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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?
http://tinyurl.com/5gn9xv
Please don't waste either your breath or your credibility defending Spike "Jews run Hollywood" Lee.
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?
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.
!
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.
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.
I agree with what Clint Eastwood said.