CANON
FilmSpike Lee, 2006
Inside Man
ABOUT THE WORK
“That thing you’re sucking on? It’s not a piña colada!”
Keith Frazier refuses to be bullied.
The robbers want something. The police want something. The bank wants something. The mayor’s office wants something.
Spike Lee’s film becomes even more interesting once everyone realizes they’re missing something.
Clive Owen’s Dalton Russell enters the movie claiming perfect control. Denzel Washington’s Keith Frazier listens, reasons, tests what he’s being told and keeps working. Watching him gradually understand what is happening is one of the film’s great pleasures.
Then Christopher Plummer and Jodie Foster reveal the power structure operating in the background.
The bank robbery is only the visible event.
Underneath it sit money, reputation, history and the elaborate arrangements powerful people create to prevent the past from becoming present.
Frazier and his partner, Bill Mitchell, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, are working cops confronting people accustomed to having institutions answer to them. Plummer’s Arthur Case has wealth and standing. Foster’s Madeleine White has access. There is an expectation that a detective will recognize his place in that hierarchy and behave accordingly.
Frazier keeps asking questions.
The attitude he brings to Russell survives his encounters with people whose power arrives in better clothes. He can recognize their influence without surrendering his judgment. His dignity comes from trusting that doing his job well still matters, even when everyone around him seems to be pursuing some other agenda.
Spike Lee makes all of this incredibly entertaining. The movie is funny, stylish, witty and full of people enjoying the fact that they are good at what they do. It’s unmistakably Spike Lee’s New York, crowded with shouting voices, languages, grievances, loyalties and attitudes.
The mystery unfolds through Frazier’s reasoning. He doesn’t need to know everything at the beginning. He needs to notice what doesn’t fit, keep his nerve and follow the next question.
Keith Frazier refuses to be bullied.
The robbers want something. The police want something. The bank wants something. The mayor’s office wants something.
Spike Lee’s film becomes even more interesting once everyone realizes they’re missing something.
Clive Owen’s Dalton Russell enters the movie claiming perfect control. Denzel Washington’s Keith Frazier listens, reasons, tests what he’s being told and keeps working. Watching him gradually understand what is happening is one of the film’s great pleasures.
Then Christopher Plummer and Jodie Foster reveal the power structure operating in the background.
The bank robbery is only the visible event.
Underneath it sit money, reputation, history and the elaborate arrangements powerful people create to prevent the past from becoming present.
Frazier and his partner, Bill Mitchell, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, are working cops confronting people accustomed to having institutions answer to them. Plummer’s Arthur Case has wealth and standing. Foster’s Madeleine White has access. There is an expectation that a detective will recognize his place in that hierarchy and behave accordingly.
Frazier keeps asking questions.
The attitude he brings to Russell survives his encounters with people whose power arrives in better clothes. He can recognize their influence without surrendering his judgment. His dignity comes from trusting that doing his job well still matters, even when everyone around him seems to be pursuing some other agenda.
Spike Lee makes all of this incredibly entertaining. The movie is funny, stylish, witty and full of people enjoying the fact that they are good at what they do. It’s unmistakably Spike Lee’s New York, crowded with shouting voices, languages, grievances, loyalties and attitudes.
The mystery unfolds through Frazier’s reasoning. He doesn’t need to know everything at the beginning. He needs to notice what doesn’t fit, keep his nerve and follow the next question.