Spike Lee Vs. Clint Eastwood
June 8th, 2008 in Actors, Directors, Movie News, Movies, War, Writers
Just when you thought the tension had eased after the war of words between George Clooney and Charlton Heston, or Uwe Boll and everyone, the stage has been set for the battle between legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood, and legendary director Spike Lee.
It all started in Cannes this year, in which Spike Lee (who directed classics such as Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X) was promoting the forthcoming WWII movie Miracle at St. Anna, concerning four African-American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Italy. On the subject, Lee criticised Eastwood’s two war film Letters from Iwo Jima, and Flags of Our Fathers, for not representing any of the African-American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima. “It was a conscious decision [by Eastwood] not to have any black people”.
Eastwood responded in an interview with UK newspaper The Guardian, and he was not a happy camper. Eastwood said that Flags of Our Fathers was about the men who raised the flag for that iconic picture and that ” [the African-American contingent] 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.” Eastwood’s last words on the subject were “A guy like him should shut his face”.
Them’s fighting words, and Lee promptly responded to ABC News: “the man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation [.....] come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there”. Lee denied that he suggested that the true story of Flags of our Fathers should be rewritten to feature an African-American character, and “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.”
Personally, I think the situation has been blown out of porportion. Lee has a certain point in that there are no black actors to be seen in Flags (Letters from Iwo Jima is told from the Japanese side), but would their inclusion as essentially extras in the background have made much of a difference? Lee was really making a statement on Hollywood’s depictions of WWII as inaccurate, but to be honest, what does he expect? You can’t get much further from the truth than Hollywood films. Which is why it will be very interesting to see how Miracle at St. Anna fares when it is released in September.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Stumble it! / Bookmark:
June 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Clint and Spike are great filmmakers. We should respect them for their work.
Each are different in their filmmaking and attitudes of how they make movies. Casting the right ethnic actors is not the issue — Hollywood has come along way. Sometimes, I think, Hollywood doesn’t push the envelope as much as it used to with ethnic characters, trying to make everyone look the same.
Bantering back and forth in the media about their filmmaking style or choices is fodder for the media.
These type of statements should remain in a private conversation between Clint and Spike.
I look forward to seeing “The Changeling” and “St. Anna” their latest films.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
[...] Launching Early for Premium PlayersSpike Lee Vs. Clint EastwoodYou Tube joins Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link servicePulstek SmartOffice PS281 Scanner Related [...]