Fourteen Minutes Cut From Spike Lee's RED HOOK SUMMER

Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer will begin a limited theatrical run on August 10th, which is great news for fans of Spike Lee. What may come as a surprise to those fans, however, is that the version screening in public theaters will be a full fourteen minutes shorter than the version of the film screened in Sundance. The Sundance website lists the run time of the film at 135 minutes while the press release for the theatrical run lists the film at 121, which is a significant difference.

The latest in Spike Lee's Chronicles of Brooklyn anthology - which also includes "She's Gotta Have It" (1986), "Do The Right Thing" (1989), "Crooklyn" (1994), "Clockers" (1995), and "He Got Game" (1998) - RED HOOK SUMMER tells the story of Flik Royale (Jules Brown), a sullen young boy from middle-class Atlanta who has come to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse (Clarke Peters), in the housing projects of Red Hook.  Having never met before, things quickly get off on the wrong foot as Bishop Enoch relentlessly attempts to convert Flik into a follower of Jesus Christ.  Between his grandfather's constant preaching and the culture shock of inner-city life, Flik's summer appears to be a total disaster - until he meets Chazz Morningstar (Toni Lysaith), a pretty girl his age, who shows Flik the brighter side of Brooklyn.  Through her love and the love of his grandfather, Flik begins to realize that the world is a lot bigger, and perhaps a lot better, than he'd ever imagined.

The cut of the film screened in Sundance received some strongly mixed reactions so this new cut may very well represent an improvement and continued refinement of the film from Lee. Time will tell.