Spike Lee is outraged that Clint
Eastwoods, Flags Of Our Fathers had no black people in it. The WWII
movie depicted the re-enactment of the battle of Iwo Jima, which Spike Lee
claims played a vital role. I think Spike is just pissed because his Knicks
suck but I will let you judge:
"There were many African-Americans
who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one [in the
films]. That was his version: the Negro soldier did not exist. I have a
different version."..."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. "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him
why. There's no way I know why he did that ... But I know it was pointed out to
him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."
Well I guess the reporters had balls. Listen to what Clint Eastwood had to say
in response:
"In typically outspoken language,
Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did
take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn't raise the flag.
The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on
Mount Suribachi. "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, peopled goo: '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."...Defending the racial make-up in his films as
historically accurate, Eastwood referred to another of his films, Changeling,
which was set in Los Angeles before the city had a large group of
African-Americans. "What are you going to do, you going to tell a fuckin'
story about that?" he said. "Make it look like a commercial for an
equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read
it historically, and that's the way it is. When I do a movie and it's 90%
black, like Bird, then I use 90% black people. "He was complaining when I
did Bird (the 1988 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."
In true Eastwood fashion he gave Lee the finger. Nothing much more I can add to
that except a high five for putting racists in their place.
Of course though you knew that Spike would have a response right!