JUNGLE FEVER, in my opinion, is an excellent piece of African-American cinema! I thought that Gator (Samuel L. Jackson) really needed to grow up and get a life. The Good Reverend Doctor Purify (Ossie Davis) really scared me when he got angry. When Mike (Frank Vincent) assaulted Gloria (Annabella Sciorra) after finding out what happened between her and Flipper (Wesley Snipes), my mouth dropped open and I gasped. After Drew (Lonnette McKee) got mad, I wanted to cry. Still, this was a very good movie. Everything about this movie was good, especially the costumes and performances. In conclusion, I highly recommend this movie. You're in for a good time, I guarantee it!

The theme of 'forbidden love' is a fascinating one, and will be with us for all time. But the truth is, I felt very little chemistry between Flipper and Angie! Times have changed, thank god, and people are a little more relaxed about relationships between races of all kinds, but when it comes to interracial love relationships there are still certain things that I find arresting and certain things that fail to capture my interest. JUNGLE FEVER is about many things except what the title implies. This is okay, and a few other themes in the film are well explored. Everything except the core concept which gives a title to this film.After all, what is JUNGLE FEVER? What generates or causes it to come about? Is it Eldridge Cleaver's concept of the Super Masculine and Super Feminine? A woman of high social standing granting sexual favor to a man of low social standing because of sexual attraction between them? Or perhaps it's the exact opposite? When you have JUNGLE FEVER what are the signs and symptoms? What should you look out for and what should you avoid? Is it something you are bound to catch no matter how much you strive to resist it? Can you somehow guard against it? How do you catch it and what is the antidote for it? Before the turn of the 21st Century, people did not particularly look to have love relationships outside their race. The passion usually had to be great enough to compel one to cross the color line. For every man or woman there were perhaps a handful of people they would be willing to cross the color line for at the risk of social condemnation. But it was usually understood beforehand that this was a minority or nonconformist choice.Now when it comes to interracial relationships in films there are two things that I find appealing. The first is does the couple in question look physically compatible? Do they look like they belong together despite the physical difference of color? The second is whether or not you can sense magnetism between the couple in question or what people call these days 'chemistry'. Can you sense now or developing within the narrative a sense of 'bonding'? There was much ado about Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X and having his little interracial affair with Kate Vernon playing a blond white woman named Sophia. But when they sat together and spoke no lines you sensed a physical parity between the couple. They were both very good looking people of somewhat similar features and you could reasonably and easily see how they might come together on the basis of physical attraction or magnetism. Later on, in scenes with Angela Bassett playing Betty Shabazz, you also felt physical and emotional parity between Malcolm X and his wife.Between Wesley Snipes playing Flipper and Annabella Sciorra playing Angie I didn't sense any particular physical or emotional parity or when they were in the same space did it feel like they 'belonged' together. Nor did it seem to me either of them was resisting or fighting against catching the 'fever', before finally succumbing to it. It just seemed like Flipper and Angie got to know each other and decided to have casual sex. This is not particularly flattering, but it is as though Angie could have been anybody.Sidney Poitier was in two films where physical parity and emotional parity were either present or in the process of developing. In A PATCH OF BLUE there was some physical parity between the female lead and Sidney and you got the feeling you would not mind seeing them together. There was a certain dignity to them being together despite any social or cultural objections that could be raised or voiced. This was also true in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER where there was less physical parity, but you felt there was some kind of emotional bond already established between the man and the woman that would brook no interference and could not be revoked simply to meet the approval of others.Most films about interracial relationships swing between the extremes of being too staid or verge upon the pornographic. Both forms have their particular beauty to them. JUNGLE FEVER has a little of both approaches, but is actually more about the reactions of family and friends to this 'odd couple' rather than the intensity of emotions that have somehow bonded them together.

The old story of married man meets single woman at work, the two are attracted to each other and become involved in an affair. But the twist on this "typical tale" that gives it the timeless relevance is the couple is interracial. Not only are they interracial, they are from very different backgrounds and very different needs which compound the relationship they have fallen into. Talk about "It's Complicated"!Then Spike Lee lets the story take place in a very racially divided area of a hugely ethnically diverse internationally known city. Weaving into this story addiction issues that pit families against one another and cause communities to crumble. Watching this movie one can easily get caught up in the race against race issue and this be the take away. Yet for me the take away was how does one handle relationships once you peel back the taboo of interracial dating. Two people have a decision to make that is not about skin color. It is the classic story of how does one take responsibility for allowing a spur of the moment impulse to get out of control.

Spike Lee's films are consistent in one respect, even for the lesser ones, which is that they're always pressing buttons. In the case of Jungle Fever, it's another work where messages come out more than from a guy on a postal route. But that's perhaps part of the point, where such points come in many forms and sometimes like a barrage. This time, it doesn't completely gel as well as Lee's Do the Right Thing, which also held anger, contemplation, humor, and pathos about city life. But this time it's also a tale of sexual morays, where both white and black sides have their share of racism and prejudices, and at the core is a story of outcasts. The interesting thing then about Jungle Fever is how Lee's own decisions in casting and in the unique way he shoots his subjects and implements a subjective take more often then not trump what comes out in his script. Then again, maybe it's close to being inevitable with how the elements mix, and at the end there are some parts of the film that are the best that Lee's done so far as a filmmaker.Wesley Snipes and Anabella Sciora star as the said 'jungle fever' couple, the man being married with a kid, of all things to a woman who is also light-skinned and with her own 'issues', and the woman having an 'old-fashioned' Italian father. When their affair becomes known to both sides, the costs come out and they both become outcasts. And at the end of all of the points that are made in Jungle Fever by Lee, even through the ones that are pounded and (of the period) quite topical and prominent, this notion of society and culture being the biggest culprit is hard to ignore. This main point is made very well by Lee's script, and even as sometimes the script doesn't have the best dialog or lines a little 'too easy', if that makes any sense, there are many scenes which do support this to the fullest. And as the job of any good director is to cast right, this film is filled with a who's-who's of professionals and character actors.One could go on as to who appears in the film, from Anthony Quinn to Tim Robbins to Ossie Davis to John Turturro, and they all fit their parts and contribute to adding a level of fascination in each. When the less desirable aspects peak in even more, it only adds to what ends up working on screen. Sometimes the script, as mentioned, is a little derivative and trying to touch ALL bases, with a but the film is more often than not alive due to (some of) the music at times. Maybe the most genius pieces of casting were Samuel L. Jackson, in (arguably) one of his very best performances, and Halle Berry. In a sense there are similar points made in the "A" storyline and the "B" one, where there is some extra interest in the supporting characters and their connection with the main ones. Jackson and Berry are crack-heads, and outcasts, and to their own degree have the same crap end of the stick as the leads to. Among many scenes where confrontations reach a great emotional intensity, the best comes with Snipes going into the crack-house and seeing just the purest dark side of society, what really does bring people down.In the end, Jungle Fever is one of the Lee movies that is worth seeing, that may prove on a repeat viewing to bring even more thought than previous. It's energetic, somber, occasionally funny and shocking in equal measure.