SHE HATE ME
US, 2004, 138 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Jim Brown, Ossie Davis, Jamel Debbouze, Brian Dennehy, Woody Harrelson, Bai Ling, Lonette Mc Kee, John Turturro.
Directed by Spike Lee.
“Oh boy!”
These are the final words in the screenplay of Spike Lee’s She Hate Me. Audiences will resonate with them – but they are a vast understatement comment on what we have been through in the previous two and a quarter hours. The final line as the end credits conclude is ‘Mission Accomplished’. (At the end of the opening credits, which feature US bank notes, presidents and sketches of US scenes, comes a bank note with George Bush on it, Enron stamped beside his photo – it is a $3.00 note!!).
Spike Lee has often been angry. Here he is upset and angry. Corporation deceit and lies is his initial target, especially when there is fraud concerning a vaccine for AIDS. He is angry at American politicians, especially Richard Nixon and includes a fantasy sequence where Frank Wills, the security guard who discovered the Watergate break-in, is humiliated and the main Watergate criminals boast of their successful post-Watergate celebrity and careers. Lee is also angry about the moral stances of the conservative Right, especially concerning Gay and Lesbian relationships. He is, as always, angry at the treatment of African-Americans? by middle-class America. Quite an agenda for a movie.
Perhaps there is too much agenda. The expose of crooked corporate dealings is strong enough in itself. The other part of the plot concerns the sacked whistleblower (Anthony Mackie) and the pressure his former girlfriend (Kerry Washington) and her partner put on him to father children for a group of lesbians who are prepared to pay well for his services. In the background is the familiar story of his struggling and ageing parents. As these strands come together, Lee seems to be saying that the hypocrisies of publicly respectable executives who lie to make money and destroy any opposition in their path should be seen as morally despicable compared with the man who does accept money as a surrogate father but who opts to re-examine his life and values and accept responsibility for his actions and, finally, relish love and being a father.
This is one of those films where it is not helpful at all simply to ask what it is about. The topics might lead to anyone’s ‘offensive’ list. Rather, it is a film that will not please everyone, will rankle with some moral viewpoints, but which can lead to endless profitable moral discussion. And it is pro-life – and then some!
Some of the acting is on the caricature side – well, so are some of the situations: from the animated sperm sequences to the encounters of the women with the hero, from the picture of the genial Mafioso (John Turturro, with Monica Bellucci) to the court case (with Brian Dennehy). Woody Harrelson and Ellen Barkin are the touch corporation chiefs.
She Hate Me is sometimes rough and ready, sometimes polished and moving, always provocative and stimulating concerning the state of the US and of contemporary morals.
1. The hostile reception to the film? Not a box office success? Expectations of Spike Lee? His choice of these issues, the black man, the executive, the whistleblower, the man in confusion, the background of the lesbian group, artificial insemination and surrogacy? A perspective of anger?
2. The American issues? The complex range? Lee coordinating them? Emphasis on some, not on others? Hit and miss? The credits – the three dollars, the mission?
3. A New York story, the world of business, the affluent world, the variety of neighbourhoods? Black America in New York City?
4. How much of the film is realistic, how much stylised? The Watergate fantasy? The sperm score …?
5. The title, the T-shirt, its tone, Fatima and her attitude? The lesbian attitude towards men?
6. The character of Jack, Jack as focused? In himself, a sympathetic character or not? Age thirty, his hopes? Family? The visits? The arguments in the family? His sister? Antagonism, the illness, overhearing the family squabbles and issues?
7. Fatima, as a character, his relationship with her in the past, the break-up and the four years? Her coming out as a lesbian? Her living alone, her apartment, the décor? His relationship with her, the visit from Fatima, and his feelings towards her? Love and anger? Puzzlement?
8. Jack at work, vice-president, his potential? The doctor and the discussions, the advice? His whistleblowing, the unethical practices? The DRA? Suicide, reaction? Margot Chadwick? Leland Powell? The cover, the arguments? The speeches, the consequences? His way of life, the lies? The investigations?
9. Fatima and her relationship with Alex, attitudes, the quality of the relationship, the perspective of lesbianism, the perspective of the screenplay on same-sex relationships?
10. The proposal to Jack, his reaction, the reactions of the women? The visits, inspecting Jack? The collage of the sexual encounters? The dramatic climax?
11. Jack, his decision, bank number and anger? His needing the money, the money from the women? The price? Fatima and the relationship, the pregnancy, Alex and her non-pregnancy?
12. Margot Chadwick, the visit, framed?
13. Simona, the visit, her father – Godfather? The discussions, the deal, friendship? The Italian links with the African Americans? Surveillance, his arrest and the consequences?
14. Jack in court, the father, prison visits, the expose about the pregnancy? The disc, the expose of the doctor? The judges and their final attitude?
15. The condemnation, Leland Powell, his arrest?
16. The ménage, the women, the births? Geronimo Armstrong and his watching? The reaction of the family?
17. The political statement for 2004, the elections in the end of 2004? The film’s stance on President Bush and the Republicans? Issues of pro-life? Pro-life versus other crimes? Priorities? A personal perspective from Spike Lee?
