Whoa. Not good.
Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood are having a little bit of a tit for tat. It’s fast becomming a “He said..then he said…” spectacle.
Apparently, Spike Lee took exception to the representation of “African American” men in Eastwood’s films, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima.” It’s his right, of course, to have opinions about other director’s work. Just as other directors may take exception to his films. For example, maybe they question the way their race is represented in his films. However, Spike Lee didn’t just think the thoughts, he voiced them. As a fan of both men, I wish Lee had gone to Eastwood – face to face, man to man. If he thought something was unfair, I personally think he should have had his say – to Clint Eastwood. There wasn’t any need, in my opinion, to speak out publicly on the subject.
Eastwood’s response: Again, words that would have been better directed (excuse the pun) at the individual, not the public. “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.” Referring to Lee, he added: “A guy like him should shut his face.”
As you can guess, that went over pretty well.
Spike Lee’s response? “First of all, the man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation either,” he said. “He’s a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn’t personally attack him. And a comment like ‘a guy like that should shut his face’ – come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there.”
Now it’s stooped to name-calling. Not cool. These are educated men, here!
Here are the facts: almost 900 of the 30,000 marines that stormed the Japanese island were African-American. Eastwood explained that he wasn’t going to alter history for the sake of a film:
“I’m not in that game. I’m playing it the way I read it historically, and that’s the way it is,” he said.
“When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‘Bird,’ I use 90% black people.” Bird was, of course, his 1998 film about jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker. Eastwood brought up the fact that even then, Spike Lee complained – “He was complaining when I did Bird (a biopic of Charlie Parker). Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that’s why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else.”
Truth, more than anything, hits the hardest, doesn’t it?
Spike Lee’s next film is “Miracle at St. Anna.” It’s about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division that fought in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. Clint Eastwood’s next project (The Human Factor) is about Nelson Mandela and his journey to help South Africa overcome the damages of apartheid.
About casting this film, Clint Eastwood said, “I’m not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy.”
Touche’!
*In an AOL poll, the question was asked, “Whose side are you on?” After voting, I saw that 92 percent are on “Team Clint” and 8 percent are on “Team Spike.”
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