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QUIZ

He Got Game

Test your knowledge of Spike Lee

By Sean Monkman

Spike Lee’s small size stopped him from following his childhood dream of becoming a professional athlete. Instead he moved into the arts. He first gained attention and accolades for his early student projects; his 1983 thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Student Academy Award. In the years that followed, Lee’s career has flourished while he directs, writes and acts in provocative and thoughtful films that often involve his hometown of Brooklyn, NY. He has become one of the world’s most recognizable film directors — and New York Knicks supporters. The latest Spike Lee joint, Inside Man, hits screens on Mar. 24.

1. While still a film student, Spike Lee directed the 1983 music video to what landmark hip-hop track?
	Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks
	Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel’s White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)
	LL Cool J’s I Need a Beat
	Kid ’N Play’s Rollin’ With Kid ’N Play
	Young MC’s Bust a Move

2. Ever since his first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It, Lee has been (patronizingly) dubbed the “black Woody Allen.” Complete his response to this characterization: “The only thing we have in common is being from Brooklyn. I’m ______ than him a little bit, and we’re both season ticket holders for the New York Knicks, but it stops right around there.”
	smarter
	better-looking
	taller
	funnier
	more into hip hop

3. Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lewis Lee took a well-known line from She’s Gotta Have It for the title of their first children’s book. (They’ve written two together, inspired by the dearth of kid-lit featuring African-American characters.) What is the book called?
	Please, Baby, Please
	Baby, You’re So Fine, I'd Drink a Tub of Your Bath Water
	All Men Want Freaks
	The Minute You Get Fat, I’m Leaving You
	Is It the Shoes?

4. The U.S. National Film Registry preserves up to 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” films each year. Which of Lee’s films was chosen for the honour in 1999?
	Do the Right Thing
	Bamboozled
	He Got Game
	She Hate Me
	Girl 6

5. What favour did Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Janet Jackson, Prince, Magic Johnson and Tracy Chapman do for Spike Lee?
	Made uncredited cameo appearances in his films
	Funded Malcolm X when the studio cut Lee off due to budget concerns
	Signed a letter of support for his fight against the cable network that wanted to use the name Spike TV
	Paid his way through graduate film school at New York University
	Secured the rights to the story of baseball player Jackie Robinson, one of Lee’s dream projects

6. Starting in 1988, Lee appeared as his alter ego Mars Blackmon in shoe advertisements for what NBA superstar?
	Vince Carter
	Larry Bird
	Patrick Ewing
	Michael Jordan
	World B. Free

7. Despite never helming a blockbuster, Lee’s films have made more than $275 million US at the box office. Which one took in $48 million US and change, making it his highest-grossing film?
	25th Hour
	Malcolm X
	Summer of Sam
	4 Little Girls
	Clockers

8. Four of these statements about Lee are true; one is false. Pick the odd one out.
	Is friends with Arsenal superstar footballer Thierry Henry
	Once won a bet with Reggie Miller over a Pacers-Knicks NBA playoff game (Miller had to accompany Lee on a visit to Mike Tyson in prison)
	Has appeared in a commercial for Pizza Hut in Japan
	His second-favourite sport is hockey; he was a star winger at Cornell before a knee injury ended his career
	His real first name is Shelton

9. Which of his own films did Spike Lee not act in?
	School Daze
	Mo’ Better Blues
	Jungle Fever
	Crooklyn
	The Original Kings of Comedy

10. Spike Lee never has trouble speaking his mind. Four of these outspoken quotes came from him. Select the one that did not.
	On Condoleezza Rice: “I dislike [her] more than [President George W.] Bush. The thing about it is that she’s gotten a free ride from black people.”
	On Hollywood: “There’s no originality and that has not always been the case... it’s the worst it’s ever been. It’s full of sequels and remakes of TV shows.”
	On making films in New York City: “Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven’t done and something I hope I’ll never have to do.”
	On President Bush: “He’s just a menace to mankind in general. I’m sorry, a menace to humankind in general.”
	On the gentrification of Brooklyn: “Who told you to step on my sneakers, who told you to walk on my side of the block, who told you to be in my neighborhood? Who told you to buy a brownstone on my block, in my neighborhood, on my side of the street?”