At the center of Spike Lee’s newest film “Highest 2 Lowest” is a friendship between two Black men that crosses multiple dividing lines.

Denzel Washington (“David King”) is a rich music label CEO whose working-class, Muslim, formerly incarcerated chauffeur, Jeffrey Wright (“Paul Christopher”), is more than an employee. Both men are fathers to sons who are best friends that end up at the center of a life-or-death ransom plot.

While the film is a reinterpretation of the 1963 film “High and Low” by Akira Kurosawa, the modern-day version, set in New York City, positions it to reveal class tensions at the heart of debates across America, both within and outside of the Black community.

Can wealthy Black people truly understand the plight of Black Americans who aren’t in the 1 percent? Are they willing to sacrifice for the benefit of the community, or do they succeed and close the door behind them?

Do elite Black spaces gatekeep to keep Black people deemed “unworthy” from access, resources, and community?

The online discourse has reached such a fever pitch that even conversations around Martha’s Vineyard have sent users into a frenzy, with extreme comments on both ends of the spectrum about who can, shouldn’t, and doesn’t want to visit.

In an interview with TheGrio, “Highest 2 Lowest” co-star Jeffrey Wright says not only are these class conversations not new, they are also reflections of the nation’s larger struggles to figure out how Americans relate to one another.

“That is a larger conversation that’s certainly true within the Black community, but it’s a larger one that we’re having in our country right now. It’s one that we’ve been having for a while about income disparity, about these class issues that are conflated with cultural issues,” Wright tells TheGrio.

Wright says that Akira Kurosawa’s first version of “Highest 2 Lowest” sets the stage to talk about class.

“What I thought was wonderful about Kurosawa’s film, was that there was a portrait of a certain type of class dynamic that was specific to Japanese culture in the 60s. That very kind of caste based, very kind of submissive deferential relationship my character is based on, has with the executive character in that film. We tried to translate that in a way that was authentic to contemporary New York in this setting. And I was really very pleased that we were able to find this kind of nuanced relationship that was justified, again, by the relationship that they had growing up,” Wright explains.

For those of us who’ve had a family member or friend who “made it” or have “made it” ourselves, we may recognize both the bond and the distance that may emerge between two people in different class positions when circumstances get tricky.

“Highest 2 Lowest” viewers will see it play out in everything from interactions with police to the choices available to each man when he’s in a bind.

“It seemed to me authentic, that this was a relationship that was real, that was one that we could touch, that existed out in the city somewhere,” Wright tells TheGrio, regarding his and Denzel’s characters. “So, the questions about conversations [re: class in the Black community], I’m not sure, but what I know is that the way in which we try to work is to do things that do feel legitimate. And I think we were able to create that with these two men.”

But it’s not just the class differences between Washington and Wright’s characters that play out on screen, which are worth unpacking.

It’s Denzel Washington’s character’s struggles as a rich Black business owner who still must walk a tightrope and navigate financial limitations in the face of staggering corporate interests.

A 2021 report found that Black households head only 5.3% of the households in the top 5% income group in the U.S. Even as Black wealth has increased, so has the racial wealth gap.

Meaning that even those who have “made it” still find themselves up against a different set of odds in America. It can make their moral choices that much more important.

“All money ain’t good money, you know; what level are you willing to sink? You know, for profit, for…for influence. For power,” Washington told TheGrio.

Yet for all the divides, ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ positions the audience to ask how far we would go for people who are different than us — who we may not necessarily find ourselves in the same spaces with, but who we may still share a common interest with.

Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright will certainly leave moviegoers debating their choices all the way home. Perhaps it can open up space for more nuanced and balanced debates around how, in real life, we can overcome perceived divides to come out on top — higher than lower — at the end of the day.

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Natasha S. Alford is the Senior Vice President of TheGrio. A recognized journalist, filmmaker, and TV analyst, Alford is also the author of the award-winning book, “American Negra.” (HarperCollins, 2024) Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @natashasalford.