At Cannes, former director SPIKE LEE spoke out against what he perceived as a racist slant to CLINT EASTWOOD'S acclaimed war movie about Iwo Jima called FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS.
His initial comments, blurted in his usual stream-of-consciousness manner, railed against the lack of black people depicted in Eastwood's film:
"If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."
Eastwood allowed Lee's comments to simmer for a while before
responding thusly:"A guy like him should shut his face."
When
Clint Eastwood tells you to shut your face, your probably should. However, rather than leave it at a threat, Eastwood went on to elaborate on the reason why he did not include black people in the film:
"The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they (black troops) didn't do that. 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 sensible conclusion did little to dissuade Lee, who
today responded yet again with another tirade:
"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," he told ABCNEWS.com. "He's a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn't personally attack him. And a comment like 'a guy like that should shut his face' -- come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there."
Pretty childish, if you ask me. Then, Lee proposes a new strategy to convince Clint of his wrongdoing:
"If he wishes, I could assemble African-American men who fought at Iwo Jima and I'd like him to tell these guys that what they did was insignificant and they did not exist," he said. "I'm not making this up. I know history. I'm a student of history. And I know the history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African-American men and women who contributed to World War II."
With whom do you agree? Personally, I think Clint is absolutely correct. The film was a fairly intimate look at the famous flag-raising picture taken at Iwo Jima, and the soldiers who lifted it were all white men. While Spike is correct that there were a million black soldiers fighting in World War II, the fact is that Clint's film did not address that issue.
I faintly understand the continuing hostility and outrage of black people in the face of perceived double standards; at least, I make the best attempt I can to understand it as a white male. But the indiscretions and injustices of the past are not rectified by rewriting history in an attempt to mold it into current standards of political correctness. We can't change the damage that has been done in the name of racism; we can only look at it with honest eyes and learn from it. Further, Lee's insistence that Eastwood's creative vision be edited and reworked into something that forcibly represents everyone is absolutely hypocritical. Forcing someone to acknowledge something that they do not accept is what we might call "creative racism." The tactic Lee is using here on Eastwood is a method we have seen far too often in America and the world in order to push an agenda: cry racism, despite whether it is warranted or not. Occasionally, the cry of racism is true and important - Rosa Parks, segregation, etc. At other times, the cry is abhorrent and almost evil in nature ... like the
O.J. SIMPSON debacle from 1994, for instance. The simple fact of the matter is that Eastwood has the right to craft any damn film he chooses and desires to tell. In this case, the film concentrated on a small faction on Iwo Jima out of a much, much larger conflict. The people documented in the film were white soldiers from white neighborhoods and white families. Eastwood is not required - and chose not to - include black soldiers and their stories because it simply was not appropriate given the context of the film. Lee prefers to concentrate his efforts on black films, and that is wonderful; his
DO THE RIGHT THING is one of the most important films of the last 25 years. Someone like Eastwood could certainly look through Lee's films and find stereotypical characterizations of white and Asian peoples, yet he and others have remained silent. Lee is within his right to make his films as he sees fit, and populate his films with the people and stories that interest him. Guess what, Spike? Clint Eastwood has that right, too. So go cry racism over things that really matter, like all of the white people (like me) who can't get food stamps because they are white ... although they still get to pay the bills on it with their hard-earned taxes. Rather than see non-existent racism in the films of others, Spike would be much better off improving the quality of his own films before he loses the privilege altogether. Looking at his box office numbers, his audiences these days are not black or white; they're transparent. The world is going colorblind, Spike. Your constant and lonely cries of racism make you sound like the real racist.