Spike Lee’s two favourite Elia Kazan movies
In addition to being one of the most incendiary and uncompromising filmmakers of his generation, Spike Lee is also a tenured Professor of Film and Artistic Director at New York University, making him eminently qualified to analyse and critique some of the greatest and most important movies ever made.
One of Lee’s formative influences was Elia Kazan, an influential figure in Hollywood history. The Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X architect might have built his reputation on politically-charged, socially conscious, and aesthetic experimentation. But his favourite pair of features, hailing from two-time Academy Award winner and Lifetime Achievement recipient Elia Kazan, are classics in every sense of the word.
As well as the first serving as the breakout performance for Marlon Brando, 1954’s On the Waterfront and 1957’s A Face in the Crowd had a seismic impact on Lee both personally and professionally as he revealed to GQ, with Kazan’s direction and writer Budd Schulberg’s screenplay making a lasting impact that would shape how he saw cinema: “I’ve always been amazed by how Kazan and Budd worked together. It was a great partnership, and they made two of my favourite films.”
The seminal crime drama and timeless satire didn’t just become two of Lee’s personal favourites, either, but led to a friendship between the director and Schulberg before his passing in 2009, with the pugilistic stylings of the former playing a huge part in its appeal to Lee: “The two films they did back-to-back, On the Waterfront and A Face in the Crowd; Great script, great acting, directing, cinematography. I mean, the whole boxing thing came from Budd. A lot of the actors in the film were ex-boxers, Budd told Kazan: ‘You should look at these guys and put them in. Budd’s true love was boxing. He’s in the Boxing Hall of Fame as a writer. Me and Budd were tight.”
As for A Face in the Crowd, Lee lauded its predictive powers for a narrative that finds Andy Griffith’s charismatic Larry Rhodes evolve from a radio host to a television superstar with political connections, all before his self-destructive tendencies get the better of him: “Budd had the crystal ball in this film. He predicted the powered television, even Viagra, and in the film, they call ’em Vitajecks, but it’s really about the power of the media – at that time, television – and how it could be harmful, how it could be dangerous, how it could make people believe anything. And that film applies specifically today to the people who are in The White House.”
The Kazan and Schulberg duo doesn’t just come endorsed by Lee as a filmmaker or professor, but he even stated the case for why they’d make for an excellent double-bill for any cinema that specializes in screening older films: “I mean, I think that’s, you know, if that was somebody programming in one of these retro theaters, that would be a great double bill of Kazan, Schulberg’s. Elia Kazan’s direction, Budd Schulber’s writing, On The Waterfront and A Face In The Crowd, that’s the double bill.”
Spike Lee’s two favourite Elia Kazan movies:
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- A Face in the Crowd (1957)
