Editing Spike Lee (section)

=== 1990s ===
[[File:Spike Lee 1.jpg|thumb|upright|Lee at the 1999 [[Cannes Film Festival]]]]

In 1990, Lee had his first collaboration with [[Denzel Washington]] in ''[[Mo' Better Blues]]''. After the release of ''Mo' Better Blues'', Lee was accused of [[antisemitism]] by the [[Anti-Defamation League]] and several film critics. They criticized the characters of the club owners Josh and Moe Flatbush, described as "[[Shylock]]s". Lee denied the charge, explaining that he wrote those characters in order to depict how black artists struggled against exploitation. Lee said that [[Lew Wasserman]], [[Sidney Sheinberg]], or Tom Pollock, the Jewish heads of MCA and [[Universal Studios, Inc.|Universal Studios]], were unlikely to allow antisemitic content in a film they produced. He said he could not make an antisemitic film because Jews run Hollywood, and "that's a fact".<ref name=Times900816>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/16/movies/critic-s-notebook-spike-lee-s-jews-passage-benign-cliche-into-bigotry.html |title=Spike Lee's Jews and the Passage from Benign Cliche into Bigotry |last=James |first=Caryn |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 16, 1990 |access-date=December 1, 2009}}</ref> His next film was ''[[Jungle Fever]]'' (1991), for which Samuel L. Jackson won acclaim for his performance as a [[Crack cocaine|crack]] addict.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Freedman |first=Samuel G. |date=1991-06-02 |title=FILM; Love and Hate in Black and White |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/02/movies/film-love-and-hate-in-black-and-white.html |access-date=2025-02-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 1992, Spike released his biographical epic film ''[[Malcolm X (1992 film)|Malcolm X]]'' based on the ''[[Autobiography of Malcolm X]]'', starring Denzel Washington as the famed [[Malcolm X|civil rights leader]]. The film dramatizes key events in Malcolm X's life: his criminal career, his [[Prison|incarceration]], his [[conversion to Islam]], his ministry as a member of the [[Nation of Islam]] and his later falling out with the organization, his marriage to [[Betty Shabazz|Betty X]], his [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] to [[Mecca]] and reevaluation of his views concerning [[White people|whites]], and his [[assassination]] on February 21, 1965.  Defining childhood incidents, including his father's death, his mother's [[Mental disorder|mental illness]], and his experiences with racism are dramatized in [[Flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]]. The film received widespread critical acclaim including from critic [[Roger Ebert]] ranked the film No. 1 on his Top 10 list for 1992 and described the film as "one of the great screen biographies, celebrating the sweep of an American life that bottomed out in prison before its hero reinvented himself."<ref>{{cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=The Best 10 Movies of 1992|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19921231/COMMENTARY/40308026/1023|work=rogerebert.com|access-date=March 15, 2011|date=December 31, 1992}}</ref> Ebert and [[Martin Scorsese]], who was sitting in for late ''At the Movies'' co-host [[Gene Siskel]], both ranked ''Malcolm X'' among the ten best films of the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/bestof90s.shtml|title=The Best Films of the 1990s|access-date=June 21, 2010|last=Anderson|first=Jeffrey M.|publisher=Combustible Celluloid }}</ref> Denzel Washington's portrayal of Malcolm X in particular was widely praised and he was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]]. Washington lost to [[Al Pacino]] (''[[Scent of a Woman (1992 film)|Scent of a Woman]]''), a decision which Lee criticized, saying "I'm not the only one who thinks Denzel was robbed on that one."<ref>{{cite web|author=DVDTalk.com|url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/interviews/spike_lee_on_ma.html|title=Spike Lee on Malcolm X|publisher=Dvdtalk.com|access-date=July 18, 2010}}</ref>

{{external media
|video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?76013-1/black-genius Presentation by Lee at the New York University's ''Black Genius'' series, October 18, 1996], [[C-SPAN]]
}}
He followed ''Malcolm X'' with ''[[Crooklyn]]'' (1994),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marx |first=Andy |date=1993-03-04 |title=Lee gets a go for 'Crooklyn' |url=https://variety.com/1993/film/news/lee-gets-a-go-for-crooklyn-104551/ |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> ''[[Clockers (film)|Clockers]]'' (1995),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Clockers movie review & film summary (1995) {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/clockers-1995 |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=www.rogerebert.com |language=en-US}}</ref> and ''[[Girl 6]]'' and ''[[Get on the Bus]]'' (both 1996).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |date=1996-03-22 |title=FILM REVIEW;Finding a Career in Telephone Sex |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/22/movies/film-review-finding-a-career-in-telephone-sex.html |access-date=2025-02-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Brennan |first=Judy |date=1996-10-16 |title=The 'Bus' Stopped Here |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-16-ca-54227-story.html |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> His 1997 documentary ''[[4 Little Girls]]'', about the girls killed in the [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]] in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], in 1963, was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature|Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1998|title=The 70th Academy Awards &#124; 1998|website=Oscars.org &#124; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|date=October 5, 2014 }}</ref> In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-17-178/ |title=2017 National Film Registry Is More Than a 'Field of Dreams' |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=December 13, 2017}}</ref> He had his third collaboration with Denzel Washington on the sports drama ''[[He Got Game]]'' (1998).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=He Got Game movie review & film summary (1998) {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/he-got-game-1998 |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=www.rogerebert.com |language=en-US}}</ref> He followed this with ''[[Summer of Sam]]'' (1999),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Summer of Sam |url=https://ew.com/article/1999/04/19/summer-sam/ |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref> based on the [[Son of Sam]] murders.