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10 Great Movies Made By Actor-Writer-Directors

Being a good director is one thing. The ability to function as writer, director and actor all on the same film is about being on another level entirely. Not many attempt it: directors sometimes write and writers sometimes direct, but most filmmakers decline to step in front of the camera as well as call the shots behind it. And, those that do aren't always particularly successful.

5) Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee)

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Though he’s lost his way in recent years (his acclaimed 2015 semi-musical Chi-Raq notwithstanding), Spike Lee was in the beginning a fearsome chronicler of African-American life. Probably the pinnacle of this early period for Lee is Do the Right Thing, an oh-so of its time 1989 drama depicting racial tensions in one Brooklyn borough on the hottest day of the year.

Packed with characters great and small, all angry or outraged in their own way, at the center of Do the Right Thing is Lee’s Mookie, a pizza delivery man that explodes in the final act. The likes of Danny Aiello and Samuel L Jackson are typically excellent, but does Spike make a great, or even good actor? Not particularly, but his presence in the lead role helps make the film feel even more personal and honest.

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