Music has always figured prominently in Spike Lee’s work — from the anthemic lyrics of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” in Do the Right Thing to David Byrne’s electrifying live performance in the Broadway concert film American Utopia.
It’s not surprising, then, that Lee set his sights on the music industry when remaking — or, in his words, “reimagining” — the classic Japanese film High and Low.
Like Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 original, Lee’s version follows a similar plot: a wealthy executive is in the midst of a high-stakes business venture when he receives a life-shattering phone call. His son, he’s told, has been abducted, and the kidnapper is demanding an exorbitant ransom for the boy’s safe return — a ransom that soon gets tied up in an unforeseen moral dilemma.
While Highest 2 Lowest is indebted to Kurosawa’s classic film in many ways, it’s anything but a mere remake. Lee changes the story’s setting and characters considerably, transplanting the core plot to his beloved Five Burroughs and bringing all the topical commentary and stylistic flourishes that make a Spike Lee movie a Spike Lee Joint.
There are, of course, some parallels. In the original, Kurosawa cast his long-time collaborator — and Japanese acting legend — Toshiro Mifune to play the lead role. Lee, meanwhile, casts his own long-time collaborator — and American acting legend — Denzel Washington.
Playing a music mogul with “the best ears in the business,” Washington delivers a performance that somehow seems both precisely tuned and totally improvisatory. It’s a lot like watching a jazz virtuoso riff on stage — a skilled craftsman following his artistic instincts to discover unexpected moments of greatness.
I’m reminded, in particular, of otherwise one-dimensional scenes that Washington elevates with seemingly off-the-cuff gestures: a heart-to-heart conversation that ends with a remark about a jammed door; a darkly funny and self-deprecating display of finger guns; a climactic face-off in a studio that doubles as both a rap battle and a wise man’s sermon.
Through it all, Lee keeps the music front and center, nearly blanketing the film top to bottom with an original score by Howard Drossin that sets the mood for both quiet, intimate moments and explosive action (the film’s most exciting stretch is an extended set piece on a subway ride to Yankee Stadium that later unfurls through the Puerto Rican Day Parade).
Perhaps Lee’s most surprising use of music, though, is in the film’s opening sequence: a languid aerial tour of New York City set to “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” from the musical Oklahoma! Compared to the angry, propulsive energy of “Fight the Power” in Do the Right Thing, the cock-eyed optimism of Rodgers and Hammerstein may seem more than a little ironic in a Spike Lee Joint.
Except it isn’t. By the end of the film, it becomes clear that this is a different kind of Spike Lee Joint altogether — more hopeful, more sentimental, more concerned with the highs than the lows. It all culminates with a musical sequence that also points to a brighter future — to another “beautiful morning” and another chance to fight the power.
Highest 2 Lowest is now available to stream on Apple TV+.