Spike Lee: By Any Means Necessary - Hardcover

Grade 7 Up. This well-rounded, informative portrait of the filmmaker is appealing and engaging to read. Lee's Brooklyn childhood is chronicled, as are his college days and film-school experiences. Haskins offers insight into his subject's relationship with his family and other factors that shaped him as a youth. The majority of the discussion, of course, is devoted to his professional career and fierce determination to succeed. His abilities as a shrewd marketer and entrepreneur, the controversies nearly all of his films have generated, and the filmmaker's tireless work as an advocate for more opportunities for black artists are also discussed. Black-and-white stills from Lee's films and candid photos appear in a center insert. Fans will welcome this biography, and those unfamiliar with the man will find it an enlightening introduction. K. Maurice Jones's Spike Lee and the African-American Filmmakers (Millbrook, 1996) looks at the director specifically in the context of the history of African-American film. For biographical information, Haskins's book is the better choice.?Edward Sullivan, New York Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 6^-10. Compiling information from previously published interviews, Haskins has put together a profile of a leading African American filmmaker, noting important connections between Spike Lee's life and the films he has chosen to make. There's a strong emphasis here on the value of education and family ties: Lee is a third-generation graduate of Atlanta's Morehouse College, and he's made most of his films with on-and off-screen help from his father and siblings. After recounting Lee's early years, Haskins takes readers behind the cameras on each of Lee's 10 films to see what it takes to make a movie, from fund-raising and studio deals to editing and promotion. Because the book's structure is strictly chronological, some readers may lose interest before they get to Lee's fascinating career. But those who stay with it will find a well-told tale of how the feisty and principled filmmaker struggled to make movies the way he wanted to, all the while avoiding the siren call of Hollywood. Source notes and 16 pages of black-and-white photos are included. Randy Meyer