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."

********

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.

___

On the Net:

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

Comments

[lenzorizzo]

While I personally don't know of any African-American soldiers at Iwo Jima, I don't doubt that they were there, along with the rest if the GIs (except the 447th).
In any case this just seems like a case of one film-maker attempting to garner additional publicity and stature by contrasting himself publicly with another, more successful film-maker. People will argue about it, and maybe more people will see the film. I'm sure Lee's film is a good one.

[prattvictory]

My Stepfather went to visit the grave of his brother-in-law who was killed at Anzio. He hitched a ride back with some Black soldiers with the graves detail. He rode in front with them while other white soldiers refused to sit with Blacks and rode in the back. These soldiers would rather sit in the back of a duce and a half that had been filled with rotting corpses than ride with Black soldiers in the front. When they got back my stepfather said all the guys sitting in the back of the truck stank of death.

I think that was much of the attitude towards African-Americans in the military during World War II.

[Swampfish]

Is it shameful or shameless than in 2008 we are still getting fed the "naratives" that no minority or(black,yellow, brown)peoples existed or played any meaningful part in US or world history ?

[jamman]

I'm not sure that it's always racism if a story lacks a black character. Eastwood's movies focused on two things: Flags of our Father was about the four men who rasied the flag on Iwo...was there a black guy there when it happened, or in the Troop involved? I duno. Letters from Iwo was focused on the Japanese side of thing...again...in the narrow focus of the story I don't jump to the conclusion that the lack of a black character among the american troop is racist.

Spike Lee seems to be drumming up interest in his war movie, which is no big deal I guess. But his story is based on a novel. I plan to try to find out what factual truth is behind the story of the novel. I like Spike, but I find his movies classically racist. Jungle Fever was particularly a slam on Italo-New Yorkers. She's got To Have It slammed Larry Bird because Spike disliked him for being a White basketball star. 25th Hour had a stupid racist rant in it for no real purpose. And 25th hour and the Son of Sam movie were both showcases for his directorial talent.

He should transcend race, he has the talent to do it. Instead he is mired in the trivialities of whether a stock black character is in a Clint Eastwood movie?

[diboss]

Yes, there was a black man there when the flag was raised. Apparently, he gave one of the guys a pipe to use in the flag raising. They also did much more heroic things.

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

[VSamuels]

Spike's point is part of the soriful history of America, that has contributed to some whites marginalizing the contributions of non-whites. As the director, ultimately Clint was responsible for making sure that his film was accurately depicting the reality of these historical pieces he was producing. Clint like many of the knee-jerks here is simply a product of his culture who have been exposed to the boatloads of mischaracterizations and omissions that he probably subconsciously didn't think that non-whites were part of his story.

Clint is a professional but he is not beyond seeing the world in a vacuum like the many folks here who can't deal with facts that betray their Disneyland fantasy versions.