The war of words between Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood has reached a fevered pitch as Spike Lee obviously doesn’t know when to “shut his face” as Eastwood so eloquently put it.
As we told you the other day, Spike Lee is upset with Eastwood for not putting black actors in his WWII movies, Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. In response to Lee’s racist-tinted accusations against him, Eastwood said that “A guy like him should shut his face.”
Well, Spike Lee started talking some more. ABCNews.com was able to get this response from Lee:
“First of all, the man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation either,” he told ABCNEWS.com. “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.”
Lee has a proposal for Eastwood:
“If he wishes, I could assemble African-American men who fought at Iwo Jima and I’d like him to tell these guys that what they did was insignificant and they did not exist,” he said. “I’m not making this up. I know history. I’m a student of history. And I know the history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African-American men and women who contributed to World War II.”
So Spike Lee put Clint Eastwood in his place, right? He basically said, “hey, you ain’t my daddy or my master so you can’t tell me what to do.” A tad racist, but accurate, I suppose. He also called Clint out for being an angry old man. Of course, I’d be angry too if I had to defend myself against these kinds of “history experts.”
Concerning the black soldiers at Iwo Jima, Eastwood fired back at Lee and told Focus Magazine this (Newsbusters):
“Does he know anything about American history?” Eastwood told Focus when asked about Lee’s criticism. “The U.S. military was segregated til the Korean War, and the blacks in World War Two were totally segregated. The only black battalion on Iwo Jima was a small munitions supply unit that came to the beach.
“The story was about the men who raised the flag and we can’t make them black if they were not there. So tell him: Why don’t you go back and study your history and stop mouthing off!”
Where I once thought Spike Lee was just dredging up controversy to sell his black soldiers in WWII film, Miracle At St. Anna, I now think he’s just a little ignorant.
I’ve always thought he was racist.
Here is the poster for Lee’s film:
Wow
Do you think Robert Downey, Jr. is playing the lead in Lee's movie?
Probably left the Tropic Thunder set and went right to this one
Doubleplusungood crimethink by Clint Eastwood.
Spike Lee is just looking for something to complain about and to promote his own movie. I'd guess if there was a token African-American who dropped off ammo with the flag raisers he would have complained about that too.
Heya Frank! Good to see you
You've been a bit absent…how is OpTempo going?
By the way, you get a point for being funny too.
I love Disqus
I wish I did - maybe I'll get the swing of it shortly…
Jason, I feel like you are holding back… I'm not sure I can tell how you feel about Spike Lee. Next time, could you be a little more direct? No more sitting on the fence.
Sometimes I have a hard time expressing my feelings.
You don't love it? Sad…you need a banana?
There's a point system??
Yeah, you can award points to really good comments (like this one) by clicking the up arrow next to the avatar of the person who made the comment. It doesn't work, however, for people who are replying to a comment made by yourself.
Exactly! That's all I'm saying.
Does Spike Lee ever do anything besides piss and moan?
We miss you Kory!
Get some sleep man.
Spike is pathetic. He's not interested in being honest, only in generating controversy. The industrial-sized chip on his shoulder doesn't help. Clint could have pandered to him by gratuitously throwing in an “ammo bearers on the beach” scene, though the story didn't revolve around that, but there wasn't a whole lot of room for non-Japanese in Letters from Iwo Jima.
Did I miss a memo? Can't Clint make a movie without consulting Spike first to see if it meets the proper Equal Opportunity guidelines?