Spike Lee and Denzel Washington are two of essentially the most iconic filmmakers in fashionable Hollywood. The pair have made some equally iconic motion pictures collectively. The brand new movie Highest 2 Lowest marks their fifth movie collectively, although it’s shockingly been almost 20 years because the final one.
Whereas seeing Spike and Denzel work collectively once more is actually a subject worthy of observe, and plenty of have achieved that, the opposite factor that makes their challenge on the 2025 film schedule attention-grabbing to me is the way in which Spike Lee used it to reference one other buddy and collaborator, Prince.
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington Had No Thought They Hadn’t Labored Collectively In Almost Two A long time
It’s been 35 years since Denzel Washington and Spike Lee made their first film collectively, Mo’ Higher Blues. From there, the pair would go on to make Malcolm X, one among Denzel’s greatest motion pictures, He Bought Recreation, and Inside Man. It actually doesn’t really feel prefer it’s been nearly 20 years since Inside Man got here out, and evidently Lee and Washington didn’t understand a lot time had handed both, as Lee informed the Los Angeles Occasions…
Denzel and I did not understand that it has been 18 years since ‘Inside Man.’ We solely came upon when journalists informed us.
To be honest, each Lee and Washington have remained fairly busy for the final 18 years, so time most likely flew by. They’ve each been racking up the awards by making nice motion pictures with others. And the pair most likely see one another sufficient and discuss working collectively usually sufficient that they merely didn’t do the mathematics on how lengthy it had truly been.
Highest 2 Lowest’s Title Is Impressed By Prince
Primarily based on the important response to Highest 2 Lowest, it’s been well worth the wait to see Denzel Washington and Spike Lee work collectively once more, however there’s one other collaborator of Spike Lee’s who additionally had one thing of a hand in making the brand new movie, Prince.
Highest 2 Lowest is a remake, or in Lee’s phrases, a “reinterpretation” of Akira Kurosawa’s Excessive and Low. Lee says the twist on the title, Highest 2 Lowest, “is a shout-out to my brother Prince.” Prince would regularly use numbers rather than phrases in his tune and album titles like “I’d Die 4 U” or “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
Lee and Prince have been associates for many years, with Lee directing one among Prince’s music movies within the early Nineties, “Cash Don’t Matter 2 Evening,” which additionally used the quantity/phrase swap model. Prince supplied the soundtrack to Lee’s film, Lady 6, 5 years later. Lee additionally included an unreleased Prince tune in BlacKkKlansman.
So Highest 2 Lowest is, in multiple approach, a collaboration between Spike Lee and his associates, who’re each nice abilities themselves.