Spike Lee vs Clint Eastwood

[yeahwho]

I'm sort of surprised by both of these guys. But I will side with Clint because if your going to respond to accusations your a racist film maker you may as well lay it out on the line,

Spike says "Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total and there was not one Negro actor on the screen," Lee said.
"I've no idea why he did that. That was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed. It's not like he didn't know. It was a conscious decision not to have any black people." (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2000781/Cannes-Film-Festival-Spike-Lee-criticises-Clint-Eastwood-over-all-white-Iwo-Jima-films.html)

Clint responds

A guy like him should shut his face' (http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2283921,00.html)

[Bob]

you forgot spike's response to clint's response "First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either." (http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2284542,00.html)

[funk63]

i saw this and all i could think was its clint eastwood, he can do whatever the hell he wants. and id hate to be in the state of mind where im more worried about peoples skin color when im watching a movie then the actual content. eastwood ftw.

[yeahwho]

you forgot spike's response to clint's response "First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either." (http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2284542,00.html)

Is this slow news week or what? I'm trying to figure out why Spike wants to install quotas in art? What if there were no Japanese in Iwo Jima? The film was made from a Japanese perspective.

odd battle with no real winners, these are movies, not documentaries.

[Bob]

Is this slow news week or what? I'm trying to figure out why Spike wants to install quotas in art? What if there were no Japanese in Iwo Jima? The film was made from a Japanese perspective.

odd battle with no real winners, these are movies, not documentaries.

spike kind of has a point, in that there were in fact some black soldiers at iwo jima, but none of the countless movies that have covered it have depicted that. but i think him singling out clint eastwood and dredging up the slave days (even if he meant it completely as a joke, and i have no idea if he did) is in pretty bad taste.

then again, so is saying "a guy like that should shut his face" but clint eastwood is old, he gets to be cranky. if spike lee were pushing 80 he'd get a pass too

[yeahwho]

I just keep remembering Spike taunting Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller (http://mattlenio.blogspot.com/2008/03/knick-killer.html) and how will that worked out for him when Miller scored 25 points (http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2006/02/word-of-day-dagger.html) in the fourth quarter of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtPaMgyz4ec).

[DroppinScience]

Kind of a silly tiff, if you ask me. I have profound respect for both filmmakers, but Spike Lee is right that black soldiers are very underrepresented in WW2 movies, but that doesn't mean you go and create black soldiers (in this case, those raising the Iwo Jima flag) where none existed. :confused:

Edit: Okay, revise that last part. Spike wasn't saying there should have been a black person raising the flag, he just wanted the blacks' general contribution to the Iwo Jima battle be acknowledged. That, to me, is fair enough.

[RobMoney$]

How is this Political?

[yeahwho]

It seems more political than general, Mr. lee is saying part of World War II is not being portrayed honestly and Mr. Eastwood is saying that the war is being portrayed by the book.

Where to post and talk about this did cross my mind, the deciding factor is the thrust of the story is honest representation of a war and the citizens of the U.S. who partook in this war.

If anyone else believes it shouldn't be posted here in the BBMB political section please speak up, I have no ego attached to any part of my posts.

[RobMoney$]

Take this shit to The Enquirer's MB.

[yeahwho]

Yeah your right, we should delve into more important matters such as the pastors of presidents, flight 77, building 3, wal mart, michelle obama rumors.

It is a major news story in every major newspaper with two prominent Oscar worthy directors in reality (not theory) asking an important question about race in America and how it is portrayed.

Back off and do not respond, talk to a moderator or grow up. Man up. quit whining.

[abcdefz]

Spike has zero credibility crying racism.

Eastwood isn't the type to overexplain himself, but I'd be willing to bet he just didn't want to cast "quota niggers." The guy has provided
real opportunity for black men in his movies when the part didn't necessarily call for it (Scatman Crothers and Morgan Freeman [twice]
immediately come to mind). And he's done pretty well by women, by and large.

Bitch about Michael Bay or something, for God's sake.

[YoungRemy]

Letters from Iwo Jima IS ABOUT THE JAPANESE...

[saz]

Spike has zero credibility crying racism.

Eastwood isn't the type to overexplain himself, but I'd be willing to bet he just didn't want to cast "quota niggers." The guy has provided
real opportunity for black men in his movies when the part didn't necessarily call for it (Scatman Crothers and Morgan Freeman [twice]
immediately come to mind). And he's done pretty well by women, by and large.

Bitch about Michael Bay or something, for God's sake.

no i think spike does indeed have credibility with this issue. he has a point, that there were black soldiers at iwo jima, but eastwood's movie wasn't about the segregated black combat units, but rather the soldiers who raised the flag in that iconic photograph. spike should really be focusing on hollywood, as opposed to eastwood, who has as you pointed out, casted black actors in his films.