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Posted: **Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:59 pm**

Full specs announced:

JUNGLE FEVER
A film by Spike Lee

Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee, Anthony Quinn

Released on Blu-ray on 17 May 2021 for its 30th Anniversary

See a clip here.

Pre-order/order from the BFI Shop here.

Filmed on the streets of New York in the early 1990s, Spike Lee’s all-star drama is a typically engaging and provocative examination of interracial relationships in the United States. Featuring a stellar supporting cast, including Spike Lee himself, Anthony Quinn and an award-winning performance by Samuel L Jackson, Jungle Fever is made available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK by the BFI to coincide with its 30th anniversary. Extras include a newly recorded audio commentary, a filmed interview with Spike Lee from 2009 and an archive featurette from 1991 with contributions from the director and cast.

When married architect Flipper (Wesley Snipes) begins an affair with his secretary Angie (Annabella Sciorra), neither anticipate the turmoil their romance unleashes. Scrutinised by their friends and cast out by their families, the couple struggle to reconcile their emotions with the social expectations that foster division between the black and white communities.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition
• Newly recorded audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Jim Hemphill
• The Independent Interview With Spike Lee (2009, 74 mins): as part of the BFI’s season Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing in Context, Spike Lee was interviewed on stage at the BFI Southbank by politician David Lammy
• Archive featurette (1991, 8 mins): short film about Jungle Fever with contributions from Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra and John Turturro
• Top Deck (1962, 30 mins): a tale of love won and lost told through a changing, often jaunty, soundtrack, with location filming focusing on bus conductor Marlene and her African American boyfriend, US airman Johnny
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with new essays by Kambole Campbell and Kaleem Aftab, an archival essay by Armond White, full credits and notes on the special features

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1417 / 18
USA / 1991 / colour / 132 mins / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles | original aspect ratio 1.85:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, LPCM 2.0 stereo audio (48kHz/24-bit)

Posted: **Thu Apr 22, 2021 3:45 pm**

I'll have to check this out, it's one of the few Spike Lee films I've yet to see. The soundtrack is surprisingly good - the knock on Stevie Wonder is that he went into a fast and steep decline after Hotter Than July (or Songs in the Key of Life for those less kind), but I went back to those later albums last year, and while they're not on par with his best work, they all have something to recommend. Not great albums, true, but far from terrible.

Here's a review from Jonathan Rosenbaum, and though he calls it "all-over-the-place" (and perhaps appreciates it a bit less now as I don't think he's put on par with Do the Right Thing, When the Levees Broke or 25th Hour in his later criticism), he heaped quite a bit of praise on it when it first came out.

Posted: **Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:08 pm**

The ending / final shot is one for the ages.

Posted: **Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:14 pm**

Maltic wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:08 pm The ending / final shot is one for the ages.

Yep. One of the ultimate love-it-or-hate it finales. The Everything is Terrible! people used it in one of their compilations. I'd love to have seen it with an audience at the time.

Posted: **Fri Apr 23, 2021 10:33 am**

I haven't seen this since its first release and have the Kino edition. I'm really included to double-dip and get this. Aside from interesting extras it is one of my favourite Spike Lee Joints.

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