We’re still reeling from the recent first-time appearance of Denzel Washington at the Cannes Film Festival for his newest drama “Highest 2 Lowest” and the touching reveal of his honorary Palme d’Or award presented to him by longtime collaborator Spike Lee during the film’s French premiere at the event.
Washington getting his flowers from the French film industry is a long-time coming, and Lee is still lamenting that his muse and friend lost out on a Best Actor win for the epic biopic “Malcolm X” that chronicled the life of the complex civil rights and religious leader, who was ultimately assassinated (just like Dr. Martin Luther King .Jr, and others who tried call for the end of segregation and advocated civil/human rights in the United States).
“‘Malcolm X,’ what he did with that film was amazing,” Lee said at Cannes (via Variety). “And no disrespect to my brother Al Pacino, I love him. But Denzel, in my opinion, should have won.” Lee added his thoughts on awards, “With these awards, it’s like basketball, where the ref blows a call and you have to make a call. So, the make a call I think was ‘Training Day,’ which he won an Oscar for. But we don’t do our work for awards, which are nice, but it’s the work that is going to stand above all awards.”
Pacino would end up walking away with the award in 1993 instead for “Scent of A Woman,” while a good performance, Lee isn’t that far off with his criticism of the win. It isn’t exactly a film that most people first think of when waxing on the career highlights of the actor, other than quoting Pacino’s infectious “whoo ahh.”
While we’d like to think that Washington and Lee could keep making more movies together for the foreseeable future, Lee is the bearer of bad news, suggesting to the press at the event that “Highest 2 Lowest” is likely their final reunion.
“I think this is it, five…He’s been talking about retirement, so… Even though he just did another deal,” Lee said of his future with Washington (via Deadline). “‘I thought you said you were retired Denzel, what’s up?’ But those five films together, those stand up.”
Those five films are “Mo’ Better Blues,” “He Got Game,” “Inside Man,” the aforementioned “Malcolm X,” and now the ransom thriller remake of the Akira Kurosawa film “High To Low” that just debuted at Cannes.
Ending with “Highest 2 Lowest” (read The Playlist’s review here) isn’t the worst idea possible, but we’re hopeful that Lee and Washington will continue to keep working. Although retirement talk is a potential indicator that the beloved actor might have an exit plan in mind. Then again, folks do end up leaving the industry for all sorts of reasons, and wanting a bountiful amount of free time or moving on to other pursuits isn’t that horrible of a concept for someone now in their 70s.
We don’t know how serious those retirement talks are. That said, Washington has things like the Netflix thriller “Here Comes The Flood” on deck and revealed (before Marvel Studios or Ryan Coogler was able to announce the project) that he would be taking a mysterious role in “Black Panther 3.” Not to mention the actor previously teased more “Equalizer” installments at Sony Pictures on the horizon.
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