Spike vs. Tyler

Apparently there's been some beef brewing between Spike Lee and Tyler Perry. I hadn't really been following the story so I don't know when it began, but I found this recent post containing one person's summary of the situation. This is another good entry, with short clips of both directors' viewpoints. Both these links are short, interesting reads.

I love watching movies and I really enjoy analyzing them in my head or with another person. Spike Lee is one of my favorite directors, for movies such as 25th Hour, Summer of Sam, Inside Man, When the Levees Broke, and Bamboozled. I am trying to work my way through his catalog and I've also seen Do the Right Thing, Girl 6, She Hate Me, and Malcolm X. I have several more to get to and I look forward to seeing them.

I've only seen one Tyler Perry movie, and it was by accident: Daddy's Little Girls was playing on TBS one night and I got sucked in at the beginning. Before that, I had only known him as some playwright who had started making movies with his name at the beginning of every title, like Blake Edwards. In fact, I thought he was a woman for a while due to the title Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Anyway, I vaguely knew that his movies had a reputation of being silly and vapid, like all those Nutty Professor spin-offs. But Daddy's Little Girls surprised me with its relatively feasible storyline, occasional weighty moments, and general lack of the ridiculousness I had heard of in association with Tyler Perry. It was a cute romantic movie which also dealt with some class issues and defied some stereotypes. For example, the main character is a loving, devoted father who shares custody of his three daughters with a negligent, vindictive ex (a reversal of the usual male-female roles). However, it does reinforce other stereotypes, such as when the dad reaches his wit's end and deals with his ex's drug-dealing, abusive new boyfriend by giving him a public beatdown (to the tune of Sam Cooke's poignant "A Change is Gonna Come"). That beatdown scene, by the way, is heartbreaking and triumphant in the context of this movie, but it still doesn't do much for the male violence problem.

I haven't seen any other Tyler Perry movies, but it is generally accepted that the man is business-savvy and Not An Obvious Douchebag. Some might argue that Perry just cranks out mediocre entertainment to make money off a complacent black audience, and that he exploits black stereotypes for cheap laughs. That is in fact Spike Lee's argument (he calls it "coonery buffoonery"). But Lee has just as much a niche as Perry does; Lee makes jarring, complex, uncomfortable movies that examine (among other things) what it's like for dozens of different racial and ethnic communities to live in the packed sardine can called New York City. But not everyone lives in NYC, and not everyone shares his experience of cultural and racial reality. When Lee criticizes Perry's work, it seems a little bit too much like he's saying, "THIS is the black experience you should be portraying. The one you've chosen to portray isn't valid."

Even on Perry's sitcoms, I find some interesting storyline twists that make me think. There was an episode of House of Payne where the suburban married mother of three ended up relapsing into drug addiction and leaving her family behind. Is that a tired African American media cliche, or is it a realistic portrayal of the kinds of situations that Americans struggle with today? For every person who cringes at what they see as negative portrayals of minorities, there's gotta be someone (like me) who finds it surprising and refreshing that a sitcom is willing to even go there. Actually, here's a quote from Wikipedia about the show, confirming my impression of its tone: "While primarily a comedy sitcom, House of Payne is known for featuring dark themes and subject matter, such as substance abuse and addiction..." This has got to be a good thing.

But I also love Lee's cerebral approach to the issues that face Americans today, and I would never want him to start making goofy, crowd-pleasing movies (although I think he has been trying to increase his mass appeal with later movies). And I haven't seen any Madea movies but maybe they are insufferably trite and stereotypical (research to follow). And while Lee's criticism of Perry may or may not be warranted, he is definitely correct about some aspects of Hollywood such as the Magical Negro and tokenism.

It's an interesting debate. I think they both have important, valid points. What do you guys think about Spike Lee? What do you think about Tyler Perry? Is Lee too inaccessible, judgmental, and unsupportive? Is Perry a sellout who is sabotaging black cinema? Any movie recommendations?

(I need to watch some more Tyler Perry. As for Spike Lee, my favorite movie of his is Bamboozled, which I have watched several times, most recently last night. My boyfriend and I had a thoughtful discussion afterward on the Spike vs. Tyler topic, African American portrayals in the media, and how hard (impossible?) it is to truly comprehend and appreciate the issue without living inside it on a daily basis.)