Spike Lee has defended Michael after many called out the omission of sexual abuse allegations against the popstar in the biopic, saying their criticism “doesn’t work in the timeline of the film”.
Michael, which was approved and financed by the late pop singer’s estate, follows Michael Jackson from his early years in the Jackson 5 to the peak of his global fame in 1988, when he was touring the album Bad. The choice to conclude the story at that stage has prompted backlash, as the film does not engage with the child sexual abuse allegations made against him before his death in 2009 and instead leaves them out altogether.
“I’ve seen [Michael] twice. Love it,” Lee told CNN’s Laura Coates. “First of all, if you’re a movie critic, and you’re complaining about all this other stuff, but the movie ends in ‘88. And the stuff you’re talking about, accusations, happened [later]. So you’re critiquing the film on something that you want in, but it doesn’t work in the timeline of the film.”
“But people showed up. Worldwide, people showed their love,” he added.
The Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic, which hit theatres last week, stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in his feature debut as the singer, alongside Colman Domingo as his father Joe Jackson and Nia Long as his mother Katherine.
Looking back at his personal relationship with Jackson and the singer Prince, Lee said he missed them both, and said: “I mean, these are my brothers. I worked with both of them. Both beautiful, beautiful people.”
Lee directed Jackson’s 1996 music video for “They Don’t Care About Us” and later made two documentaries, Bad 25 (2012) and Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016).
Michael opened on Friday to a 96 per cent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, despite being widely panned by critics. Michael made $217m (£160m) in the global box office in its opening weekend and even set a new record for music biopics.
In a one-star review, The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey described Michael as a “ghoulish, soulless cash grab.”
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“If Michael exists to smooth out an icon’s legacy, it does so by eradicating anything that might indicate intent or agency beyond some nebulous idea that Jackson was a dreamer destined to ‘spread love and heal,’” wrote Loughrey.
According to reports, an earlier version of the film addressed the 1993 abuse allegations and subsequent investigation, but lawyers for Jackson’s estate identified a prior settlement with an accuser that “precluded any depiction or mention of them in a film”. This led to 22 days of reshoots, which the Jackson estate reportedly directly funded, and cost between $10m-$15m, according to Variety.
Dan Reed, who made the 2019 Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland, said that the film’s success shows that “people don’t care that he was a child molester”. Reed’s film focused on two men who allege they were sexually abused as children by Jackson, and was vehemently condemned by the singer’s estate.
“Literally, people just don’t care,” Reed told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think a lot of people just love his music and turn a deaf ear. And short of having actual video evidence of Michael Jackson engaged in sexual intercourse with a seven-year-old child, I don’t know what would be sufficient to change these people’s minds.”
Jackson, who died in 2009, denied all allegations made against him during his lifetime. He was charged in 2003 with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent to a minor, but was acquitted on all counts in 2005.
Michael is out now in theatres.
