Clint Vs. Spike Undercard for McCain Vs. Obama

In this "post-racial" world this latest dust-up between Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee seems decidedly old-fashioned. I cringed when I read about it and sincerely hope that the next big fight between a legendary but crotchety old white guy and a brash younger black guy remains much more civil.

In the Eastwood-Lee feud Lee clearly has historical accuracy on his side. In establishing scenes on Iwo Jima with hundreds of extras Eastwood whitewashed the black soldiers unloading munitions on the beach. Along with telling Lee to "shut his face," Eastwood went on mischaracterize Lee's complaint. "The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go: 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate."

Lee responded: "I never said he should show one of the other guys holding up the flag as black. I said that African-Americans played a significant part in Iwo Jima," he said. "For him to insinuate that I'm rewriting history and have one of the four guys with the flag be black ... no one said that. It's just that there's not one black in either film. And because I know my history, that's why I made that observation."

What is typical in this discourse is the white accused of racism not fully understanding the relative subtlety of the black complaint. Full understanding wasn't helped by the fact that the criticism came from Spike Lee, famous for his unvarnished talk. What Clint is missing here is that Spike has mellowed considerably as he's grown into one of the most interesting filmmakers working today (along with Mr. Eastwood). Yes, Spike was young and wrong when he complained about Eastwood tackling Charlie Parker in "Bird," but that was back in 1988.

Eastwood needs to understand that Obama's breakthrough is about the future but there is still a lot of past out there where we have not yet gotten our due. It was not until a film I worked on, The Tuskegee Airmen, came out on HBO that these exceptional black pilots entered American popular culture.

Trey Ellis is the author of Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood.

Comments

[obalaji]

Methinks the whites in this room doth protest too much.

[jeffepops]

While there need to be more films about African American contributions to our military during WWII, it's unfair for Lee to criticize Eastwood for not making that film. Perhaps Spike will helm such a picture, but Eastwood made a film based on a book that did not address the issue of racism in the military during WWII. Clearly the numbers/percentages of blacks involved in the action was miniscule -- Eastwood's film would have had to go out of its way to deal with this issue.

Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn, a Marine Chaplain who participated at Iwo Jima, presided over the combined religious memorial service at the end of the battle. This is what he said in the course of his sermon about those who made the ultimate sacrifice:

"Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding. And other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and Whites, rich men and poor, together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed. Among these men there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy…"

Both Spike and Clint should stop their feuding and move on to more important issues.

[castlerider]

I believe subtexting this with Obama - McCain is ridiculous. It's not true, anyways.

People can choose to be more intelligent then that, and after just a little hashing it out, will. This is an election deeply involved in issues, and should not be compounded and complicated with silly gossip talk.

[Boris]

Spike's racism is driven by the fact is is a 3 foot black man who cant dunk a basketball.

I was told by an angry feminist that Spike couldnt be racist no matter what he said because he was black and black people dont have power therefore they cant really be racist.

Unfortunately, Spike's movies seem to be driven by his anger and hatred of white society. He sees racism in everything, probably even in a cheeseburger. He has no right to tell Eastwood what to film. He is a director. He can do his own movie.

Spike Lee seeks political correctness in everything, even where it never existed.

[RobinLandseadel]

Personally, I think Spike was right about "Bird."

What Clint Eastwood did in "Bird" seems to dis-empower Charlie Parker by keeping a hard focus on the self-destruction and delusion that grew towards the end of Yardbird's carrer, over-emphasising the role of Chan Richardson in the altoist's life to the exclusion of all the other possible stories that came from this creative master. The film is dark, dark, dark but Yardbird's music at its best is full of light and play. The master narrative of "Bird"---that somehow Charlie Parker was always a child---belittles Bird's major musical acomplishments. I suppose it's no worse than "Amadeus" [though "Amadeus" always keeps the subject's genius in the viewfinder] but it belittles the facts of Yardbird's life. As good as "Bird" is, and it has its fair share of moments, ultimately it makes less of the King of the Boppers than the subject deserves.

[ccpostman]

Obama's people have done a really good job of keeping him AWAY from hot headed militant political lighting rods like Lee.

The Republicans would just love a nice up-to-date photo of Obama with Jackson, Sharpton, or Spike Lee. The damage would be HUGE in republican rural areas where they still think Obama is a muslim!

[scottellington]

I thought Flags of Our Fathers was a powerful film about bullshit, neatly articulating the destructive effects of a righteous propaganda machine on the heroic efforts of a few individuals. The details of the flag-raising got lost in the campaign for WarBond sales. What mattered most to the war effort was the PhotoOp, and what matters most to the modern-day media machineries is SoundBytes.

Spike Lee's remarks also included interesting statements about the Coen's approach to violence, but I guess the entirety of his statement(s) didn't fit the inflamed context of somebody's agenda.
My understanding is that these four hyphenated directors have far more in common with one another than anybody cares to report about. They value story above everything, work fast, collaboratively and magnetize loyalty.

If anybody merits disdain, I recommend the member(s) of the media Establishment who figured to draw eyeballs by pumping a few, carefully selected SoundBytes with steroids and selling a little more bullshit. The problem with denouncing nonsense is that it still attracts attention.

[Locksly]

Clint made two mistakes, (1) he should have at the very least, at the end of the movie , in it's credits ATLEAST mention the Black troops that actually helped those White troops by loading the amunition.
Number (2) he got so defensive, "A guy like that, outta shut his face," nasty and bitter, hateful reaction.

But that's what it is to called a minority=minor, you don't count or matter.

Lee's gotta make his own; another point of view or version, from the "Black" experience of what it was like for our father and grandfathers, we can't wait and expect White Amer., to give us the credit we so richly deserve, gotta take it for ourselves. "Divided we stand and will fall," Black movies for Blacks and White movies for Whites...is this how far we've come here in Amer., not really a melting pot then is it?

[aubrey8]

cry me a river man, cry me a river....

[Locksly]

That sounds like something you's say...and do!

[tkondaks]

Mr. Ellis, Spike Lee is not known for his partiality when it comes to race and ethnic groups:

http://tinyurl.com/5gn9xv

[tkondaks]

Mr. Ellis,
Please don't waste either your breath or your credibility defending Spike "Jews run Hollywood" Lee.

[Shawn828]

I think the whole thing is some minor B.S. that has been blown out of proportion by the entertainment media to get a fight going to boost ratings. War film accuracy for WWII has always been spotty, sometimes intentionally, other times by ignorance, and many times because of budget or production factors.

I really think the Obama-McCain connection is a r-e-a-l stretch and this isn't the context to bring it in. Rather maybe we can use this as a launch pad to discuss more accurate potrayal of historic events?

[ChicagoBob]

!

Yes, there were lots of black solders in WWII, but they were mostly segregated and did not mix with the whites.

I know this will sound a little silly but the black troops may have been just a bit down the beach and therefore out of camera range.

Now for the real point of my comment. Blacks are 12.5% of the US population. They are not everywhere (except in Chicago where they are the majority ethnic group) and forcing a "balanced" view in movies and other media is unrealistic and inaccurate. And don't give me any crap about being a raciest. I live in Chicago.

!

[Wrynot]

Damn right! Clint may be an old white guy, but that doesn't mean he is racist when he makes movies about the young versions of old white guys and there aren't any black guys around. Call me crazy, but when I picture the stories my grandfather told me I don't picture too many black guys, and that is not that my grandfather was racist, its because he grew up in a racist time! World War 2 was before the civil rights movement, i.e. a racist time to be alive. Sorry... I really mean that: it's a sorry thing. I wish it was not the case, but it was. Why get pissed when it is told like it was? Oh yeah, because it was told by a white guy - that makes it instantly racist.

[Locksly]

Looks like we need 2 sets of history then, one for Blacks, so our children can see the important roles we've played in the world period, in the making of it. Really doesn't shock me with your grandfather and all, that why there's always two side to every story, because there's two side to this country, people of color/white. It's a shame this all the further we've come in this country, but it was was worse once upon a time....but its still a racist time that's why we're having these conversations....STILL!!!

[Locksly]

When it comes to the portrayal "American Glory," we're usually just out of sight, it's a habit with this country. When I was a kid, my mother would get so excited when there were Black people on tv., circa 60's.

My father was in (WWII) told me some pretty nasty stories about what it was like to be Black in the services...he was quite bitter about it, he soon came to realize, "the enemy behind the lines while fighting for my country" as he put it. And acually, we are everywhere, the 4 coners of the union, I travel for work!

Further more, mostly everyone is racist here in Amer., you just need the right bottoms pushed and then you'll see. You'd be surprised what lies dorment within yourself with the righ motivation.

[marinade]

Comparing Clint Eastwood to John McCain is an insult.

[walk0nwalls]

I really don't think that Clint really gave a damn whether or not there were black soldiers or not in that establishing shot because that wasn't the point of the film and if it's not the point it can be glossed over.

If Spike wants to make a film about it then yeah, he can do that. But in all honesty the thought probably never even went through Clint's mind because in all honesty the thought does not even begin to matter.

It wasn't the point of the film. Spike is arguing over a detail. If that's dismissive, perhaps but the entire film is arguably dismissive of the entire experience of everyone else on Iwo Jima because it focuses in on a few guys. THAT was the point of the film. So the background doesn't really matter too much. Especially when they probably just handed it to the SFX guys and were done with it.

[America08]

I agree with Spike and I agree with Mr. Ellis's assesment. Spike didn't persoanlly attack Clint. He made an "observation". Why did Clint make the ammunition soldiers white when he could of made them Black (like they were)? It's not about who is a better director or whether Clint had Black actors in his prior films or Woody Allen.....It is about history. If you are going to depict history it should be accurate. I expect that from a movie producer of any color.

[aubrey8]

why don't you call jessie jackson and have him call for a boycott of all clint eastwood movies if you believe that strongly about it?

[America08]

Why don't you call Geraldine Ferraro?

[mredder4]

Because then Spike Lee would have said something to the effect of "Well, why were the only black soldiers in the movie the ones hauling munitions?" or something along those lines. It's a nothing's-ever-good-enough trap to fall into, with Spike Lee. Clint Eastwood could probably film a movie with an all-black cast and Spike Lee would probably come along and say they weren't dark enough, too much white blood in some of them.

I agree with what Clint Eastwood said.