Eastwood tells Spike Lee to shut his face

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Clint Eastwood has told Spike Lee to "shut his face" after the African-American filmmaker complained about the lack of black actors in Eastwood's films.

Eastwood has rejected the Malcolm X director's complaint that he had failed to include a single black soldier in his 2006 films Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, about the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.

Rationalising his choice, the actor-turned-director explains the African-American troops who were at battle didn't take part in raising the flag.

He tells Britain's The Guardian newspaper, "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 go: 'This guy's lost his mind'. I mean, it's not accurate."

Referring to Lee, Eastwood adds: "A guy like him should shut his face."

Lee's comments came during a press conference at the Cannes International Film Festival last month, where he was promoting his own war film, Miracle at St Anna, a war drama about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought against the Germans in World War II.

 

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I like Spike, but he seems to get his undies in a bunch a lot (see Spike/QT row).

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I like Spike, but he seems to get his undies in a bunch a lot (see Spike/QT row).

Well, I have a hard time believing that not one african american was involved in the battle of Iwo Jima.

I'm not saying that CE needed to cast them, but for him to be saying that he didn't cast any, because it wouldn't be accurate isn't right either.

 

[PDXChris]

Well, I have a hard time believing that not one african american was involved in the battle of Iwo Jima.

I'm not saying that CE needed to cast them, but for him to be saying that he didn't cast any, because it wouldn't be accurate isn't right either.

Clint was referring to the flag raising part, not the enitre battle.

 

[Louis]

Spike Lee should shut his face.

Remember all those black guys Eastwood blew away in the Dirty Harry flicks?

Put that in your pipe and smoke it Lee!

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Clint was referring to the flag raising part, not the enitre battle.

True, but that doesn't explain why there isn't one in the film. If he was worried about historial accuracy..................

 

[Chaplin]

The PC police can shove it. Clint Eastwood has earned the right to do whatever he wants in his movies. Doesn't make him a racist, which is Spike Lee's insinuation.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

The PC police can shove it.

I'm pretty much in agreement here.

But CE is insinuating that he didn't have any blacks in there for historical reasons, which doesn't seem accurate either.

Both need to ****.

 

[PortlandCardFan]

I'm pretty much in agreement here.

But CE is insinuating that he didn't have any blacks in there for historical reasons, which doesn't seem accurate either.

Both need to ****.

There were right around 4% blacks in the Marine Corps and they were having a hard time integrating blacks into service. Most units were supporting roles so they wouldn't have been on the front line any way. Clint was pretty accurate with his statement.

 

[abomb]

The PC police can shove it. Clint Eastwood has earned the right to do whatever he wants in his movies. Doesn't make him a racist, which is Spike Lee's insinuation.

Interesting. How do you feel about Spike vs QT?

There were right around 4% blacks in the Marine Corps and they were having a hard time integrating blacks into service. Most units were supporting roles so they wouldn't have been on the front line any way. Clint was pretty accurate with his statement.

Yeah, I read that on another board discussing this issue.

 

[Mulli]

Spike was just generating buzz for his new movie. No big deal.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

There were right around 4% blacks in the Marine Corps and they were having a hard time integrating blacks into service. Most units were supporting roles so they wouldn't have been on the front line any way. Clint was pretty accurate with his statement.

Interesting. How do you feel about Spike vs QT?



Yeah, I read that on another board discussing this issue.

Now I'm on a mission to see if any blacks were on the Iwo Jima island.

Nah, too busy to search.....

 

[Mulli]

Now I'm on a mission to see if any blacks were on the Iwo Jima island.

Nah, too busy to search.....

Wait, I think Spike is right. Why weren't there any blacks in Letters from Iwo Jima?

 

[Renz]

There were right around 4% blacks in the Marine Corps and they were having a hard time integrating blacks into service. Most units were supporting roles so they wouldn't have been on the front line any way. Clint was pretty accurate with his statement.

The services were still segregated at that time, as well. Any blacks in combat would have been in all-black units.

Most blacks in the Pacific at that time were orderlies onboard ships etc.

 

[PortlandCardFan]

Now I'm on a mission to see if any blacks were on the Iwo Jima island.

Nah, too busy to search.....

I believe blacks served on Iwo Jima but I'm not 100% positive. Even if they were there they weren't in a line company or platoon which is what you saw 99% of the time.

 

[PortlandCardFan]

The services were still segregated at that time, as well. Any blacks in combat would have been in all-black units.

Most blacks in the Pacific at that time were orderlies onboard ships etc.

Correct and the Marine Corps had its first black Marine in 1942. They created an all black unit but I can't remember what MOS (military occupational skill) they performed. Marine Corps had the hardest time adjusting from what I have read.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Wait, I think Spike is right. Why weren't there any blacks in Letters from Iwo Jima?

Were there blacks in either movie?

Either way, Flags of Our Fathers was horrible.

Iwo Jima was exponentially better.

 

[PortlandCardFan]

Were there blacks in either movie?

Either way, Flags of Our Fathers was horrible.

Iwo Jima was exponentially better.

I doubt there were any black in "Letters from Iwo Jima" since it was from the Japanese perspective (don't know I never saw this one).

 

[Russ Smith]

Wait, I think Spike is right. Why weren't there any blacks in Letters from Iwo Jima?

How many whites were in School Daze or She's Gotta Have it? How many asians, latinos etc.

If Eastwood took roles that in real life were black people and made them white in the movie than Spike may have grounds to complain but it's not clear he did that.

I think Spike just wants to hype his movie.

 

[Chaplin]

Interesting. How do you feel about Spike vs QT?

I don't know anything about Spike vs. QT. But I will say that QT is definitely no Clint Eastwood. Hell, QT is no Spike Lee either.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

The services were still segregated at that time, as well. Any blacks in combat would have been in all-black units.

Most blacks in the Pacific at that time were orderlies onboard ships etc.

You are correct. The armed forces weren't integrated until 1948.

 

[Shane]

Well, I have a hard time believing that not one african american was involved in the battle of Iwo Jima.

I'm not saying that CE needed to cast them, but for him to be saying that he didn't cast any, because it wouldn't be accurate isn't right either.

There were VERY FEW battle scenes in that movie. The whole movie was centered around the individuals who raised the flag. One of which was a minority(indian).

Spike Lee is a moron for even opening his trap. IMHO.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

African-American Marines in World War II


Black combat support units also took part in the assault on Iwo Jima, where, as at Peleliu, their presence confounded the policy of segregation. Because of the random intermingling of white and black units, an African-American Marine, carrying a box of supplies, dived into a shell hole occupied by white Marines, one of whom gave him a cigarette before he scrambled out with his load and ran forward. Here, too, black stewards and members of the depot and ammunition companies came to the aid of the wounded. A white Marine, Robert F. Graf, who lay in a tent awaiting evacuation for further medical treatment, remembered that: "Two black Marines . . . ever so gently . . . placed me on a stretcher and carried me outside to a waiting DUKW."

At Iwo Jima, the 8th Marine Ammunition Company and the 33d, 34th, and 36th Marine Depot Companies served as part of the shore party of the V Amphibious Corps. Elements of the ammunition company and the 36th Depot Company landed on D-Day, 19 February 1945, and within three days all the units were ashore, braving Japanese fire as they struggled in the volcanic sand to unload and stockpile ammunition and other supplies, and move the car go inland. Eleven black enlisted Marines and one of the white officers were wounded, two of the enlisted men fatally.

 

[Mulli]

How many whites were in School Daze or She's Gotta Have it? How many asians, latinos etc.

If Eastwood took roles that in real life were black people and made them white in the movie than Spike may have grounds to complain but it's not clear he did that.

I think Spike just wants to hype his movie.

It was a joke. "Letters" had mostly just Japanese, if you pleasy.

 

[Russ Smith]

It was a joke. "Letters" had mostly just Japanese, if you pleasy.

Sorry mine was joking too. School Daze is about racism within the black community itself(between light and dark skin) so it would make little sense at all to have whites, asians or latinos in it.

Now we need a feminist to complain that there's no women in the movie "the Thing" starring Kurt Russell, unless the alien creature is a woman and we didn't know.