The large and energetic crowd gathered at Daemen College exploded in applause Wednesday night as legendary filmmaker Spike Lee made his way to the stage.
The massive crowd had assembled to see the latest installment of "America Through My Lens," Lee's current lecture series. Lee, who has made a reputation for himself as one of his generation's most influential filmmakers through his films such as "Do The Right Thing," "Malcolm X" and "The 25th Hour" approached the stage with a undeniable presence despite his small stature.
As its name suggests, Lee's speech consisted of the filmmaker's views on issues pertinent to American culture such as the upcoming Presidential election, the United States' situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan and racist undertones in the world of film.
"We live in a very dangerous time," began Lee. "Four hundred and seventy five American G.I.s have lost their lives in Iraq since the war ended."
It was not at all unexpected to hear Lee, who has a reputation for being extremely outspoken about political and social issues, open his speech on such a political note. More surprising was the amount of time Lee spent enthusiastically discussing such political issues, before deviating to another subject.
"It was faulty intelligence," said Lee of the Bush administration allegedly mistaking trucks containing water for weapons of mass destruction.
"Somebody's head is going to have to roll for that and it's not going to be Bush's. He's going to cook some rice," Lee continued in reference to Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Advisor who has taken a substantial amount of public blame for the mistake.
Lee continued on his political tirade in a comical and intelligent fashion for quite awhile. He urged the audience to vote in the upcoming presidential election, calling the 2000 election "the biggest hijacking of a political election ever," citing the "thousands of African Americans in Florida who couldn't vote because they were registered felons."
After Lee exhausted his long list of current political issues, he continued his speech in a much less controversial fashion by telling the tale of how he aspired to become the filmmaker he is today.
"I floated through my first two years of college without choosing a major ... my interest in filmmaking only started in the summer of 1977, after I had exhausted all of my electives," said Lee, chuckling with nostalgia.
Lee went on to say that he spent the summer of 1977 "running all over New York filming what I saw." Not surprisingly, this had a huge influence on his career as a filmmaker and that very summer became the setting for his 1999 film "Summer of Sam."
After concreting his credibility as both a filmmaker and a well-educated individual, Lee gave advice to students who are currently searching for inspiration and motivation to succeed in life.
"Do what you love, not necessarily what's going to make you the most money, just do what you love," advised Lee emphatically. "The only reason I'm here today is hard work, talent and luck, that's all you need to succeed."
Before concluding his lecture Lee proceeded to humorously ridicule and criticize several major recent films such as "Barber Shop," "Cold Mountain" and even the upcoming "Soul Plane."
While his format was somewhat inconsistent and at times his speech appeared to be more of a rant than a lecture, Lee managed to be politically controversial, wise, motivational and hysterically comical; a feat that few speakers can successfully pull off.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
