Spike Lee has defended the new Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, after critics called out its omission of child sexual abuse allegations against the pop star. Lee argued that the criticism is invalid because the film's timeline ends in 1988, before the allegations emerged.
In an interview with CNN, Lee said: '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.'
The Antoine Fuqua-directed biopic, which opened last week, stars Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson in his feature debut. The film covers Jackson's early years in the Jackson 5 up to his 1988 Bad tour. Despite being panned by critics, it has been a box office success, earning $217m (£160m) globally in its opening weekend and setting a record for music biopics.
Lee, who directed Jackson's 1996 music video for 'They Don't Care About Us' and later made two documentaries about the singer, said he misses Jackson and Prince, calling them 'beautiful people'.
Reports indicate that an earlier version of the film addressed the 1993 abuse allegations, but lawyers for Jackson's estate identified a prior settlement that prevented any depiction or mention of them. This led to 22 days of reshoots, costing between $10m and $15m, funded by the estate.
Dan Reed, director of the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which focused on two men alleging abuse by Jackson, said the film's success shows that 'people don’t care that he was a child molester'. Jackson denied all allegations and was acquitted of child molestation charges in 2005.
