Sunday, April 02, 2006

how far back do you go to find an original?

NPR has a short feature (Warning: potential spoilers) dedicated to the similarities between Spike Lee's latest film Inside Man and a 1990 film called Quick Change starring (co-produced and co-directed by) Bill Murray. Following the movie connections link on the IMDB page tells us that even Quick Change has a predecessor -- a 1985 film called Hold-Up based on the same source novel by Jay Cronley. Seems like a case of crying wolf too early. Besides, knowing Spike Lee, one can expect to see his trademarks all over the piece -- the city of New York, race, social commentary.

In an interview with NPR, Spike Lee acknowledges a debt instead to two Sidney Lumet/Al Pacino classics Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico. An interesting nugget of trivia pops up too: Ang Lee was Assistant Director on Lee's thesis film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.

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