Spike Lee: My Spat With Eastwood May Have Cost Me Oscar

Spike Lee told King magazine that he fears his public war of words with Clint Eastwood may have cost him an Oscar nomination.

Earlier this year, at Cannes, Lee criticized Eastwood for not having African-Americans in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, Eastwood then said Lee should "shut his face" and Lee responded "we're not on a plantation."
Now Lee thinks the controversy that followed his remarks may have ruined his Academy Award chances for new movie "Miracle at St. Anna."

Lee tells King magazine:

"My wife Tonya told me I may have hurt my chances with the Clint Eastwood stuff... They (Oscar voters and Academy bosses) take everything into account with me. They take into account that I like the Knicks or that I'm in New York."

Lee is adamant the fact he's a Big Apple guy has cost him an Oscar Best Director nomination in the past: "If you did a survey, the bulk of the people who vote in the Academy are in Los Angeles. There's definite bias, considering that my films are typically New York-based." He's still upset that his Do The Right Thing movie wasn't even considered for an Oscar the year Driving Miss Daisy claimed Best Film.

He adds, "Nobody is watching motherfucking Driving Miss Daisy today. Do The Right Thing is being taught in classes at major universities and high schools all over the world. That's how you're supposed to test art. Does the work stand up?"

Comments

[Swerinjer]

its a big popularity contest all right.

[DennyCrane]

What cost him an Oscar is that he's just not a good director. Vastly overrated.

[Felicty]

Spike.

Honey.

You movies are simply never Oscar worthy. Keep attacking Clint Eastwood, though.

[jj]

Spike Lee is a great director, but as a person - he needs to quit playing victim.

[FiLoLi]

It's the man's best game.

Hey, I think Obama has been taking some notes from Spike.

[jj]

If anything Spike has been exploiting the Obama campaign.

Politically, I think the victimization card is firmly in McCain's lipstick pig corner.

[soybomb]

The only thing most black people did in the WWII military was cook. They weren't at Normandy. They weren't at Iwo Jima, unless they were keeping the fryer warm.

So why would Spike complain about the lack of black people in a film, Flags of our Fathers, that told the story of an invasion made and won by WHITE men?


As for his complaints about the companion movie "Letters" (a movie about the army of Japan) all I can say is Spike must be nuts.

[awww]

The only thing most black people did in the WWII military was cook.

dude, or dudette, you have no f-en idea what you are talking about...

[phantom5551]

firstly, the oscars are b.s.

if spike believes he is making "art" then he should not be in the least concerned with the oscars

secondly, if they are important to spike, he needs to make movies better than "girl 6" and the shockingly bad "she hate me"

oh yeah, and he REALLY needs to get over "do the right thing" not getting a nomination­...its been, what 20 years?

[Skippy200008]

The Oscars have rarely gotten it right. GoodFellas, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane...non­e of these films won. I rest my case.

Spike's a brilliant visualist and you love his boldness, but all his films could have used a ghostwriter and a strong editor.

[buddydave]

"Spike's a brilliant visualist and you love his boldness, but all his films could have used a ghostwriter and a strong editor."

Lord knows he made a number of poorly written, badly edited films (*cough*He Got Game*cough*) in the 1990s.

But I'd say "Do the Right Thing" is a major exception to that rule. Watch it again. It's leisurely paced, but it's a tight film, extremely well written, and exactly the right length. One of the best films of the 80s.

[awww]

ya know, I agree with you on the points about ghostwriter and editors

[FCBarca]

My suggestion is to forget the Oscars, anyone with any sense already has...They­'re nothing but a backroom popularity contest that reflects little in the way of genius filmmaking.

Case in point, just observe the ridiculous bias involved in the Foreign Film category.

Oscars are a joke

[America08]

Good Luck Spike. I have been watching your films for years.....­some of them I liked, some of them I didn't. You are who you are and I respect that about you. For those of you who have NOT seen his films....p­lease stop judging.

[tfred]

If you could buy Spike Lee for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth, you'd make millions.

[Bettysdad]

If the Academy is swayed by a Republican thug like Eastwood, you don't want their little statue.

[spiderbucket]

M. Night Shyamalan is following Spike's model of peaking early in his career. Spike lost me after Malcolm X. She's Gotta Have It was original and interesting. School Daze was weak but watchable. Do The Right Thing was actually very timely seeing what happened a few years later in L.A. and Mo Better Blues, while very stylish, was about the most openly misogynistic film I've ever seen. Jungle Fever sucked. Malcolm X was good. And then it goes straight downhill from there as far as I've seen. Girl 6 ? Urgh... Clockers ? ZzzzzZzzzzz. And I stopped about there. Any non-haters have any suggestions for me to redeem the respect I used to have for Spike ? I even went to his store in Brooklyn back in the day.

[UnknownSoldier]

You should watch Inside Man and 25th Hour, very good films definitely worth watching

[urfriend]

May be Lee is a good director (I haven't seen his single film, and don't intend to either) but from all his comments recently and in the past about other persons, films make him look so cheap that I just cannot get why people see his movies. Driving Miss Daisy is one of the finest movies I have ever seen with some of the best acting, how dare he speak ill of this movie. May be he should shut his mouth and do his work honestly and stop these cheap publicity stunts.

[11907281]

See plantation comment.

[robXdion]

That maybe. But the issue is the historical and psychological display is insulting. You don't get to decide what offends other people, especially when you aren't seen with the same lens.

[buddydave]

Driving Miss Daisy is pure crap. The fact that it won Best Picture was a slap in the face of all Americans, not just the black ones.

[jrb35]

A slap in the face to black Americans? How? I admit, it's not the type of movie I'd line up to see (no sword fights or explosions) but it does tell a story about a very real time in our history. Morgan Freeman was asked about the criticism of the film and he said that there were thousands of blacks who did indeed work as servants and drivers in the Jim Crow South. Should their stories never be told? Is it an endorsement of segregation to tell a story that takes place during that time? Is it not an insult to deny that these people existed?

[viewfromuphere]

seems to me we went down the road with Brokeback Mountain too.

The problem with saying this movie should have won, that movie is crap and shouldn't have is.......e­ventual the winner will be a movie one likes and someone else will be all over the win as wrong and an insult , etc, etc.

If the Oscar means nothing then it means nothing and why would Lee want the thing at all?

And frankly one could fill a book...a very large book, with all the movies, actors, etc who've never won squat at the Academy Awards.

Mr. Lee is in very good company.

[awww]

"Driving Miss Daisy is one of the finest movies I have ever seen"

hahahahahaha -
ok

[GwenElle]

Who cares. People are llosing their jobs, trying to find a way to stay afloat, and Spike has time to worry about his chances at an Oscar?! We should all have such problems.

[Charity]

...my dog ate it.