Spike Lee Slams Clint Eastwood Over Representation Of Black Soldiers

UPDATE: Clint has responded Spike and told him, among other things, to "shut his face."

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CANNES, France - Spike Lee is slamming Clint Eastwood over his two recent Iwo Jima movies, saying the filmmaker overlooked the role of black soldiers during World War II.

Lee _ whose next film is this fall's "Miracle at St. Anna," the story of an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during the war _ said Eastwood's 2006 movies "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" were whites-only affairs.

"He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films," Lee said Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was a judge in an online short-film competition.

"Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version," Lee said.

Eastwood was in Cannes for his missing-child drama "Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie. At a news conference for the film, a reporter tried to ask for his reaction to Lee's criticism, but the moderator cut her off and told journalists to limit questions to Eastwood's own movie.

Due in U.S. theaters in October, "Miracle at St. Anna" centers on four Americans _ played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and Omar Benson Miller _ in the Buffalo Soldiers division in Tuscany.

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On the Net:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html

Comments

[FirstShirt]

What about Eastwoods attempt to address the racist stereotype of the asian people? Spike talks like there is only one minority and he apparently only cares about that one. Give Eastwood some credit for attempting to address the longstanding racist images of the asian in movies and TV.

[realpolitic]

Yes, Eastwood tried to give the Japanese soldiers at Iwo Jima some complexity and three-dime­nsionality­. "Letters from Iwo Jima" suggested many would have just as soon returned to their families. It suggested many would have rather surrendered than die, but were not allowed to by officers.

[qdog112]

In these "EPIC PERIOD FILMS", film makers spend Millions of dollars to get it right from everything from wardrobe to on location filming.

The lengths they go to for "historical credence" are unlimited.

An all white cast belies the TRUTH.

[Alessan]

Of course Clint Eastwood, didn't leave out black soldiers on purpose. First of all during WWII the
Army was segregated, very few if any blacks served with the white soldiers. Second
Clint Eastwood's wife is black, so he can't be that bias, I know Lee must know this,
I think he's trying to get attention,. Maybe Spike ought to make his own movie about WWII and include black soldiers..

[uheardme]

Clint's wife is a Latina. This fact is irrelevent.

[KSH]

Clint's wife is Latina not Black. But I think Spike is doing his own film on the Buffalo Soldiers. No harm done. Clint has a right to use whatever part of history he wants. So I don't mind if Spike does a movie on the all Black Buffalo Soldiers. It's always been done this way. The Tuskegee Airmen had a sepreate movie. So I am not mad at Clint. But that is why we have Spike also.

[xmw]

so seperate but equal???

[Hare]

which means she is actually a white wannabe against blacks, otherwise she would not had married Eastwood. And don't flag me for saying the truth, Hispanics are more racist than whites.

[MizFlagPin]

This caused a very slight rip in the universe providing us a perfect opportunity to peep through and see the other side. This is an opportunity to have a crucial conversation.

Eastwood was not being "racist". He thought by depicting the service of those who resembled him, that it was a wrap. This is Clint's opportunity to expand his worldview and thus enrich his experiences which will enhance his craft.

Lee is doing his "being hard on the man" thing. But Spike has a valid point. Clint didn't want to hear Spike's criticism. Spike's message is lost on Clint. Could Spike have delivered the message that had a chance of being heard.

At the most, Clint and Spike are guilty of the inability to have a crucial conversation where the stakes are high, opinions vary and emotions run strong.

[GabrielXL]

Regardless of Spike's "point", he was out of line. I've listened to Spike spout off all kinds of notions about other people's work, while much of his work is myopic and one sided. Be that as it may, a director has the discretion to tell their story however they see fit. If this was oversight or creative discretion on Clint's part is a matter of vision and interpretation. I mean, who complained when Spike put out an extremely biased view about interracial relationships in Jungle Fever? Or perpetuated the "Willie Lynch" vision of relationships between blacks in "School Daze". And on the subject of "Jungle Fever", his biased view brought a whole new (and in my opinion) largely derogatory colloquialism on the subject... "jungle fever". I mean, what's worse? Omitting a certain aspect of true events, or using caricatured individuals to emphasize an issue? Neither does any real service to the facts and people should be justifiably annoyed, but to call another artist racist because he told a story his way is totally off the wall. I suppose Spike wanted Clint to go off like Tarantino did. Instead, Clint did the right thing by ignoring his comments. Why does an Oscar "winning" director need to justify himself to Spike Lee? Oh, and let's not start with the hypocrisy of the "n" word.

"... I use it sparingly and with more authority. As an African American man, I have the right to use that word."

"n" please!

[qdog112]

SPIKE WAS NOT OUT LINE - WHAT LINE?

If Eastwood wants his work taken seriously, he has the obligation to include black soldiers in his movies.

It simply sends the wrong message that blacks played no role in WWII.

In 1950 a film it was not expected to tell the truth of black participation and a whole generation of idiots grew up believing it was a "whites only" engagement.

Spike was right and it's important that more influential people alert us to what passes as authentic.

[john85msy]

You sound rediculous!

[lboucher]

Spike Lee has not put out a good movie in ten years and needs the publicity for his new dud movie.

Oh and I almost forgot he also is a racist.

[skyfish]

Jeez, Clint looks like a corpse... ugh

[liberalsrheros]

and spike would have been happy if there were some black extras in the film. aiming real high i guess. fact is the scope of each movie was very limited. it wasn't an all inclusive history lesson of ww2, check with what'shisname burns if that's what you want and even it was lacking.. eastwood did deal with racism in flags but i guess just the wrong flavor for spike. the criticism is without real merit.

[elcojonu]

In defense of Clint, I offer to everyone's consideration what I think is his Cinematic Masterpiece, ' Bird ',with none other than the great Forrest Whitaker in the leading Role.
It's about Jazz ( Clint is a long-time fan and player, he does the horn ; his son Kyle is a Bass player, has his own group ) and the life of the legendary, one and only, Charlie Parker.
Clint doesn't have a bigoted bone in his body; he's an old time Jazz Man, born and raised in Oakland, CA.; Jazz Cats ain't bigoted, it's the most integrated field of endeavor in this country.
Thought I throw this into the mix.

[THINKB4USPEAK]

I was just reading along this string and had to stop and say, "Look ! A golden winged ship is passing my way." And I was just about to crash. Now I can't sleep until I weigh in(COMING SOON). This is meant to be an agreement with your comment. Perhaps I should have called myself "DRINKB4UTHINK".

[elcojonu]

Right On !
I'm having a long Scotch and Water as I listen to my man Scott Hamilton blow some righteous tunes from his Tenor Ax.
The only way to Blog !

[avicenna]

The purpose of Lee's comments and their timing wasn't directly to criticize Clint's myopic view of the world as a man over 70 years old who had his formative years in a world where the most visible players in his world were white men. The purpose was to generate publicity for his new movie that happens to contrast the award-winning work by Clint Eastwood. Now we all know Lee has a new war movie coming out that pays tribute to those unappreciated black soldiers. I hope this will follow up with a movie that contrasts all those Jewish Holocaust movies and acknowledges the over 5 million non-Jewish people who died in the hands of the Nazis.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

This is old news. Methinks Spike simply wants to stir up controversy to get people to see his new film. From Wiki...

The movie has been criticized for omitting black Marines, drawing the ire of a small number of veterans groups. [2] In fact, black Marines are seen in scenes where the mission is being outlined, and during the initial landings - where a wounded black Marine is being carried away. During the end credits historical photographs taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima also show black Marines. This makes the film historically accurate, as although black Marines fought in the battle, they were restricted to auxiliary roles such as ammunition supply. This means that they would not have been involved in the major assaults on the island but would have solely taken part in defensive actions.

And as others have mentioned, the main story in Flags of Our Fathers was about the raising of the flag, not some politically correct apologist film. And Letters from Iwo Jima was about Japanese soldiers, not American ones. Don't know if Spike knows that, or he does, and just doesn't care.

Not to mention, these films were made a few years ago. I don't know why, other than Spike is drawing attention to his film, he's bringing it up now.

[Wiredwilly]

There's an old tune called " The One Note Samba " .
That's Spike Lee. He paints his canvas in one color : Black.

[pithymaxim]

and why not?

[Chubbster]

I guess the irony of Spike Lee's blatant racism isn't lost on anyone.

[MajorKong]

Where there any black troops on Iwo Jima? The army was segregated then and I don't know if any of the black units were there.

[amanda85]

Oh my, how many times do I have to repost this before it finally sinks in?

"While the film's battle scenes show scores of young soldiers in combat, none of them are African-American. Yet almost 900 African-American troops took part in the battle of Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/21/usa.filmnews

[Pyrrhus]

Major Kong:


http://www.nps.gov/archive/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003132-00/sec10.htm

They were in combat support roles, but nevertheless some did see action.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but the Marine Corps (3-5th divisions) stormed the island, not the US Army.

[Waitaminute]

yes there were. I told my grandson just get the history grade he needed it to graduate high school. After you get the grade forget about it. Its mostly lies. Notice how history, until just recently left contribution of black people dawn near completely out of it.

[KSH]

So true. We have to integrate Black people in history b/c for a long time no Black people exsisted on this earth except slaves and Martin Luther King - at least that is what the history books told us.

[Chuckwheat]

Spike could try throwing a punch at Clint and see who slams who.

[uheardme]

Spike once told black women who were angry at his misogynist and disgusting treatment of Black women on film and I'll paraphrase, "if you don't like how you're portrayed in my movies, make your own". Fuk Spike.

[SNS]

Have a link to the very statement of his you're paraphrasing? I've never heard of him saying anything close to that.

[delysia]

Some of you obviously haven't watched any of Lee's films. Some won't see the truth, in an issue such as this, if it slaps you in your face. Some would rather remain angry and ignorant of the facts, when just a little research and bit of an open mind might alleviate some of your anger and ignorance.