get on the bus

get on the bus

In 1996 Spike Lee’s 10th feature film Get on the Bus was released. This film is a look at the historical million man march on Washington DC that took place in 1995. In S. Craig Watkins article Reel Men: Get on the Bus and the Shifting Terrain of Black Masculinities he discusses this film in great detail. He outlines the troubled process of getting this film made, and the evolution of Spike Lee’s style.
According to the article this film originally was not Spike Lee’s vision. It was that of producers Bill Borden and Guy Rosenbush. They approached Lee about the project, and he immediately accepted. No Hollywood studios were interested in this film, so the producers were forced to solicit private investors. Investors for this film included Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, and Johnny Cochran. They successfully raised 2.4 million dollars.   Watkins also talked about the fact that his was Spike Lee’s first road movie, and it was very different from any other of his films. 75 percent of the film takes place on the bus, so Spike had to think of different way to make this film engaging and entertaining to the viewers. He had to come up with inventive ways of translating the story by using different camera angles, sound and editing techniques.
Watkins also pointed out that unlike most of Spike Lee’s films, Get on the Bus was a very collaborative effort. For the first time, Lee did not get a writing credit and did not act in the film. Lee also had to shoot the film on super-16, which was very different from what he was used to. The last time Spike had to use super-16 was when he was filming his only other independent film at the time, She’s Gotta Have It. He also claims that this film broke new narrative and political ground for the filmmaker. Whereas most of the media coverage of the March had to deal with the radical politics of Farrakhan, this film dealt with the social and psychological makeup of the black men who came to the march. Watkins claims that this film...