Spike Lee Defends ‘Michael’ From Critics Who Think Child Sexual Abuse Allegation Should Have Been Included: ‘Doesn’t Work in the Timeline of the Film’

As Michael enjoys a busy second weekend at the box office, Spike Lee is singing the biopic’s praises amid controversy.

via: EW

The Malcolm X director praised the new Michael Jackson biopic, saying he's "seen it twice" already.

"Love it," he replied when asked for his reaction to the movie in a recent interview with CNN.

The Do the Right Thing filmmaker, who directed the music video for Jackson's 1996 song "They Don't Care About Us" and helmed two documentaries about the singer after his death, said the biggest complaint about the biopic doesn't hold up in his eyes.

Reacting to critics who have panned Michael for omitting the multiple allegations of child sexual abuse made against Jackson, he responded, "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!"

Michael does not address the abuse allegations lobbed against Jackson because it concludes five years before his first accuser came forward in 1993.

Colman Domingo, who portrays Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, in the movie, defended it against similar criticisms last month. "There's the possibility of there being a part 2 that may deal with other things that may happen afterwards," he said in a recent interview. "This is about the making of Michael, how he was raised, and how he was trying to find his voice as an artist."

However, Variety recently reported that the biopic doesn't address the sexual abuse allegations against Jackson because the singer reached a settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler that forbade any depiction or mention of the accuser in any film project. 

The report claimed that Michael director Antoine Fuqua planned to depict the fallout after the accusations and that his team shot a scene of investigators searching Jackson's home for evidence of his alleged crimes, but after the singer's estate discovered the clause in Chandler's settlement, the film was retooled to edit out the allegations altogether.

In the CNN interview, Lee reflected on Jackson's legacy. "I miss Mike [and] I miss Prince," he said. "I mean, these are my brothers. I mean, you know, worked with both of them. Both beautiful, beautiful people."

Lee also praised "They Don't Care About Us" for its foresight. "[The song] really speaks about what has happened today in the world," he said. "Michael, Prince, great artists like that, when you're a great artist, you see stuff before it's even happened, I feel. It's a gift, a God-given gift. And you're in tune with the universe."