He Got Game (1998)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Spike Lee

Writer:

Spike Lee (written by)

Release Date:

1 May 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Tagline:

The father, the son and the holy game.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Basketball | Jesus | Prison | College | Governor

Awards:

9 nominations

Cast

Denzel Washington	...	Jake Shuttlesworth
Ray Allen	...	Jesus Shuttlesworth
Milla Jovovich	...	Dakota Burns
Rosario Dawson	...	Lala Bonilla
Hill Harper	...	Coleman 'Booger' Sykes
Zelda Harris	...	Mary Shuttlesworth
Ned Beatty	...	Warden Wyatt
Jim Brown	...	Spivey
Joseph Lyle Taylor	...	Crudup
Bill Nunn	...	Uncle Bubba
Michele Shay	...	Aunt Sally
Thomas Jefferson Byrd	...	Sweetness
Roger Guenveur Smith	...	Big Time Willie
John Turturro	...	Coach Billy Sunday
Lonette McKee	...	Martha Shuttlesworth

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive language, strong sexuality, some drug content and violence.

Runtime:

136 min | Argentina:137 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Finland:S | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:L | USA:R (certificate #35973) | Singapore:PG (cut) | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | France:U | Germany:12 | Italy:VM14 | Netherlands:12 (video premiere) | New Zealand:R16 | Peru:14 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Cabrini-Green Public Housing Projects, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks

Trivia:

Spike Lee's first film to open at #1 at the US box office.

Quotes:

Jesus Shuttlesworth: I hate my name. What kind of name is Jesus anyway?
Jake Shuttlesworth: It's biblical.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Yeah, no kidding.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "HBO First Look: The Search for the Real Joan of Arc: An Exclusive Look Beyond the Icon - 'The Messenger' (#6.9)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Game Face

The most beautiful sports movie of all time

We could see just one more story about a man who loves his son, but which suffers from various handicaps, like being on parole and being watched all the time, like having no wife anymore due to killing her, and like his son being one of the most stellar basketball players of his time and this man being truck-loaded with the burden of convincing him to go to college. The film marches to the pace of the two leads, Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) and Jesus Shuttlesworth (real-life NBA player Ray Allen, which makes a startling debut), as they have continuous face-offs: Jesus won't accept that he has a father, and won't listen to him, being more interested in becoming an NBA star, as the managers, the limelights, the fame and the fortune keep calling him like the chant of the sirens. Jesus is a young boy with a foot on each side. And he is facing options, choices he will have to make, and traps he will have to avoid. As a friend of his says (in the movie's most memorable quote) "How do you spell pussy? H. - I. - V.". This could be one more tale of choosing between college or fame and fortune, ths could be one more tale of a destroyed father-son relationship, but this is Spike Lee, and the treatment is totally different. It starts with an incredible hommage to basketball, shot like a picture poem, to the sounds of Aaron Copland, whose music flows through the whole movie and makes it look more beautiful and poetic. A characteristic Spike Lee movie, which introduces us to a new way of facing sport dramas. To be cherished.