Lee: Eastwood omitted black troops in WWII films

May 21, 2008, The Associated Press

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.

Eastwood was in Cannes for his missing-child drama "The Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie. At a news conference for the film, a reporter tried to ask for his reaction to Lee's criticism, but the moderator cut her off and told journalists to limit questions to Eastwood's own movie.

Due in U.S. theaters in October, "Miracle at St. Anna" centers on four Americans — played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and Omar Benson Miller — in the Buffalo Soldiers division in Tuscany.

There weren't any Black Combat Units on Iwo Jima.

yeah it pretty much left me speechless that he would make such a moronic statement. Come on.

nice jiggs cath.....

And I thought I was retarded. You people still don't get it.

1. He says something
2. The media puts it out there
3. You people read it.
4. You people market and promote him just by saying his name.
5. He wins, I lose, because I just read it.
...but I don't blame him, I blame you for spreading the crap.

Craptards.

Bruno Anthony wrote:

And I thought I was retarded.

you thought right.

Bruno Anthony wrote:

And I thought I was retarded. You people still don't get it.

1. He says something
2. The media puts it out there
3. You people read it.
4. You people market and promote him just by saying his name.
5. He wins, I lose, because I just read it.
...but I don't blame him, I blame you for spreading the crap.

Craptards.

Did you even get out of the third grade?

Reread what I typed, retard.

As long as you don't call me "challenged" I'm happy.

And will someone tell me who my picture is of ?
I only grabbed to spin it around because it was posted upside down sideways.
I think it was backwards too. I fixed.
No surprise given the group.

Some douchebag holding a bowl of what looks like a loose bowel movement?

So you spent time straightening a picture of an unknown person for no real reason and you sling a veiled insult at the group?

You ate out of the bowl didn't you?

Cathy Rigby wrote:

you sling a veiled insult at the group?

You are confusing your groups. This is not your anger management group, we're the Dear John group.

You mean anger management grouping?

See, you do have a pulse. Do you remember when clothier had one ?

And I want to get rid of this stupid picture. Will you please tell me who it is. Is it You ?

No it is not me.

I have no idea, Big Gay Al's little brother maybe.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2283921,00.html


"What are you going to do, you gonna tell a fuckin' story about that?" he growls. "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.

"A guy like him should shut his face."