Believe it or not, it’s been nearly 20 years since Spike Lee and Denzel Washington worked together. And while they have only done five films – ‘Mo Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, Inside Man, and this month’s Highest 2 Lowest – Spike still considers himself and Denzel to be a “dynamic duo” despite the gap.
Speaking with IndieWire ahead of Highest 2 Lowest – a modern version of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low – Spike Lee said of the reunion, “We were both shocked that Inside Man was 18 years ago. So the dynamic duo got back together. Denzel is the world’s greatest living actor. My brother Martin Scorsese wants to say the same thing about [Robert] De Niro. Kurosawa said it about [Toshiro] Mifune. You had these relations where a director and an actor build a catalog of films. And I’m just blessed to be able to do these five films together.”
We all know Spike Lee has plenty of ego, but let’s throw some numbers out just to get an idea of why he and Denzel aren’t on that level: Scorsese and De Niro have teamed up for 10 features, while Kurosawa and Mifune did 16 movies. Added to this, Scorsese and De Niro began with 1973’s Mean Streets and most recently did 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon, while Kurosawa and Mifune did their collabs in just 17 years, just barely below one per – before splitting over several issues between the two.
That said, there’s no denying that Spike Lee and Denzel Washington played a significant role in nurturing Black cinema in the ‘90s. Unfortunately for fans of the duo (and I consider myself one), Highest 2 Lowest feels like that may be it for Spike and Denzel. While Denzel has since backtracked his retirement remarks and Spike has said he hopes the actor works him in again, considering the inconsistencies (we’re talking an eight-year gap between He Got Game and Inside Man and then another 18 until Highest 2 Lowest), it seems unlikely we’ll get to #6 when all is said and done.
What is your favorite Spike Lee and Denzel Washington movie?
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