An interesting argument was brought forward (and ignored) at the Cannes Film Festival by director Spike Lee as the Times Online brings us news that in a press conference Lee brought up the fact that black soldiers were conspicuous by their absence from Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.
Lee is quoted saying, “There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one [in the films]. That was his version: the negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version.” He was in attendance to premiere an eight-minute trailer for his latest feature film, Miracle at St. Anna, a war drama with which he hopes to set the record straight.
“Here’s the paradox,” he said. “These African-American men wanted to fight against fascism in the name of democracy. At the same time, they were still second-class citizens.” Although Lee emphasised his respect for Eastwood as a film-maker, he claimed that the director had been told of the African-Americans who fought at Iwo Jima, and had chosen to ignore that “information”.
With Clint Eastwood in attendance at Cannes as he debuted The Exchange “The Times” asked him twice to respond to Lee’s criticism
Eastwood stared out into the audience as the compere refused to accept a question that did not relate to L’Échange. Later, his spokeswoman also declined to comment.
What’s also interesting outside of the Lee quotes is a comment on the article from a resident of Derby, England that goes like this:
now you know what it feels like to be English, every war film that has ever came out of hollywood has either ignore the British contribution or made us look like bit players. But talk about race is getting boring now
Race is getting boring? I highly doubt Lee is raising this issue merely for entertainment value or to cure your boredom level. Anyway, it seems like Lee did his best to steer this in the direction of a factual issue rather than simply one of race.
As the “Times” points out, Lee didn’t use the word “racist” and I am not sure why Eastwood didn’t include any African Americans at least as extras. A couple of commenters on the article think Lee is just trying to promote his new film, which I don’t see a problem with, especially if it is partly in response to films that didn’t include back soldiers, which seems to be part of his mission as he also said, “At the beginning of the war, black soldiers did not fight. They cooked, cleaned and drove trucks. That was all they were allowed to do. There was a theory that the black soldiers would run. That was proven false.”
Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II and is set to hit theaters on October 10 from Touchstone Pictures.
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