Spike Lee is one of those rare directors where I stop what I’m doing to listen to any snippet he drops. I find him to be so fascinating, and I deeply adore his artistic sensibilities.
The auteur recently chatted with Ben Mankiewicz on the TCM show, Two For One, about Ace in the Hole and A Face in the Crowd, two films Lee believes truly reveal how American media and politics work behind the scenes.
Check out this clip below.
The Media in Movies
I think we’re at a crossroads when it comes to media in America right now. People are trying to gain our trust, but while simultaneously being necessary to report everything going on.
Maybe it was always this way and I have recency bias.
Hearing Spike Lee tackle this idea with Ben Mankiewicz was so interesting to me. They did so while talking about two films I really love, A Face in the Crowd and Ace in the Hole, which show the underbelly of America.
A Face in the Crowd is a 1957 film about a drifter who becomes a television star and uses his power to manipulate the public. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg.
Ace in the Hole is a 1951 film about a reporter who exploits a man trapped in a cave to get back to the big time. The film was directed by Billy Wilder and written by Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels, and Billy Wilder.
Spike believes that these films are still relevant today because they show how the media can be used to manipulate the public.
I liked when he discussed how these films were not successful when they were first released because they showed Americans truths about themselves that they did not want to hear.
Now, we see those truths and can’t look away.
What were your favorite parts of the conversation?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
