Jun 06 2008
Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee Trade Barbs
Critically acclaimed mega-directors Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood created a stir recently while both were promoting films at the Cannes Film Festival. Lee criticized Eastwood for not featuring any African Americans actors in his two World War II epics, “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers”, insisting that the gesture was a slight to black veterans.
Lee told reporters that African American veterans were upset about not being portrayed in the films, saying “In his version of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that”.
In an interview published by the UK newspaper, The Guardian, Eastwood responded that Lee should “shut his face.” He said that although there were Black soldiers in Iwo Jima, “they did not raise the flag”, and that was what the story was about. Eastwood said, “The story is about ‘Flags of Our Fathers’, the famous flag raising picture. 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.”
This isn’t the first time the two have bumped heads. Eastwood says that when he directed “Bird”, about the life of jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker, Lee complained, “Why would a white guy be doing that film?” Eastwood responded, “Because I was the only guy that made it. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead, he was making something else.”
Eastwood was at Cannes promoting his newest feature, “Changeling”, starring Angelina Jolie. Lee was at the festival talking up his latest venture, “Miracle at St. Anna”, about an al-black division of World War II soldiers.
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