Jungle Fever

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For other uses, see Jungle Fever (disambiguation).

Jungle Fever
"Jungle Fever" movie poster
Directed by	Spike Lee
Produced by	Spike Lee
Written by	Spike Lee
Starring	Wesley Snipes Annabella Sciorra John Turturro Anthony Quinn Samuel L. Jackson Halle Berry Queen Latifah Ossie Davis Ruby Dee
Music by	Stevie Wonder
Cinematography	Ernest Dickerson
Editing by	Samuel D. Pollard
Release date(s)	1991 (United States)
Running time	132 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Ratings
United States:	R

Jungle Fever is a 1991 film directed by Spike Lee, starring Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra.

1 Plot
2 Theme
3 Popular culture
4 Awards
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The plot centers on the interracial romance between a successful married African American architect, Flipper Purify (played by Snipes), and an Italian-American woman, Angie Tucci (played by Sciorra). The two meet at their workplace in New York, an architectural firm where Purify works and Tucci is hired as a temporary secretary. The lovers come under intense pressure from their friends and family as a result of their relationship. The title of the film refers to the sexual attraction between two different races.

A subplot considers the problems of drug abuse, with Flipper's brother Gator (played by Samuel L. Jackson) a suffering crack addict.

The film also features John Turturro, Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Anthony Quinn, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee.

[edit] Theme

Though many people would view this movie as negativity towards interracial dating, it does have a message of hope. Flipper and Angie's relationship was the result of being "curious" of the notion of being with someone from another race, especially coming from neighborhoods and backgrounds that consider this taboo. They did not love each other or even have a chemistry together. So their relationship was doomed from the beginning. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the beginning of Paulie and Orin's relationship at the end seems sincere as there is an attractiveness that is genuine and not fueled by curiosity. The movie also shows extreme views of non-African American peoples. Caucasians are shown in an almost comic book fashion with extreme stereotyping. This is a popular style with director Spike Lee where many of his movies show African-Americans blandly while peoples of other races are often shown as comedic relief.

[edit] Popular culture

The success and popularity of this film has also spurred the usage of "Jungle Fever" to mean a couple of more than one race, or one who is attracted to a member of another race from themselves is considered to have "Jungle Fever.". An offshoot of this term, "Yellow Fever", was coined to pertain to an interracial relationship where one of the participants is East Asian.