Spike Lee's low-budget, directorial debut "She's Gotta Have It" ranks as the outspoken African-American's helmer's best and least pretentious film. This modest but compelling portrait of single black woman Nola Darling qualifies as one of the greatest feminist films of the 1980s. The theme of women versus men dominates the action with the corresponding themes of women versus women and women versus society tangling for second place. The men fall back on the traditional precedents that society has established for women. Consequently, this melodrama exposes the sexual double-standard issue between men and women. Indeed, men cite dating multiple women as their masculine birthright, while a woman must only date one man at a time. "She's Gotta Have It" torpedoes that argument with its unorthodox heroine. Moreover, coming as it did on the last years of "blaxploitation" movie, Lee's film is refreshing different because none of the men are portrayed stereotypically as either pimps or drug dealers. The cast, headed by Tracy Camilla Johns, is largely unknown, but they perform well in this simple, but powerful 84 minute melodrama that asks the audience to decide if the leading lady—Nola—is a freak. In other words, is Nola a slut because she has three boyfriends that she has sex with in her apartment in New York City. Lee makes excellent use of the technique of breaking the fourth wall—when the thespians address the audience by looking directly into the camera at us—and taking their argument to us. The heroine has a relationship with a romantically inclined lover Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), a stuck-up, egotistical performer Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), and young, snappy street dude Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee). None of the three guys likes each other as they struggle to please Nola. One of Nola's apartment house neighbors is an attractive lesbian Opal Gilstrap (Raye Dowell of "Malcolm X") who tries without success to seduce Nola.

I'm a Spike Lee fan from way back but missed this one. Now I'm an old retired lady with plenty of time to catch up. All I can say is that this was a wonderful funny erotic comedy. I liked the way the characters introduced themselves, especially the former roommate who moved out because Nola was entertaining so many men, and all the men who announced their charms. If you wouldn't get a laugh watching Greer fold his clothes before sex, I don't know what would tickle you! Spike Lee himself as Mars reminds me of my Border Collie: playful, obnoxiously demanding, adoring, and never understanding why he can't be #1.When Nola is convinced that she should consult a specialist for her addiction, she comes away with no resolution, but we are treated to a wonderful aside by the therapist.The only thing that keeps this picture from a 10 rating is the sequence in color, which I though was trite and out of keeping of the rest of the movie.

The "she" that the movie title refers to, played by Traci Camilla Johns, is a beautiful, intelligent young black woman that also happens to be a nymphomaniac. While other people's beds are just places to sleep in, the lead character's bed is a shrine to be worshipped as evidenced by her propensity to adorn it with ceremonial candles. Her main sexual partners are a nerd (Spike), a wanna-be playboy, and a earnest young man who is actually interested in a relationship.I appreciate that Spike helped blaze for other young black filmmakers with his very personal approach to film-making but I never could understand why luminaries like Terri McMillan were so impressed with this film. It's a self-indulgent Spike Lee pipe dream, at best, with characters that I found it hard to care about. Why would a woman as fine as Traci Camilla Johns include a character as annoying as Spike's character among her lovers? After two hours, I thought I would at least have a better understanding of why "she has to have it", but alas that wasn't the case.The real value in watching this movie to me is observing how much the talented Lee has progressed since then. It's not bad movie, just uneven. It's unfortunate Spike didn't really put the alluring Ms. Johns to much use in future films. 7 out of 10.

So I finally got around to seeing the debut from auteur Spike Lee. I felt as though I knew the film before seeing it after reading an interesting history about it in John Pierson's "Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes". If you're a fan of independent cinema, you should check out both the book and film.Spike's familiar style and approach is evident in this early indication of a talented filmmaker. Whatever shortcomings that revealed themselves were largely unavoidable in such a low budget outing, and usually quickly forgivable.The film's testimony approach often gave characters some depth and clearly gave the film a more intimate relationship with the audience, but at times hurt the film with some unfortunate bad acting from names you never heard before and probably never will again. Again, not Spike's fault. It does include one of my buddy's favourite pick-up lines, "Baby, I'd drink a whole tub of your bath water." I'm sure most women would appreciate that sentiment as the way to their heart.Spike's sister and father have small roles which must say something about the man's admirable family pride. Of course, with many of his films, it seems Spike can't resist the allure of the space in front of the camera while controlling all that's behind it. Not many directors divide their energy in such a manner, but some of the most notorious directors of our time do. Whether this divides their focus in a negative aspect or not is difficult to say. But if it's a distraction or handicap, Spike seems to be managing fineBut even now I haven't stated either way if it's a good, recommendable film or not. It's largely in black and white, which is a turn off for non-film lovers. I once overheard some one say of "Schindler's List", "It's a really good film, even though it's black and white." I'm sure with some films the inclusion of colour can enhance the enjoyment of the film, but some things are not meant to be in colour, some things are better without it. Films like this one are only possible in black and white due to budget restraints. Whenever I see the efforts of some colourization nightmare, it makes my stomach turn, but I digress.What can I say, I am a film lover, and I enjoyed it. If you fall in the same category, you probably will too.