Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19260 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-12-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 132 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Spike Lee's 1991 story about an interracial relationship and its consequences on the lives and communities of the lovers (Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra) is one of his most captivating and focused films. Snipes and Sciorra are very good as individuals trying to reach beyond the limits imposed upon them for reasons of race, tradition, sexism, and such. Lee makes an interesting and subtle case that they are driven to one another out of frustration with social obstacles as well as pure attraction--but is that enough for love to survive? John Turturro is featured in a subplot as an Italian American who grows attracted to a black woman and takes heat from his numbskull buddies. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
The central event in Spike Lee's new movie is the love affair of Flipper (Wesley Snipes), a married African-American architect from Harlem, and Angie (Annabella Sciorra), an Italian-American office temp from Bensonhurst. Once Lee has set up the interracial relationship, he seems to lose interest in it; Flipper and Angie hold the stage only long enough to ignite the fears and hatreds of their communities, and when the fuse is lit their job is done. The movie's approach to its characters is stubbornly, and perversely, external; we never have the sense that we're getting inside anyone's skin (white or black). Everything in this picture is pitched at the level of public utterance. Lee's dialogue has the rhetorical tone of daytime-television talk shows; even in the most intense, emotionally charged domestic scenes, there's an alienating self-consciousness in the way the characters express themselves-they always look as if they had an ear cocked for audience response. This rhetorical barrage gives the picture a peculiar, halting rhythm; individual scenes have force and momentum, but the movie as a whole seems stalled, inert, uncertain where it's headed. And Lee's attitude toward interracial sex is shockingly puritanical; it's as if he were afraid that any hint of eroticism would constitute an endorsement of Flipper and Angie's affair. The scenes that deal with Flipper's crackhead brother, Gator (Samuel L. Jackson), have more energy than anything else in the picture; this subplot is tangential to the central theme, but it has some shape and dramatic coherence, and it actually builds to a climax. The interracial affair just dawdles to an underdramatized parting, and we feel nothing; emotionally, the movie has separated the lovers from each other-and from us, long before. Also with Lonette McKee, John Turturro, Anthony Quinn, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Frank Vincent. The inventive cinematography is by Ernest Dickerson. Some fine new songs by Stevie Wonder grace the soundtrack. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

GET "JUNGLE FEVER"
One of Spike Lee's best films, "Jungle Fever" comments more on race relations in America, than on the subject of adultery. Spike is all over the place with his take on male/female relationships, the devastation wrought on a family and the Black community by crack cocaine, the "color line" in the Italian community and interracial relationships. But he seems to pull it all together to make a powerful film and one of the best of the '90s.

The acting is terrific with the standout performance being Samuel L. Jackson's as Gator, Wesley Snipes ill fated brother. He's charming, comical and evil all at once. And Wesley showed his range as an actor through his performance as Flipper, the "good son," who has a momentary lapse in character and has an affair with his secretary, Annabella Sciorra. All the performances are great and the actors get you to care about the characters they present. Wesley's performance came after the strong work he did as Nino Brown in "New Jack City" and I don't remember an actor "flippin' the script" on the movie going public like that, going from evil to good, in one year in a long time.

You could look at Flipper and Angie as symbols of Black and White America, trying to come together and the obstacles we face as a nation when we don't deal with the issue of race honestly. Something we're still going through. This film also deals with our dishonesty with dealing with the drug problem too, and this is where Spike deserves credit. No one is left unexamined by this tale of life and there are no happy endings either from Gator being murdered by his father, to Flipper and Angie breaking up.

I love how Spike begins and ends the movie. Spike shows in the beginning a couple, obviously in love, in Wesley and Lonnette Mc Kee, (in a strong, small supporting role as Drew) that leads you to believe nothing could tear them apart. When you get to the end, Wesley and Lonnette are trying to make a go at it, but through Lonnette's tears, you see she's just going through the motions, hoping to put away the pain through the lovemaking. When she tells him "he better leave now," you can tell the hurt she's experienced can't be "loved away" like he'd like.

Critics of this film usually state Spike should have stuck to telling one story. What must be said is that while Spike explores a range of contemporary issues in this film, he has made a film of power and emotion, that definitely draws an opinion out of you, one way or another. An underrated, overlooked masterpiece.

Untitled
Jungle Fever showcases alot of brilliant performances by so many actors involved in this film. The most powerful, disturbing piece of acting is performed by Samuel Jackson as a strung out crackhead. The first time I saw him in this movie it gave me goosebumps. His "devil dance" at the end of the film is so disturbingly frightning, it elevates Samuel's acting to a whole other level. Spike Lee is a genious and he gets the most out of his actors. i absolutely love and admire his filmaking. The movie is an emotional rollercoaster. Don't be misled, it's not only about interracial dating, it also examines the psychological affects interracial dating has on the family. This movie probes into the lives of all the other people involved. Creatively directed and rich with color and a timeless soundtrack by Stevie Wonder, Jungle Fever is a Spike Lee classic of epic proportions. And you can't beat the price! *No, i don't work for either Spike Lee or Amazon.com, I just think this is a great film!

Another fantastic and honest Spike Lee movie ;-)
What a great movie. It's very sad to watch in some respects. The colour of someones skin should not create the problems that occured in this film. It shouldn't matter if you are black or white and fall in love with your 'opposite'. It should come down to the kind of person you are. This is an honest look at the way people can react to interracial relationships which I hope has changed over the years since this was made. Wesley Snipes does an excellent job here (he's so hot - and I'm white but yet I LOVE him) and Spike Lee does another excellent job at direction. Samuel L Jackson and Ossie Davis are great and one of my all time favourite female movie stars Annabella Sciora is tremendous as the mistress of Wesley. She's Italian and has her own problems with her family understanding her.
Overall, this is an exceptional film (with a younger Halle Berry) that also has a great soundtrack. Lots of music by Stevie Wonder, and great acting by all. You have to see this for yourself - you'll love it.