

Hot Shots! (1990) - Jim Abrahams  

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - Joel Coen

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) - Pedro Almodóvar

Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (documentary) (1998) - Timothy Greenfield-Sanders  

Mighty Aphrodite (1995) - Woody Allen

Mulan (1998) - Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook 

Nick of Time (1995) - John Badham

Othello (1995) - Oliver Parker 

Out of Sight (1998) - Steven Soderbergh

Pocahontas (1995) - Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg 

Porco Rosso (1992) - Hayao Miyazaki

Primal Fear (1996) - Gregory Hoblit 

Showgirls (1995) - Paul Verhoeven

Stolen Spring/Det Forsømte Forår (1993) - Peter Schrøder

 

Mediocre, poor and/or failed movies and TV-series (in alphabetical order):

 

The 13th Warrior (1999) - John McTiernan

Absolute Power (1997) - Clint Eastwood

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) - Steve Oederkerk

Alice in Wonderland, TV movie (1999) - Nick Willing 

Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Amistad (1997) - Steven Spielberg

Anaconda (1997) - Luis Llosa

Another 48 Hrs. (1990) - Walter Hill

Any Given Sunday (1999) - Oliver Stone 

Armageddon (1998) - Michael Bay 

Backdraft (1991) - Ron Howard

Body Snatchers (1993) - Abel Ferrera

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Francis Ford Coppola  

Breakdown (1997) - Jonathan Mostow 

Bride of Chucky (1998) - Ronny Yu

Chasing Amy (1997) - Kevin Smith

Criminal Lovers/Les Amants Criminels (1999) - François Ozon

Days of Thunder (1990) - Tony Scott  

Deep Blue Sea (1999) - Renny Harlin 

The Dentist 2 (1998) - Brian Yuzna  

The Devil's Advocate (1997) - Taylor Hackford 

Die Hard 2 (1990) - Renny Harlin

The Doom Generation (1995) - Gregg Araki

Ed Wood (1994) - Tim Burton  

End of Days (1999) - Peter Hyams 

The English Patient (1996) - Anthony Minghella  

Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) - John Carpenter 

Existenz/eXistenZ (1999) - David Cronenberg

Face/Off (1997) - John Woo

Fallen (1998) - Gregory Hoblit

The Fifth Element/Le Cinquième Élément (1997) - Luc Besson  

Fireworks/Hana-bi/はなび (1997) - Takeshi Kitano 

The Firm (1993) - Sydney Pollack

Following (1998) - Christopher Nolan

Four Rooms (1995) - Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino 

The Frighteners (1996) - Peter Jackson

From Fusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) - Scott Spiegel

The Fugitive (1993) - Andrew Davis

Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven (1990) - Jannik Hastrup 

G.I. Jane (1997) - Ridley Scott 

Galaxy Quest (1999) - Dean Parisot

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah/ゴジラvsデストロイア (Gojira tai Destoroyah) (1995) - Takao Okawara 

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah/ゴジラvsキングギドラ (Gojira tai Kingu Gidora) (1991) - Kazuki Ohmori 

GoldenEye (1995) - Martin Campbell

Hamsun (1996) - Jan Troell 

Heaven & Earth (1993) - Oliver Stone 

Hercules (1997) - Ron Clements, John Musker  

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Pedro Almodóvar

Home Alone 3 (1997) - Raja Gosnell 

Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) - Andrew Bergman

Høfeber (1990) - Annelise Hovmand 

It, miniseries (1990) - Tommy Lee Wallace  

Jingle All the Way (1996) - Brian Levant 

Kun en Pige (1995) - Peter Schrøder

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Richard Donner 

Mallrats (1995) - Kevin Smith

Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Tom Savini

Nixon (1995) - Oliver Stone 

Patriot Games (1992) - Phillip Noyce  

The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Dario Argento 

Phantoms (1998) - Joe Chappelle  

Run Lola Run/Lola Rennt (1998) - Tom Tykwer

Sidste Time (1995) - Martin Schmidt 

Species (1995) - Roger Donaldson

The Quick and the Dead (1995) - Sam Raimi 

Three Colors: White/Trois Couleurs: Blanc (1994) - Krzysztof Kieslowski

 

Other turkey movies and TV-series (in alphabetical order):

Analyze This (1999) - Harold Ramis

The Brave (1997) - Johnny Depp

Con Air (1997) - Simon West  

The Crow (1994) - Alex Proyas

Dangerous Beauty/A Destiny of Her Own (1998) - Marshall Herskovitz

Flubber (1997) - Les Mayfield 

The Glimmer Man (1996) - John Gray  

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) - Anthony Hickox

Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996) - David R. Ellis

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - Danny Cannon   

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) - Neil Jordan

Jerry Maguire (1996) - Cameron Crowe 

Merlin (miniseries) (1998) - Steve Barron

 

The Bottom 10 of the Decade

 

1. Deep Impact - Mimi Leder

 

2. Hook (1991) - Steven Spielberg

 

3. At First Sight (1999) - Irwin Winkler

 

 

4. Hard to Kill (1990) - Bruce Malmuth

 

 

5. Far and Away (1992) - Ron Howard

 

6. Baby Geniuses (1999) - Bob Clark

 

7. Contact - Robert Zemeckis

 

8. Great Expectations - Alfonso Cuarón

 

9. Delicatessen - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

 

10. Godzilla vs. Mothra/ゴジラvsモスラ (Gojira tai Mosura) (1992) - Takao Okawara

 

Overview:

1990: 16 titles

1991: 15 titles

1992: 20 titles

1993: 21 titles

1994: 13 titles

1995: 33 titles

1996: 19 titles

1997: 35 titles

1998: 38 titles

1999: 30 titles

 

240 titles in total

Biggest flops of the decade:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]  

1. The 13th Warrior - 95.36 mil. $ range

2. EdTV - 65.92 mil. $ range

3. Hard Rain - 57.6 mil. $ range

4. At First Sight - 48 mil. $ range

5. Christopher Columbus: The Discovery - 38.44 mil. $ range

6. Meet Joe Black - 32.84 mil. $ range

7. Fallen - 32 mil. $ range

8. Escape from L.A. - 31.12 mil. $ range

9. The Glimmer Man - 30.44 mil. $ range

10. Nixon - 30.16 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 461.88 mil. $

Biggest hits of the decade:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]  

1. Ghost - 180.32 mil. $ range

2. Home Alone - 172.64 mil. $ range

3. Mrs. Doubtfire - 151.48 mil. $ range

4. Dances with Wolves - 149.18 mil. $ range

5. American Beauty - 127.48 mil. $ range

6. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - 115.56 mil. $ range

7. The Fugitive - 103.52 mil. $ range

8. The Full Monty - 99.66 mil. $ range

9. The Blair Witch Project - 99.38 mil. $ range

10. Seven - 97.92 mil. $ range

= Combined profits: 1,297.14 mil. $

Previous decadal posts:

 

The 2010s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

What do you think of these lists?

What films and TV-series from the 2000s would make it onto yours?