Spike Lee Movies: Release Order

Other Watch Lists:
1986 - 202524 Films52h 14m3.5 Average

Spike Lee established himself as a vital voice in cinema with his 1986 breakthrough She's Gotta Have It (after he had previously made a student film in 1983). Over nearly four decades, Lee has crafted what he calls "Spike Lee Joints" - films bursting with energy, style, and unflinching social commentary.

This complete filmography spans from his early independent comedies through his masterworks like Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, to his continued relevance with recent films like BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods. Lee's career encompasses provocative dramas, genre exercises, ambitious satires, and passionate examinations of American culture, all marked by his singular vision and refusal to compromise.

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1
She's Gotta Have It poster

She's Gotta Have It

19861h 24m3.7
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Spike Lee, Raye Dowell

The story of Nola Darling's simultaneous sexual relationships with three different men is told by her and by her partners and other friends. All three men wanted her to commit solely to them; Nola resists being "owned" by a single partner.

ComedyRomance
2
School Daze poster

School Daze

19882h 1m3
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Ossie Davis, Joe Seneca

Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.

ComedyDramaMusic
3
Do the Right Thing poster

Do the Right Thing

19892h4.7
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito

Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

Drama
4
Mo' Better Blues poster

Mo' Better Blues

19902h 9m3.6
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris

Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.

DramaMusic
5
Jungle Fever poster

Jungle Fever

19912h 12m3.5
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee

A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.

DramaRomance
6
Malcolm X poster

Malcolm X

19923h 22m4.5
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman Jr., Delroy Lindo

A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

DramaHistory
7
Crooklyn poster

Crooklyn

19941h 54m3.9
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, David Patrick Kelly, Zelda Harris, Carlton Williams

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

ComedyDrama
8
Clockers poster

Clockers

19952h 8m3.8
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington

Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Detective Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.

CrimeDramaMystery
9
Girl 6 poster

Girl 6

19961h 48m2.4
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Theresa Randle, Isaiah Washington, Spike Lee, Jenifer Lewis, Debi Mazar

A struggling actress in New York City takes a job as a phone sex operator.

ComedyDrama
10
Get on the Bus poster

Get on the Bus

19961h 56m3.5
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Richard Belzer, De'Aundre Bonds, Andre Braugher, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Gabriel Casseus

Several Black men take a cross-country bus trip to attend the Million Man March in Washington, DC in 1995. On the bus are an eclectic set of characters including a laid-off aircraft worker, a man whose at-risk son is handcuffed to him, a black Republican, a former gangsta, a Hollywood actor, a cop who is of mixed racial background, and a white bus driver. All make the trek discussing issues surrounding the march, including manhood, religion, politics, and race.

DramaAdventure
11
He Got Game poster

He Got Game

19982h 16m3.8
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Rosario Dawson, Milla Jovovich, Hill Harper

A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.

Drama
12
Summer of Sam poster

Summer of Sam

19992h 22m3.6
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Rispoli

Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.

CrimeDramaThriller
13
Bamboozled poster

Bamboozled

20002h 16m3.4
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport

Frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.

ComedyDrama
14
25th Hour poster

25th Hour

20022h 15m4.3
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin

On the eve of a seven-year prison sentence, a New York drug dealer spends his final day of freedom confronting his past, his relationships, and the choices that led to his downfall in a city still reeling from 9/11.

CrimeDrama
15
She Hate Me poster

She Hate Me

20042h 19m2.5
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Jim Brown

Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.

ComedyDrama
16
Inside Man poster

Inside Man

20062h 9m4.4
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe

When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

CrimeDramaThriller
17
Miracle at St. Anna poster

Miracle at St. Anna

20082h 40m3.3
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Pierfrancesco Favino

Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four American soldiers who are members of the all-black 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.

DramaWar
18
Red Hook Summer poster

Red Hook Summer

20122h 5m2.7
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Clarke Peters, Nate Parker, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Toni Lysaith, Jules Brown

When his mom deposits him at the Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn to spend the summer with the grandfather he’s never met, young Flik may as well have landed on Mars. Fresh from his cushy life in Atlanta, he’s bored and friendless, and his strict grandfather, Enoch, a firebrand preacher, is bent on getting him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Only Chazz, the feisty girl from church, provides a diversion from the drudgery. As hot summer simmers and Sunday mornings brim with Enoch’s operatic sermons, things turn anything but dull as people’s conflicting agendas collide.

Drama
19
Oldboy poster

Oldboy

20131h 44m3.1
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Imperioli

A man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.

DramaThrillerMysteryAction
20
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus poster

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

20152h 3m2.2
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Stephen Tyrone Williams, Zaraah Abrahams, Rami Malek, Elvis Nolasco, Thomas Jefferson Byrd

Dr. Hess Green becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a newfound thirst for blood. Soon after his transformation he enters into a dangerous romance with Ganja Hightower that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status.

DramaHorrorRomance
21
Chi-Raq poster

Chi-Raq

20152h 7m3
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Teyonah Parris, Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson

A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.

DramaCrimeComedy
22
BlacKkKlansman poster

BlacKkKlansman

20182h 16m4.4
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Laura Harrier, Alec Baldwin

Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.

CrimeComedyDramaHistory
23
Da 5 Bloods poster

Da 5 Bloods

20202h 35m3.6
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Four African-American Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam. They are in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. These heroes battle forces of humanity and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.

WarDrama
24
Highest 2 Lowest poster

Highest 2 Lowest

20252h 13m2.8
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Elijah Wright, Aubrey Joseph

When a titan music mogul, widely known as having the "best ears in the business", is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

ThrillerCrimeDrama