Spike Lee's 'Jungle Fever:' my review

Spike Lee's 'Jungle Fever:' my review

When I first saw Director Spike Lee's 1991 drama Jungle Fever in the theater, I was overwhelmed with the cinematography, particularly the various gels that were used by cinematographer Ernest Dickerson to make some scenes look gritty and blown out and other gels used to make the picture look razor sharp such as the scene involving the crack house called the Taj Mahal. It is as if the director used these photographic techniques as one using a highlight marker to overemphasize details he wanted to stand out. And those scenes--like electrified hair--do stand out, so much so that the rest of the film--at times--seems more like filler than context for these scenes. Nevertheless, there are enough good things about the film besides Ernest Dickerson's phantasmagorical cinematography that are worth a word or 2. The film's all-star cast includes Anthony Quinn, Wesley Snipes, Samuel L. Jackston, John Turturro, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Halle Berry.