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Eastwood to Spike Lee: "Shut Your Face"
Clint Eastwood by Todd Williamson/WireImage.com and Spike Lee by Tony Barson/WireImage.com
Remember last month at Cannes when Spike Lee — promoting his African-American WWII movie Miracle at St. Anna — made some characteristically aggressive remarks about the dearth of black characters in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers? Well, the man who once played Dirty Harry has a few choice words for Lee.
"A guy like him should shut his face," Eastwood told the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper — apparently thinking that calling Lee a "dummy head" might sound childish. Despite his obvious anger, Eastwood gave a straightforward response to why there weren't more black roles in his film: "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." Eastwood also claimed that Lee had once griped about Eastwood directing Bird, the biopic about African-American jazzman Charlie Parker, a story Lee thought should be told by a black director.
It's clear what needs to happen here. These two should settle matters with a good old-fashioned "talking like this" contest. Lee certainly knows from in-your-face confrontation (link NSFW), and Eastwood has that signature gravelly voice. Does Lee feel lucky? — Mickey O'Connor
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Jun 6, 2008 12:58 PM
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It sure seems like Spike Lee was trying to drum up publicity for his film. I mean why didn't he say anything when Eastwood's movie came out...in 2006 not 2 years later???
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Jun 6, 2008 1:42 PM
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As someone who saw both of Eastwood's WWII movies(both excellent but Iwo Jima being the better of the two by a mile) it would have made no sense to have an African AMerican in either film. AS already discussed there were no African Americans involved in the raising of the flag, Eastwood was keeping it as accurate as possible(following the book put out by the son of one of the soldiers) and Letters From Iwo Jima had at the most five white actors with speaking roles, each not excedding more than five lines and again that was passed on actual letters from the war. I don't know what Lee expected...I hate that people always need to bring up race, its very sad.
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Jun 6, 2008 1:52 PM
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If Eastwood did his homework/research and knew there weren't any minorities fighting for our country at that time (and location), then he shouldn't be criticized by Spike.
However, if Spike has any historical facts to support his call for black, Native American or Hispanic characters who made significant contributions during that time (and that location), he should voice his concerns.
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Jun 6, 2008 1:53 PM
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Now who's being racist?
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Jun 6, 2008 2:00 PM
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Spike Lee's just being a grenade thrower, as usual. Eastwood's response was actually pretty gracious, all things considered. Of course, their bodies of work speak for themselves, too. Mr. Lee should be grateful to be making movies, considering how cut-rate his output has been in the last decade.
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Jun 6, 2008 2:40 PM
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If I'm not mistaken, there was a Native American involved in the flag raising, and he was played by Native American actor, Adam Beach.
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Jun 6, 2008 2:41 PM
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And also just to be clear, there actually were black soldiers featured in Flags of Our Fathers; there was a brief cutaway (of a few seconds) that did show a black unit as they were identified by voiceover. Spike seems to be objecting to the fact that they weren't major characters in the movie, but as Eastwood has already stated, it wouldn't make sense to have them be major characters because the story wasn't about them.
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Jun 6, 2008 2:50 PM
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Thanks, danishere, for making the best point even though you beat me to it. That's the first thing I thought of... I wish Spike, Oprah or someone would do a film on Frederick Douglass... I see Spike is doing documentary on Michael Jordan - I guess for the 2 people on the planet who don't already know about him.
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Jun 6, 2008 3:00 PM
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"If Eastwood did his homework/research and knew there weren't any minorities fighting for our country at that time (and location), then he shouldn't be criticized by Spike."
You need to educate yourself Spiderman because for your information minorities have fought in every war in this countries history and the sad thing was they would risk their lives in the name of this country and then come home and get treated like second class citizens... I should know my grandfather served in both WWII and the Korean War and when he come home to the good old USA, he was right back in the back of the bus.
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Jun 6, 2008 3:51 PM
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While there were individuals of many races fighting in World War II, those raising the flag at Iwo Jima appear to be non-black...which would account for the non-black individuals in Eastwood's movie.
A picture of the squadron can be found at this site:
http://www.iwojima.com/raising/l721flag.gif
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Jun 6, 2008 4:52 PM
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Spike Lee sounds more like a racist every time he opens his mouth. His attitude is one of anger, bitterness, and even paranoia about the use of black characters/actors in other people's creative work.
Oh yes, then there was the time when he took Spike TV to court to keep them from using what he considered to be his exclusive name. Such arrogance!
Clint Eastwood is right. Lee should shut his face.
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Jun 6, 2008 5:07 PM
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Thankulord13: Pay attenton. The post included the phrase (and location).
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Jun 6, 2008 5:32 PM
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Yet another example of how racism in America is alive and well. The only way to do away with racism is to stop talking about. Black pride is no more appropriate than white pride. Let's just resolve to stop seeing each other as black or white (or brown/red/yellow for that matter) and start seeing each other as people. To quote a man I truely respect "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." {Morgan Freeman}
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Jun 6, 2008 5:37 PM
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thankulord13, Flags of Our Fathers wasn't about WW2. It was about a specific MOMENT during WW2 and the group of people who took part in that moment. Unfortunately, there wasn't any black soldiers in that particular group. Should Clint have just changed history?
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Jun 6, 2008 5:39 PM
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