Several weeks ago Spike Lee challenged reporters to ask Clint Eastwood about the lack of representation of black soldiers in his 2006 World War II epic, 'Flags of Our Fathers.'
"There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint.... That was his version: the negro soldier did not exist," Lee said at the premiere of his new film, 'Miracle at St. Anna,' about an all-black infantry division that fought in Italy during WWII. "I have a different version."
Lee called Eastwood's casting a "conscious decision not to have any black people."
At first Eastwood refused to comment on Lee's accusations, but her later justified his choice of actors in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper. He said that the black soldiers who took part in the battle of Iwo Jima as part of a munitions company did not raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi.
"Has he ever studied the history? The story is 'Flags of Our Fathers,' the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that," Eastwood said. "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."
The Oscar-winning director also suggested Lee "shut his face." The acrimonious feud may have continued when Lee recently responded to Eastwood's comments.
"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either. He's a great director. He makes his films, I make my films," Lee said. "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.
"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 added.
Lee said the one million African-American men and women who contributed during WWII have been ignored in the annals of Hollywood films.
"I never said he should show one of the other guys holding up the flag as black," Lee added. "I said that African-Americans played a significant part in Iwo Jima.
"For him to insinuate that I'm rewriting history and have one of the four guys with the flag be black ... no one said that. It's just that there's not one black in either film. And because I know my history, that's why I made that observation."
