MasterClass: Spike Lee Teaches Independent Filmmaking

My favorite film of all time, "On the Waterfront," directed

by Elia Kazan, original screenplay

by my dear friend of mine, Budd Schulberg.

I didn't see "On the Waterfront" until film school.

And just the acting, the script by Budd, direction by Kazan,

the score by Leonard Bernstein, black and white photography--

it just really, really, really made a deep impact on me

on what film can do.

how film can attack the evils of the world, the corruption,

the gangsters, and how, over the history of humankind,

people have stepped up and said, nah.

I'm not taking that.

I'm going to speak.

I'm going to speak the truth.

And you kill me, you kill me.

Well, fuck that.

I'm still going to tell the truth.

This particular scene is a very moving scene to me--

most of it in the words of the character played

by Karl Malden, one of the dockworkers

has stepped out and agreed to speak up

against the mob, encouraged by the father.

And because he did that, a crate of Irish whiskey

accidentally falls upon him, killing him.

And so the way this scene is shot

is almost like a resurrection eulogy.

And even though it's not Marlon Brando's scene,

he's still in it.

He's urging the dock workers to speak up,

even knowing they might be killed.

Truth to power.

Elia Kazan-- he wasn't going to do too much stuff

fancy with the camera.

You know, he was going to let the actors do the work.

But the stage and the placement camera, I think,

was superlative.

And it might seem on the surface a very stagey scene,

but it's-- it's-- it's-- it's not.

It's Karl Malden's character's giving a eulogy for someone who

was just murdered on the spot.

This is not-- this is not the cemetery.

This is not the church.

This is right there.

I think it was very key, as I mentioned before, that there

was no music at the beginning.

No music, listeners listening to the words spoken.

And then, to me, that final shot where Karl Malden's

in the crane as they lift his dead body

that just got murdered--

it's like it's an ascension up-- up to the sky.

No dialogue, just wanted to shoot this.

You know, and very, very symbolic to me.

And then with the use of the closeups,

Marlon Brando must have--

his character, Terry Malloy, might

have two or three words, tells the guy, don't do that.

But the close-ups they use on Brando is saying a lot.

And you see he's conflicted.

He knows what's happening.

His brother is second in command.

And it's becoming, I think, clear to him that, you know,

he's going to have to make a decision.

He might have to testify.

So you see this, you know, this turmoil in his face.

He's not saying a word.

I've seen "On the Waterfront" many, many,

many different times-- at least 50 times.

At least.

And this scene means more now to me

that I've seen it all of 49 times.

There's a quarterback who should be working at NFL.

His name is Colin Kaepernick.

He took a stand to show his displeasure,

his feelings about the way--

the way black people-- people of color

are treated in the United States of America.

And to show his displeasure, he kneeled at the--

the national anthem.

Controversy swirling around a big NFL

star who took a stand by refusing to stand

for the national anthem.

Released by the 49ers,

Kaepernick is no longer in the spotlight on the field,

but is widely considered better than many quarterbacks--

The quarterback Colin Kaepernick--