Spike Lee has opened up his mouth again. Hey it wouldn't be Spike if he didn't have anything to say or wasn't involved in a war of words with someone. This time it is with legendary director and actor Clint Eastwood. Eastwood responded angrily in an article that Spike should just "shut his face" following criticism that his classic films "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" did not depict any Black soldiers. Spike answered back with "He's not my father and we are not on some plantation".
Actually this doesn't surprise me about Spike but I find it somewhat tiring. He has railed against other movies before such as "Driving Ms. Daisy" and "The Legend of Baggar Vance" He fueded with Quentin Tarantino over the use of the "N" word in "Jackie Brown"and once threatened(In jest I hope) the late Charlton Heston when the latter objected to comments that he made.
However, I think that sometimes Spike needs to put up or shut up. He hasn't been pristine in his movie making career himself. There were many who considered him a sell out for missing vital historical issues and people in "Malcolm X", "Girl 6" bombed and "Bamboozled" was simply a piece of crap that gave more attention to the racist images that it purported to protest against.
I think that Spike has put his foot in his mouth on this one. If he didn't like Eastwoods's films why didn't he just make his own? Read here for more. What do you all think?
2 comments:
Hello there,
I think that Spike has every right to criticize another director's work but he should stop screaming racism whenenver HIS OWN work is criticized by white directors then.
When his work is criticized, he usually screams racism and states that his critics do not understand black cinema or black culture. He is not able to use that defense when black people criticize his work however. "Girl 6" was trash, in my opinion. "Get On The Bus" was short-sighted and disingenuous, in my opinion.
I think Clint wanted to tell his story to highlight his own race in his films - and he was not excluding blacks as a slap in the face to the contributions of blacks. He's married to a black woman (at least he used to be)! A director tells a story from a certain angle. He doesn't necessarily TRY to tell a story from all angles all of the time. This is what makes cinema interesting.
Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima were not intended to be documentaries.
Thanks for letting me blow my trumpet!
Lisa
Sister, I could not have said it any better. Right on!
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