Spike Lee And Clint Eastwood Trade Places
SPIKE Lee and Clint Eastwood’s debate about which of their war films is most accurate is like the tabloids arguing which of Rebecca Loos and Victoria Beckham the more posh, or if the Martians or Venutians would be better at table tennis.
Says Lee: “Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version.”
Anorak’s also has a version of the event, a rendition in which the soldiers are represented by Kinder Eggs and Iwo Jima by a small green fairy cake.
“Has he ever studied history?” Eastwood asks. “If I go ahead and put an
African-American actor in there, they’d say, `This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.”
And what would Hollywood be without accuracy?
Eastwood adds that “a guy like that should shut his face.”
Lee says: “The man is not my father. And we’re not on a plantation either.”
Was there a plantation on Iwo Jima? Perhaps Eastwood, Lee or some other leading historian could check it out.
Of course, both men are products of the US, a place where every birth is the dawning of a new focus group and Bill Dal Cerro, of the Italic Institute of America, President Bill Dal Cerro says: “Spike Lee is very talented, but I sometimes wish he’d practice what he preaches. His points about African-Americans are well taken, but, ironically, he does the same thing to Italians in his films.”
Very soon each character of a TV show in the US will come with a health warning, or better yet be played by an actor of every race and creed. To avoid confusion, the character’s name could be written on his forehead. When the film of this exchange comes to be made, Lee can play Eastwood and Eastwood can be Lee.
But what will happen when the War on Terror comes to be told in film? Will black faces play a part in the victory, and who will be show raising the oil well?
Posted: 15th, June 2008 | In: Celebrities Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
