Friends and family of a married Black architect react in different ways to his affair with an Italian secretary.Friends and family of a married Black architect react in different ways to his affair with an Italian secretary.Friends and family of a married Black architect react in different ways to his affair with an Italian secretary.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 11 nominations
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSamuel L. Jackson had just undergone treatment for drug addiction, and had only two weeks from his discharge from rehab to the start of filming. Jackson has gone on record as saying that Gator's ravaged look was not make-up, but actually the result of Jackson's own detoxification.
- GoofsAt the start of the film, Flipper Purify tells his boss that he objects to having a white secretary, and instead demands "a woman of color." That would have resulted in his dismissal, especially in a New York City company. Such a demand would have been in open violation of local, state and federal civil rights laws banning discrimination in hiring based on race.
- Quotes
Lucinda Purify: What happened to the color TV?
Gator Purify: Mama, I smoked the color TV!
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits are printed on roadsigns that move across the frame.
- ConnectionsEdited into 2 Everything 2 Terrible 2: Tokyo Drift (2010)
- SoundtracksBless This House
Music by May H. Brahe
Words by Helen Taylor
Used by permission of Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., ASCAP
Performed by Mahalia Jackson
Courtesy of Columbia Records
by arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
Featured review
This movie is more about sex than race. Lee was quoted in the NYT as follows: "I hate this whole Hollywood process of breaking down a movie to one sentence," he said. "My films don't deal with one theme. They interweave many different things. You have to think. I'm not saying interracial relationships are impossible. Flipper and Angie are not meant to represent every interracial couple in the world. They are meant to represent two people who got together because of sexual mythology instead of love. Then they stay together because they're pushed together. They're outcasts. And since their relationship isn't based on love, when things get tough, they can't weather the storm." Thus at its core this film is a feminist critique of the nature of sexual attraction in contemporary America. These folks are wrong for each other but they both are stereotypically "attractive." There is "chemistry" between them, but no shared values that are the bedrock of a serious relationship. The "black stud"/ "sexy white girl" is just one way this could be instantiated.
In one sense, this is a serious issue and it is worth exploring. My own misgivings about this film is that Lee's moral seems to be: values = good, chemistry = bad, and this strikes me as somewhat simplistic.
In one sense, this is a serious issue and it is worth exploring. My own misgivings about this film is that Lee's moral seems to be: values = good, chemistry = bad, and this strikes me as somewhat simplistic.
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $14,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $32,482,682
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,332,860
- Jun 9, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $43,882,682
- Runtime2 hours 12 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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