“Ugly” Verbal Clash Between Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee Over War Films
According to cinemadrame News Agency, Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee once got into an “ugly spat” over war films. The new biography “Clint: The Man and The Movies,” released on July 1st, reveals that these two veteran filmmakers had a disagreement about war films in 2008.
Shawn Levy, the American author, recounts in the book that Lee criticized Eastwood for the low number of African American characters in his films “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”
Lee stated at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008: “He made two films about Iwo Jima back to back, and there was not one black soldier in either of those movies. Many African-American veterans who survived that war were angry with Clint Eastwood. In this version of Iwo Jima, there are no African American soldiers. It’s that simple.”
That same year, Lee released the war film “Miracle at St. Anna,” which was about an all-African American unit of soldiers fighting in Italy.
Eastwood responded to Lee’s criticism in 2008, coinciding with the release of his film “Changeling,” telling The Guardian: “A guy like him should shut his face. Has he ever read history?”
Lee did not leave Eastwood’s comment unanswered, telling ABC News: “This man is not my father and we’re not on the plantation anymore.” However, he added that Eastwood was a “great filmmaker” and spoke “like an angry old man.”
Levy’s book states that Steven Spielberg attempted to reconcile the two filmmakers: “and persuaded them to bury the hatchet.”
In another interview with Access Hollywood, Lee said: “The Clint thing got blown out of proportion, but that stuff is gone and we don’t have any issues. We never spoke, but I talked to Spielberg, and he talked to [Eastwood].”
