| Was Spike Lee’s criticism and charges of racism against Clint Eastwood legitimate?

Was Spike Lee’s criticism and charges of racism against Clint Eastwood legitimate?

marnefirstinfantry asked:


Spike Lee Rips Eastwood for WWII Films
AP / AOL
Posted: 2008-05-21 14:37:03
Filed Under: Movie News
CANNES, France (May 21) - Spike Lee is slamming Clint Eastwood over his two recent Iwo Jima movies, saying the filmmaker overlooked the role of black soldiers during World War II.

Lee - whose next film is this fall’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” the story of an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during the war - said Eastwood’s 2006 movies “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” were whites-only affairs.

“He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films,” Lee said Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was a judge in an online short-film competition.

“Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version,” Lee said.

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/movies/movie-news-story/ar/_a/spike-lee-rips-eastwood-for-wwii-films/20080521131109990001?icid=1615988631×1202843836x1200307107

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Comments

4 Responses to “Was Spike Lee’s criticism and charges of racism against Clint Eastwood legitimate?”

  1. Joseph, II on April 23rd, 2009 7:42 am

    I think Lee might be charging Eastwood with NOT being “Politically Correct…” -& that Eastwood simply wasn’t aware how significant a role Black Soldiers played in those battles. Let’s see how Lee’s version “hold up” in Comparison… I’m looking forward to seeing, “Miracle at St. Anna”- as I’ve enjoyed MANY of Spike’s movies over the years… :)

  2. MetalHeart on April 27th, 2009 1:01 pm

    No. AA’s were a small fraction of the total number of soldiers in this invasion and the war itself. That’s why no one else has brought this up before. Spike has a movie to promote.

    This is more typical crap from African-American’s that will cry “massive racism that is rampant today” (BET’ tv host comment) while a black man is about to run for the Presidency as a major political party candidate.
    AA’s can make movies like “White Men Can’t Jump”. But it’s ok for AA’s to do this because they live in a world of “I can do it but you can’t”.
    They can sing n* this, n* that, call each other n* and then ask why this word still gets used by other people as they promote it in mainstream pop culture. And don’t you dare make a movie like “Black Men Can’t Think” because that would be “racist”.

    AA’s are the biggest racist in America today. They racist groups are just legal. NAACP, United Negro College Fund, which you can’t even write Negro anymore because now that’s “racial”. Soon “African-American” will be a racist term.

  3. sookietex on May 3rd, 2009 9:09 pm

    Both sides may be forgiven or condemned, depending on your point of view. Of the total of 110,000 american troops committed at Iwo Jima about four companies or 900 were black. You may view a more complete answer at (Black Troops at Iwo Jima)

  4. ezbake on May 5th, 2009 6:14 pm

    I think it’s ironic that people are accusing Clint Eastwood of being racist. He is the only American director in history to create a film showing BOTH sides of Iwo Jima. The only one to film it from the Japanese soldiers point of view…and, have the balls to film the whole thing in Japanese with English subtitles. If he was telling the expericence of the main 6 who raised the flag, based on the books… well, sure maybe he could’ve deviated from the story and sprinkled some black soldiers in to be ‘pc’, as well as native american and some women. But most of us aren’t over analyzing the honest storying telling of the brutalities of war.

    Besides, I’m sure we could all find the same things in Lees (and other black directors) films…. if we viewed them through a similar critical lense.