History Film / JungleFever

* ButNotTooBlack: For Drew, Flipper's taking up with a white woman is worse than it might be because she's light-skinned herself and now questions how much of a factor that was in their marriage.

* {{Foil}}: Paulie and Orin, to Flipper and Angie. Paulie is a white man attracted to a black woman, Orin, but he is attracted to her kindness and intelligence rather than her race. Whether or not they will work out as a couple is unanswered, but at least they have a real basis for a relationship, unlike Flipper and Angie
* MalignedMixedMarriage: The relationship between Flipper and Angie is condemned by Flipper's father, along with his friends, while ''her'' father beats her after finding out about it then throws her out of his house. At least in Flipper's case though it's partly due to it being adultery.
* MenCantKeepHouse: Despite being the only one of them with a job, Angie is still expected to make dinner for her father and brothers, who sill complain about her cooking not being as good as her mother's.
* MixedAncestryIsAttractive: PlayedWith. Drew is half-black and half-white. She gets concerned that her black husband's initial attraction to her was because she is lighter-skinned, because he cheats on her with a white coworker.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: [[spoiler:Gator being killed by his father was inspired by the death of Music/MarvinGaye]].
* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: Flipper ends up realizing that he can't have the life he wanted with Angie, that the prejudice they & any future kids they would have is too much to deal with. The movie ends with him being back with his wife and taking his daughter to school, pretty much exactly where he was at the start of the film.]]

* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Played straight, subverted, deconstructed, everything. For Flipper having an affair at all seems partly in frustration at his not being promoted at work. Angie is available, he admits to being curious about white, and says that she was curious about black. She is in part getting back at her arrogant father and brothers, although unfortunately she's still living with them.

* {{Foil}}: Paulie and Orin, a potential interracial couple, drawn to each other by mutual genuine respect and affection rather than RaceFetish.

* MixedAncestry: Drew's father is white. She gets concerned that her husband's initial attraction to her was because she is lighter due to this after he cheats with a white coworker.

''Jungle Fever'' is a 1991 film directed by Creator/SpikeLee. It follows three intertwining plotlines. In the first, architect Flipper Purify (Creator/WesleySnipes) leaves his wife Drew (Lonette [=McKee=]) and takes up an affair with his firm's temp secretary Angie Tucci (Creator/AnnabellaSciorra). In the second, Flipper and his parents (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee) struggle with the spiraling drug addiction of their elder son Gator (Creator/SamuelLJackson in a performance that won him a special supporting actor award at Cannes). In the third, Angie's former boyfriend Paulie Carbone (Creator/JohnTurturro) tries to free himself from the control of his autocratic father (Creator/AnthonyQuinn) and racist friends.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: Flipper ends up realizing that he can't have the life he wanted with Angie,that the prejudice they
& any future kids they would have is too much to deal with. The movie ends with him being back with his wife and taking his daughter to school, pretty much exactly where he was at the start of the film.]]

* MalignedMixedMarriage: The relationship between Flipper and Angie is condemned by Flipper's father, along with his friends, while ''her'' father beats her after finding out about it and throws her out of his house. At least in Flipper's case though it's partly due to it being adultery.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: Flipper ends up realizing that he can't have the life he wanted with Angie, and that the prejudice them and any future kids they would have is too much to deal with. The movie ends with him being back with his wife and taking his daughter to school, pretty much exactly where he was at the start of the film.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: The film revolved around this, as main character Flipper cheats on his wife with a coworker.

* TheNineties: Like most of the defining decade's films during the time.

''Jungle Fever'' is a 1991 film directed by Creator/SpikeLee. It follows three intertwining plotlines. In the first, architect Flipper Purify (Creator/WesleySnipes) leaves his wife Drew (Lonette [=McKee=]) and takes up an affair with his firm's temp secretary Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra). In the second, Flipper and his parents (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee) struggle with the spiraling drug addiction of their elder son Gator (Creator/SamuelLJackson in a performance that won him a special supporting actor award at Cannes). In the third, Angie's former boyfriend Paulie Carbone (Creator/JohnTurturro) tries to free himself from the control of his autocratic father (Creator/AnthonyQuinn) and racist friends.

* BrokenAesop: The film's statements about the persecution faced by mixed race couples looses its merit when one takes into account public statements made by Lee regarding his personal and open contempt for them.

* TheCameo: Creator/GiancarloEsposito as a homeless man picking up Flipper's belongings while his wife throws them out of the window. This is Buggin' Out from ''Film/DoTheRightThing''.

* {{Foil}}: Paulie and Orin, a potential interracial couple, drawn to each other by mutual genuine attraction to the other person rather than RaceFetish.

''Jungle Fever'' is a 1991 film directed by Creator/SpikeLee. It follows three intertwining plotlines. In the first, architect Flipper Purify (Creator/WesleySnipes) leaves his wife Drew (Lonette [=McKee=]) and takes up an affair with his firm's temp secretary Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra). In the second, Flipper and his parents (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee) struggle with the spiraling drug addiction of their elder son Gator (Creator/SamuelLJackson in a performance that won him a special supporting actor award at Cannes). In the third, Angie's former boyfriend Paulie Carbone (John Turturro) tries to free himself from the control of his autocratic father (Creator/AnthonyQuinn) and racist friends.

!!Tropes

* MixedAncestry: Drew's father is white, her mother black. She gets concerned that her husband's initial attraction to her was because she is lighter due to this after he cheats with a white coworker.

''Jungle Fever'' is a 1991 film directed by Creator/SpikeLee. It follows three intertwining plotlines. In the first, architect Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes) leaves his wife Drew (Lonette [=McKee=]) and takes up an affair with his firm's temp secretary Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra). In the second, Flipper and his parents (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee) struggle with the spiraling drug addiction of their elder son Gator (Creator/SamuelLJackson in a performance that won him a special supporting actor award at Cannes). In the third, Angie's former boyfriend Paulie Carbone (John Turturro) tries to free himself from the control of his autocratic father (Creator/AnthonyQuinn) and racist friends.

* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Played straight, subverted, deconstructed, everything. For Flipper having an affair at all seems partly in frustration at his not being promoted at work. Angie is available, he admits to being curious about white, and says that she was curious about black. She is in part rebelling against her brutish father and brothers, although unfortunately she's still living with them.

* InMemoriam: The film starts with a dedication to the memory of murder victim Yusuf Hawkins.

* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: The Good Reverend Doctor Purify shoots Gator to death out of despair for his crack habit]]

* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Played straight, subberted, deconstructed, everything. For Flipper having an affair at all seems partly in frustration at his not being promoted at work. Angie is available, he admits to being curious about white, and says that she was curious about black. She is in part rebelling against her brutish father and brothers, although unfortunately she's still living with them.

''Jungle Fever'' is a 1991 film directed by Creator/SpikeLee. It follows three intertwining plotlines. In the first, architect Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes) leaves his wife Drew (Lonette [=McKee=]) and takes up an affair with his firm's temp secretary Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra). In the second, Flipper and his parents (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee) struggle with the spiraling drug addiction of their elder son Gator (Creator/SamuelLJackson in a performance that won him a special supporting actor award at Cannes). In the third, Angie's former boyfriend Paulie Carbone (John Turturro) tries to free himself from the control of his autocratic father (Anthony Quinn) and racist friends.