73 Comments

1. cochise wurlitzer:

actually, they weren’t all white guys. ira hayes was a pima indian.

Jun 10, 2008 - 9:37 am 2. cochise wurlitzer:

and that was at the second raising. at the first raising, two marines, pfc. louis charlo and pfc. james michels, were flathead indians from montana.

Jun 10, 2008 - 9:40 am 3. John P:

I disagree. This is not a good example. Spike is correct that there was a company of black soldiers who fought on Iwo. Excluding them and their story is an oversight at best. As for his “plantation” comment, Eastwood did tell him to “shut his face.” So, I think all Lee was emphasizing was that his colleague had no status to leverage against Spike’s mouth. Also Eastwood thought Lee was saying that there should be a black guy raising the flag on mount Suribachi(sic). That’s not what Lee said, Eastwood misunderstood and kinda flipped out.

Roger, I’m a fan of yours and I do understand your macro point, but this is not the right example to typify it.

Best,
John

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:01 am 4. Dawn:

Hoorah for Clint. It’s about time someone spoke up to blacks who just want to talk to hear themselves talk. If they would shut up more and listen, they might actually learn something. History is history. Just because these guys wish for a different past, it wasn’t there and it would be idiotic to change it. Move on guys.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:05 am 5. Snippet:

Flags of Our Fathers features a native American flag-raiser.

I don’t remember his name, or which flag he raised, but Mr. Eastwood didn’t whitewash it.

Apparently, he was (by movie standards, anyway) reasonably accurate.

The Spike Lee’s of the world hate accuracy.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:06 am 6. John:

Yeah,,, but,,, Spike Lee is still an idiot.

I’m of native American extraction, (25%), and I love it that Native American Indians had a hand in the Iwo Jima flag raising.

That Spike Lee would want to impose his personal politics on that event speaks not honorably of his motives, i.e., “blacks are responsible for everything good in America”,,, is just awful and absolutely dishonest. I agree with Eastwood, he needs to “shut his face”. Let the Indians shine for once in a moment of recent American history without the blacks pushing their way into the limelight at that time of history.

Shameful behavior, in my humble opinion.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:06 am 7. jvon:

I did think it was interesting that nobody can tell Spike Lee to shut up without being accused of being a racist and without the idea of slavery being brought up. No, Spike, we aren’t on the planation. You’re not a slave. You’re (I assume) a multi-millionaire who has become rich by telling stories about racism against your people.

Maybe Clint Eastwood shouldn’t have told you to shut up. Maybe. But you owe the man a little more respect than calling him a racist because you disagreed with his casting decisions.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:20 am 8. AJ:

Roger, the simple answer to the question in your article’s title is YES. Spike Lee lives, thrives and survives off of race and racial tensions only exist due to his ilk (and Jesse Jackson’s). Spike is a talented fellow, but also a bitter, hypocritical, angry racist who needs to shut up.

His lies and immature behavior after Katrina were very telling. Folks like Lee and Jackson (not Robert and Stonewall, who were MUCH better for blacks on the whole) keep blacks on the plantation. That is so obvious. They turn it around because they’re juvenile nitwits.

He is, simply put, a detestable human being who does no good for anyone.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:22 am 9. RE:

I have no time for Spike Lee’s tedious myopia.

Kudos to Clint for telling him to kiss off.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:28 am 10. Ed Wallis:

“…time has been passing Spike Lee by.”

AND TIME HAS A GOOD REASON: Lee is a talentless hack who needs the spotlight and uses the media as his talent agent.

“John P” needs to read exactly what Eastwood said regarding the history of the event and how he held true to the facts. No need for another “World Trade Center Statue” FRAUD to be fabricated for the sake of desperate trash director wannabes like Spike Lee.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:40 am 11. Ed Wallis:

…forgot to mention: It seems Spike Lee just can’t get anyone’s attention any other way. Not even with his tedious use of gratuitous sex on the silver screen can he seem to get much coverage.

Jun 10, 2008 - 10:57 am 12. newguy40:

Good articla and it is not hard for me to agree.

The story of Flags of our Fathers was narrowly focused in the experience and lives of those specific Marines. To claim racism for a lack of blacks in the film is false.

Spike should shut his face. Thank goodness for Clint telling it like it is without all the PC BS that is so prevalent in today’s films.

Jun 10, 2008 - 11:12 am 13. David Thomson:

Spike Lee’s anger towards Clint Eastwood is ridiculous. Only a handful of black soldiers were involved in the Iwo Jima campaign. It would be senseless to exaggerate their importance. Also, what is stopping Lee—or even Eastwood from making a movie, for instance, about the American black regiment The 92d Division that fought bravely during WWI?

Jun 10, 2008 - 11:23 am 14. Mary Madigan:

While I liked some of his movies, Spike Lee has always been kind of a brat. His response to criticism is usually a variation of Bart Simpson’s ‘eat my shorts’. If the critic is white, it’s ‘eat my shorts, you racist.’

Clint Eastwood was addressing Spike in a man-to-man kind of way, but the perpetual child Spike saw it as a parent-child thing.

Spike is 51. He’s a little old for this kind of behavior…

Jun 10, 2008 - 11:33 am 15. abu al-fin:

Spike Lee acts as if he is feeling lucky.

Well, do you feel lucky…Punk?

Jun 10, 2008 - 11:52 am 16. bigbooner:

I actually called my wife at work to tell her the “he ought to shut his face” comment. Spike is your typical little man with a big mouth. Why don’t you just go on and make your own movie about Iwo Jima there Spikey?

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:05 pm 17. Snoop Diggity-DANG-Dawg:

And the reason no one, including, African-Americans, wants to fork over 5 bucks to see a Spike Lee movie is because we’re all racist.

It’s not that his movies suck. Really.

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:05 pm 18. zipity:

Don’t think for a second that Spike’s response was unusual. You will the same rational on steroids during the upcoming Presidential election. Any, and I mean ANY critcism of the Obamessiah will be ridiculed and shrieked at as RACISM. But tell me, if it’s OK to vote for Obama simply because he’s black, is it acceptable to vote against him for the same reason?

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:22 pm 19. Peg C.:

I don’t know the full history between Lee and Eastwood, but I did read the original interview with Eastwood in the Guardian in which he said Lee should “shut his face.” I laughed. Eastwood is irrascible and blunt, but then he’s 78 and still a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. Until I read the interview I had forgotten Lee was still around. I think I know who got the better of whom.

This idea of what amounts to “quotas” for races in movies is absurd. Stick as close to truth as possible when dealing with films about historical events. (One reason I’ve stopped watching anything by Oliver Stone.) I don’t see most movies that are 90% black but I don’t see most movies that are 90% white or Asian or Latino, either. Skip the movies: that’s my motto. I know that’s heresy, Roger…

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:36 pm 20. Mose:

Spike can make the sequel himself, “Flags of Our Brotha’s”. Sure to be a smash hit, with Slappy White as the crusty first sergeant.

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:38 pm 21. JorgXMcKie:

Spike Lee would never make a movie about “the American black regiment The 92d Division that fought bravely during WWI” because that would go against the current Hollywood narrative about the US military and its troops in general. That “fought bravely” stuff would *really* have to go. Maybe he could make a movie about how the 92 Division was rounded up at gunpoint and forced against their will to commit thousands of war crimes in WWII. Of course, any (anti-)war movie he made would make about as much as the other anti-war ‘hits’ Hollywood has released (or did they merely escape) in the past five years or so. Still, if it made even the average for the anti-war movies that would probably be 2-3 times as much as any Spike Lee movie has made since 2000.

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:39 pm 22. Robbins Mitchell:

Clint Eastwood makes movies that are something more than the self-indulgent ‘message’ movies made by Shelton Jackson Lee who calls himself ‘Spike’ since he apparently thinks his given name probably sounds ‘too white’ to be taken seriously as a black film maker….just another skin pimp posing as a serious social commentator

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:50 pm 23. Bob Owens:

There was one company of black Marines at Iwo Jima… in an combined-arms invasion force of 110,000. These Marines played a vital role in winning the battle, but they did not, at most times, participate in the frontline role that was the focus of the film as I understand it.

The primary role of these brave Marines was resupply. This does not lessen their importance to the winning of the battle, but it needs to be understood. They were not the focus of the battle, nor apparently, the movie (I haven’t seen it).

Lee was an interesting filmmaker in his time, but his angry and disenfranchised routine stopping being interesting, original, or even especially relevant quite some time ago.

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:53 pm 24. Victor Erimita:

A small group of African Americans were on Iwo Jima in a supply depot, or something. Lee, being the history student he claims to be (hey! I went to college, you know!) thinks this salient fact should have been included in Eastwood’s movie. Why? Because that particular role was so vital in the invasion? Because it would serve Eastwood’s story about the flag raisers being featured as propaganda heroes back home? Of course not. They should have been featured for the sole reason that they were black. But Eastwood is the racist. Thanks, Spike. Every story must be about race, and when it isn’t the storyteller is the racist. Brilliant.

Roger is right. Lee is just another Sharpton/Jackson race pimp at this point, desperate for attention and knowing only one way to get it.

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:54 pm 25. Kevin R.C. O'Brien:

John P: Spike is correct that there was a company of black soldiers who fought on Iwo. Excluding them and their story is an oversight at best.

Er, no. There was a black unit, but it was a transportation unit — essentially, stevedores, who had to unload and handle the tons of supplies the combat Marines were burining through. Their contribution was vital, but it wasn’t fighting, and none of them were anywhere close when the flag was raised on Suribachi.

While you could probably make an interesting movie about a unit like that (wasn’t there once a TV series about black motor transport drivers in Europe in WWII? I vaguely remember seeing a story about it decades ago) the movie was based on historical facts and a book which went into some depth about the lives (before and after the flag-raising moment) of the flag-raisers. Who, being combat soldiers, were whites and one Indian.

There are great stories in the black men who served in World War II, some of which are well known (Tuskeegee Airmen, for instance) and some of which are not (555th Parachute Infantry, which was cheated of its chance at combat; and a particular tank-destroyer unit in Europe whose designation eludes me). Another great story known to my generation (I grew up in the 60s) but forgotten today is the story of the Nisei (first-generation Japanese-Americans) who fought in a segregated unit in Europe and who, in the Pacific, formed the nucleus of our linguistic capability and were vital to intelligence). It is not the same thing to admit that the USA was segregated once, as it is to approve of that segregation; and it is not corrective of segregation in any way, to pretend it never happened and airbrush it from history.

Lee’s dishonest attack on “Flags” and John’s error in support of Lee are unfortunate. Both the book and the movie deserve better than the racialist beancounting or anachronistic token Lee is demanding.

If Lee doesn’t like Eastwood’s movie, why doesn’t he get off his duff and make a better one?

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:54 pm 26. Swift:

Interesting point, and I might be inclined to agree with you had I not recently seen Inside Man, a fabulous thriller that’s as postracial as a Hollywood movie can be.

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:56 pm 27. Mark B:

Amazingly, no one has commented on the worst part of Spike’s reply. His plantation remark. What does he think that Eastwood longs for the day he can get his slaves back? Ridiculous. Spike Lee is a joke, that only he doesn’t get.

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:03 pm 28. Max:

the actual statement was ..
‘a guy like that should shut his face’

I suspect that what he meant was that Lee is a hypocrite for accusing Eastwood of racism when Lee himself is a professional racist.

+ 90% of Lee’s films suck. His best work is his earlier work but he’s never matured as a filmmaker. The plantation comment suggests that he hasn’t matured psychologically either.

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:12 pm 29. submandave:

“And the reason no one … wants to fork over 5 bucks to see a Spike Lee movie is because we’re all racist.”

FIVE DOLLARS? What discount second-run movie house do you frequent? Or were you thinking back to the days of “Do The Right Thing”?

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:18 pm 30. newguy40:

You all forget that Hollywood is out of the “down right patriotic” movie biz and has been for a long long time.

There is no dearth of wonderful stories of non white units. The US Cav Buffalo soldiers, a retelling of the 442 RCT Go For Broke or some of the Black combat units in WW1.

“Glory” was the last movie I saw where the valor of the troops was the story without being overcome and “beat over the head” with racism and slavery.

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:22 pm 31. Jim B:

The black Marines on Iwo were combat service support troops (in an Ammunition Company unloading ammo and arranging it for diseprsal). They did no fighting as organized uinit. A Marine may have engaged the enemey here or there but as a unit no. The USMC and the Navy were VERY segregated and it woudn’t be until the Korean War that black Marines were fielded in combat arms units rather than labor units.

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:25 pm 32. Chris:

Spike Lee telling Eastwood how to make a movie is like me telling Tiger Woods how to fix his swing.

By a one in a million coincidence, Spike Lee has a film to promote right now.

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:37 pm 33. steven murray:

I don’t think white people get enough credit for putting race behind them. There are congressional districts where a white ran against a black in a white-majority district and the black won. Mostly white crowds gather to cheer on all black NBA teams. I am white and I think these things are great. The problem is liberals and leftists won’t let us forget about race because they can’t. And since the media is mostly liberal and leftist, it won’t go away. I am tired of the media always assuming that people like me are racist!

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:40 pm 34. Doc99:

Spike Lee hasn’t been meaningful since he got in a courtside shouting match with Reggie Miller.

Jun 10, 2008 - 1:53 pm 35. tim maguire:

I liked Do the Right Thing and thought it was more nuanced than it was generally given credit for (though admittedly, it’s been a long time since I saw it), but I never liked Lee as a person. He is incapable of seeing anything except through a racial lense and so is useless as an observer of most events. I’ve even seen him use race to explain away criticism from other blacks (comparing htem to crabs in a bucket trying to keep the other crabs from crawling out).

Good for Clint for speaking truth to entitled obnoxiousness and not being pretty about it either.

Jun 10, 2008 - 2:18 pm 36. Olivia:

I think this is more an example of egomania than anything.
Can you imagine someone telling Spike how to direct or cast his movie.
I agree with Chris, Spike probably wants attention for some pet project.

Jun 10, 2008 - 3:39 pm 37. Fred Oliver:

Who is Spike Lee?

Jun 10, 2008 - 3:49 pm 38. vinn:

I recall there being a brief pan and lingering on a group of black soldiers on deck while the troops are being briefed on the way to Iwo Jima in Eastwood’s “Flags…” movie. I remember thinking that this was a fairly self-conscious nod to the presence of blacks in the armed forces and in that campaign, very much “in the fight” as much as the rest of the troops. Why no one else has seen fit to mention this is beyond me. After all, it’s not like Eastwood spent several scenes following every unit around the island and happened to omit the black ones; rather, the whole story follows the unit(s) in which the main characters were fighting.

I think Lee needs first to answer why there weren’t more white people in “Get on the bus” before he goes lobbing the “racist” bombs at other directors. :-p

Jun 10, 2008 - 4:03 pm 39. The Right To Bear Arms » Just Shut Up Spike:

[...] II: Ha! Roger Simon called Lee the ‘Jesse Jackson’ of [...]

Jun 10, 2008 - 5:36 pm 40. Jenn M.:

Keep in mind, JESSE JACKSON DESTROYED A GENERATION OF BLACK FILMMAKERS. Perhaps in a botched attempt to shake down the studios that made them, Jackson organized protests that put Black-themed features out of business in the early seventies. Nice work, “Reverend.”

In the slight-but-interesting IFC documentary “Baadasssss Cinema,” you see Fred Williamson and Gloria Hendry rightly blame the “Reverend” for ending their livelihood. Williamson still wonders why Jackson, PUSH and the NAACP didn’t just “make their own movies.” It’s tragic to see a Race Man like The Hammer brought down by parasites like Jackson.

SPIKE LEE SINGLE-HANDEDLY RESURRECTED THE BLACK CINEMA THAT JACKSON DESTROYED. Say what you will about Lee’s frog-like appearance and poor production values, he paved the way when there was no way. Any black American working in film today owes Spike a nod (and Jackson is owed a faceful of spit)

Jun 10, 2008 - 5:54 pm 41. Sandra M:

Why did Spike Lee attack Clint Eastwood? He’s hoping history will repeat itself.

Norman Newison (

Jun 10, 2008 - 5:59 pm 42. Roger L Simon:

Jenn M., I think you are substantially right about this and Lee does deserve kudos there. (I have some knowledge of this having spent some time working with black filmmakers…. I wrote Richard Pryor’s “Bustin’ Loose.”)

Jun 10, 2008 - 5:59 pm 43. Sandra M:

Why did Spike Lee attack Clint Eastwood? He’s hoping history will repeat itself.

Norman Jewison (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT) was set to direct MALCOLM X until Spike Lee whined that a black director should get that job.

Eastwood is going to make a movie about Nelson Mandela (who hated America and capitalism and whose wife Winnie was a monster) and Spike wants to snatch this film away from Eastwood.

The “plantation” remark just won’t work anymore, Spike. You are a moral midget and repulsive reverse racist.

Jun 10, 2008 - 6:04 pm 44. Xanthippe:

Spike Lee could make his own movie instead of criticizing Eastwood’s.

That, of course, assumes that he’s interested in movies or culture generally rather than publicity specifically for his new movie.

Jun 10, 2008 - 6:05 pm 45. OneCommonMan:

Roger and Friends,

While I enjoyed the Guardian story, Spike’s last comments in the Guardian piece caught my attention the most. His comment was roughly that he and other blacks will tone down things since Obama is running for president. Did anyone else catch this?

It all, IMO, fits into this completely false narrative that whites are the racial voters and that black voting patterns are not racially based. And what sets me off the most is that white reporters are willing (subconciously or conciously) to let this fly. White voters will break somewhat for McCain, 56%-44% is my prediction. The press will focus on “Are whites racist?”. But blacks, mark my words, will vote 95% or higher for Obama. Why? One word, race. Just think about the O.J. case and Spike to see black political motivation in this country.

Bottom line: For people who like contrarian individuals, if you ever meet a black person who says they will not vote for Obama or who is strongly against Obama, talk to that person and listen to that person. That person is truly Taking The Road Less Traveled.

Thanks for listening.

Jun 10, 2008 - 6:48 pm 46. James Everitt:

The Impossible Dream

Lyrics by Joe Darion
Music by Mitch Leigh

To dream the impossible dream,
to fight the unbeatable foe,
to bear with unbearable sorrow,
to run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
to love pure and chaste from afar,
to try when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,
to follow that star –
no matter how hopeless,
no matter how far.

To fight for the right
without question or pause,
to be willing to march into hell for a
heavenly cause.

And I know if I’ll only be true to this
glorious quest
that my heart will be peaceful and calm
when I’m laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
that one man scorned and covered with scars
still strove with his last ounce of courage.
To reach the unreachable stars.

Jun 10, 2008 - 7:33 pm 47. Disillusionist:

Kevin R.C. O’Brien:

“While you could probably make an interesting movie about a unit like that (wasn’t there once a TV series about black motor transport drivers in Europe in WWII? I vaguely remember seeing a story about it decades ago)”

You are correct. It was called “Red Ball Express”. I don’t remember much besides the title – I was only about 11 at the time.

Jun 10, 2008 - 8:22 pm 48. Michael Canzano:

If the “Profile Fits Wear It.” Lee sees the white people hating, anti semitic, terrorist sympathizing shoes of Michelle and Barack as a very comfortable fit for his feet.
American Christian Infidel

Jun 11, 2008 - 3:32 am 49. flandazzle:

Go back and watch Do the ‘right’ thing again and ask yourself this: how many non black owned small businesses have been destroyed/damaged/robbed by blacks since that movie was made?
Not only has his career sagged, but his old hits (hit?) hasn’t aged well.
When was the last time that a white director made what amounts to one “good” movie, more than 10 years ago, and was allowed to continue to produce dud after dud after dud, while people still show him such respect?
How dare Spike Lee talk about ANYBODY ELSE in terms of social responsability? He can shoot his mouth off and say whatever he wants, and everyone else is the racist.

When was the last time that Lee made a movie about non black people? If he’s not a racist, then why does he show no intrest in any other culture besides black?

Jun 11, 2008 - 3:51 am 50. sbourg:

Roger: Thank you for the insight about race, and esp the comment about Barry’s 1st date w/Michele, going to “Do The Right Thing”. She was certainly race-obsessed at Princeton, so Barry scored some points with that. Spike Lee is not worth knowing about. He’s insultingly race-obsessed, and this makes his movies (the few I’ve seen) just plain STUPID. It’s absolutely depressing that about 60% of all Americans can be so easily duped by the media (bashing Bush for 8 years now), and fooled by Obama’s oratory. Obama’s actions will do nothing but hurt our economy, and hurt our ability to destroy the Jihadists’ movement. Spike Lee talking about “plantation mentality” or whatever he said about Eastwood is just plain race-baiting. And, yes, he’s trying to get attention, but unfortunately, like a really stupid shock-jock. Too bad. Our country deserves better. Or do we?

Jun 11, 2008 - 3:53 am 51. Judy R:

As a Clinton supporter, I heard that Eastwood said she should stay in the race. The very next week, I heard about Spike Lee whining about Eastwood being a racist. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Anyone who has tried to support Clinton in any way has been smeared. Eastwood isn’t even a Dem, he was just making an observation. It’s going to be a long time til November.

Jun 11, 2008 - 4:17 am 52. DeLayne:

I’m doing a backyard Iwo Jima movie on my cell phone, calling it “Spiking The Hill.” I’m using a white guy, a Native American, one African American, an Asian American and a Jew. Rather than going for “accuracy” I aim to capture the oneness of our polity. Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project busted through the barrier of having to use mainstream camera equipment, so I think this format will herald yet a further step towards defining a visual genre that we truly share in our daily lives. And my cell phone does a job similar to the scratchy photos from the original flag raising. I’ll let you know when I finish stitching the estimated 152 files together.

Anybody know where I can get a cotton flag made in the USA? All I can find around here are the nylon Chinese jobs. And not one of those 57 starred things like on Barack’s lapel pin.

Jun 11, 2008 - 5:23 am 53. Sam:

So, let’s suppose that Clint HAD included in his film a shot–to placate Spike’s professed desire for accuracy–of black troops humping munitions and crates of C rations up onto the beach at Iwo Jima. I mean, that’s what that black company of soldiers did at Iwo, right? Haul supplies? Wouldn’t that lead Spike to level an even more viscous charge of racism against Clint, this time for depicting blacks working like…slaves?

There is of course no way to appease racist grievance mongers like Spike and Al Sharpton and that whole bunch, for their grievances are just a sham. What they really want is attention, power, and money.

Jun 11, 2008 - 6:37 am 54. Todd Underwood:

Its funny but the other night I was feeling down about politics so to cheer myself and laugh a little bit I downloaded eddie Murhy’s “Delirious” I had watched it a ton of times in the past although not for may years. His jokes about gays fell flat, even though I used to laugh. I am not anti-gay but they used to make me laugh. So to try something different I remebered that I loved Eddie Griffins “Vodoo Child” and it was a lot more recent. But his jokes about feeling more welcomed by whites after 9/11 fell flat as well.

Times change and what is funny or good at the time must be relevant. So maybe its good that our opinion of these things change. The most sucsessful comediens are either timeless or relevant and Spike Lee has proven to be neither. And considering his message, that’s progress.

Jun 11, 2008 - 7:11 am 55. James Hudnall:

Spike has been a whiner his whole career He has always sought media attention by crying racism at the drop of a hat. When he didn’t get nominated for awards, or lost them, it was racism. If people didn’t see his films, it was racism. He has always been a sour puss. And now he’s just using Clint to promote his new film about black soldiers during an incident in WWII. Since Clint’s films were the last big Hollywood WWII epics, they were his target. If it was Saving Private Ryan he would have picked on Spielberg, saying there weren’t enough blacks in that one.

Like Jesse Jackson, he cries racism to get press time. He uses code words like “plantation” because you can’t use the R word that much anymore. It’s too played out.

Clint is right, but what he sould have said is: “Stop embarrassing youirself, Spike. You’re making yourself look bad again.”

Lee’s criticisms only turn people off. They don’t make them interested in his work.

Jun 11, 2008 - 8:53 am 56. chrisb:

The taking of Iwo Jima was not the focus of the movie, the movie was focussed on the men who raised the flag (mainly those who raised the second flag), and their lives afterwards. Because of that, the combat scenes focussed on those men. To put a lot of scenes on people who have nothing to do with the movie would be simply not very good writing.

Now if you were making a movie solely about the taking of Iwo Jima, you could argue for putting those men in there. But that’s not what this movie was about.

Jun 11, 2008 - 10:14 am 57. sean sarto:

How ’bout a movie about Bernard Getz, Twanna Brawley, or the great lacklustermanship that was David Dinkins…..any takers? Or John Brown? There’s a book “Cloud splitter” by Russell Banks that I been eyein’ for Clint for some time now. Perfect stuff fer him.

Jun 11, 2008 - 11:15 am 58. Georg:

If Spike wants to be relevant to black America he should make a movie on escalating black-on-black violence, the exporting of housing project crime to the suburbs via Section 8 housing grants, and the irreparable damage done to race relations by the self-anointed race whores Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

Jun 11, 2008 - 11:28 am 59. ak:

I’ve enjoyed some Spike Lee movies. But there’s a lot of ugliness and racism coming *from* Lee in his movies. I just watched Crooklyn a few weeks ago and was amazed at the contempt and dishonesty directed at the movie family’s only non-black neighbor.

“We don’t know which way we are going – toward a post-racial future or back to a racist past.” My brother and I were just talking about this yesterday. I was really starting to believe we were headed toward a post-racial future. I thought that people were starting to align themselves according to class, for lack of a better word. Idiot losers of all colors over here; normal, responsible job-holders of all colors over there. So the past few months of Wright et al. have been very depressing.

And I don’t personally believe that Barack and Michelle’s first date was Do the Right Thing. That sounds just a little too perfect. Sounds like something intended to give Newsweek editors their thrill of the week.

Jun 11, 2008 - 12:08 pm 60. Sarge:

Someone said there was a company of Black soldiers on Iwo…PLEASE IDENTIFY!!!!!I have read quite a bit about Iwo. I served in the Infantry in Europe where the 92nd Division (black) served, also the Tusgegee Airmen flew. Had a tank batalion serve with us for about a week. Take credit where deserved. Dont rewrite BAD History!!!!!

Jun 11, 2008 - 1:39 pm 61. newguy40:

I wonder if Sarge is referring to the 761st Tank Batt of the 265thID? Now, these guys would make a great story for a movie!

http://www.761st.com/

Jun 11, 2008 - 4:11 pm 62. Misanthropicus:

RE: Spiky’s “… living on a plantation…”
Spike Lee’s scholarly & character reputation have never been too bright and his barking at Eastwood perfectly illustrate why so. He needs to read Plato’s “Cavern” parable – so empowered he might (might! might!) understand that mental binds are often stronger than iron menacles, and that he is deep down there, in that creepy mental cavern/plantation (in which he actually thrives).
Undetectable talent, a giant ego, and unquenchable envy – Michelle Obama sure loves his oevre.

Jun 11, 2008 - 5:30 pm 63. Big Dawg:

chrisb
And there my friend, is the difference between a Clint Eastwood film and a Spike Lee film! “To put a lot of scenes on people who have nothing to do with the movie would be simply not very good writing”.

Jun 11, 2008 - 7:27 pm 64. narciso:

His latest fiction film “Inside Man” posited a world where an elderly American banker, who made his money by swindling Jews during WW2; kept the proof of his treachery in his bank vault. The bank is located in Lower Manhattan
‘ practically near Ground Zero. He employs a fixer, who’s first transaction at the outset of the film, is to buy a condo for Osama’s nephew.

I say intentional fiction, because his Katrina diatribe, that included the “they blew up the levees” insinuation was labeled as a documentary; just like Moore, Spurlock, et al.

Jun 11, 2008 - 8:19 pm 65. Whither Spike Lee at D.C. Thornton:

[...] Roger Simon opines regarding the basis behind the filmmaker’s current spat with fellow director/actor Clint Eastwood, and I happen to be in agreement. Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, time has been passing Spike Lee by. His worldview comes from another era and he has never really sought to revise it, to open his eyes. Proof of that is that for more than a decade Spike has barely made a film any of us can remember. Compare that to Eastwood, who, although some twenty-seven years Lee’s senior, is at the top of his career, having scored big in 2003-2004 with Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. [...]

Jun 11, 2008 - 8:33 pm 66. Spike Lee = the Jesse Jackson of film?:

[...] Simon seems to think so: Why would Lee pick this [...]

Jun 12, 2008 - 10:34 am 67. orlandocajun:

Spike Lee is just another race hustling brother who makes his living off of blacks. The guy should be mowing Clint’s lawn (no bigotry intended). All he has to do is whine about inequality in movies in order to get some publicity and milk a few bucks from the brothers. He’s got to be the biggest race hustler idiot on the planet. Next up on his agenda…Why didn’t John Wayne have more blacks in his films?

Jun 12, 2008 - 1:54 pm 68. Kevin:

I have to wonder if Lee has even seen the Eastwood films he’s criticizing. As a previous post points out, one focused on a particular group of soldiers, none of whom was African-American, historically; the other film focused on the Japanese, with the American troops far in the background — in effect, for the movie’s purposes, the antagonists. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Jun 12, 2008 - 3:36 pm 69. Evan Cowart:

Race will cease to be a topic of discussion when the left and the blacks decide to let it go. Also, when it no longer grants a right to special treatment.

Jun 13, 2008 - 11:50 pm 70. Michael T:

Spike Lee, always a mediocre film maker, and lately a less than mediocre film maker, belongs to those loudmouths always trying to rewrite black history. Jesus was black, blacks invented the airplane, Jews sre responsible for black misery etc. It’s rather sad that the black community, which has suffered much from racism in the past must now rely on the likes of the Jacksons,Wrights,Sharptons and himself to be their representatives on the world stage. Sadly they have chosen the clowns to do the job.

Jun 14, 2008 - 9:51 pm 71. haddad aslam:

sPIKE IS RIGHT…Clint is not Black and only use them to make money.

Morgan freeman is a male mammy

Sep 9, 2008 - 10:58 am 72. Spurwing Plover:

We all know that any of SPIKE LEES movies are not worth the film their printed on their a dreadful waste of film and your money so just tell this egotist to GO TAKE A HIKE FROM ONE FEROCOIUS SHOREBIRD WITH A BIG TIME ATTATUDE

Nov 12, 2008 - 9:36 pm 73. Spurwing Plover:

If those two ever appeared on a movie it should be called DIRTY STUPID MINDLESS JERKS

Nov 20, 2008 - 1:10 pm