NEWS: Clint vs. Spike

CELEB: Clint vs. Spike

Normally I wouldn't be too excited about (or even interested in) two famous people "fighting" unless they were actually fighting. But normally, one of those two people isn't Clint Eastwood.

Since Clint no longer makes the kind of movies he used to, featuring him shooting evil in the stomach, then kicking it in the balls (the balls of evil are an elusive target, and made of cast iron and broken dreams. Fortunately, they're also highly susceptible to an Eastwood-kick), I guess I have to settle for him verbally battering his foes in the media. Ahh, whatever, it's still Eastwood, right?

The first jab jab was thrown by Spike Lee, he of the one good movie, a few weeks back at Cannes. Not at Clint, though, but the Cohen brothers. I guess he had to warm up for a foe the likes of Eastwood. Notch a win over a less-worthy opponent, to build confidence.

Ahh yes, because there is one way and ONLY one way to portray death onscreen. And judging by most of his recent efforts, this means putting it into an un-watchable movie.

Yes, you idiot, not everyone is making ham-fisted, clumsy bullshit where death needs to be given the weight of an elephant. There are many, many genres and even many more ways to convey something as complicated as death, than you might know about. Some people take a humorous look at it. Some revel in it's gore and enjoy a good onscreen demise. Some find a way of illustrating it's seriousness by seemingly treating it lightly. And in fact, some people make movies that are three times as good as yours. The rest settle for making them twice as good.

Not looking good for the upcoming Clint-battle. Maybe he should pick another tune-up, possibly against a Uwe Boll-type. Nope, he starts swinging.

Fighting a bit out of his weight class... As evidenced by Clint's retort in a great interview published Friday.

Already awesome.

Fucking Clint, he's still got it. Spike woke up a sleeping dragon. A squinty-eyed, leather-skinned dragon with a low rumble for a voice... Actually, it occurs to me that that describes pretty much all dragons, as well as Clint Eastwood. Hey that analogy went in a full circle!

And he has this to say about his next film, a period film taking place in a pre-integrated Los Angeles.

Clint Eastwood is swearing! Fuck yeah!

And here's the knockout blow. A verbal uppercut. Or possibly a verbal left hook, it's hard to get the conversions totally accurate.

Not realizing he's out of his league Spike fired back with the following, and proved himself to be kind of a fucking moron.

Riiight. Because Clint replying to your initial attack must mean that he thinks he's a boss on some southern civil war-era plantation and that he can order you around, not that he merely took issue with your words. Nope, he's a racist trying to bully a black man. Wow.

Yes, that's what he said, he said insignificant. He didn't just point out that the movie focused on a specific picture of soldiers raising a flag, in which no black soldiers appeared.

Clint may fire back (yeah, I know I was using a boxing metaphor, not a shooting one, it doesn't matter) but he doesn't need to, his points been made. Spike should worry about making movies. Clint should keep being the coolest son of a bitch alive.






TheCoolerKing ranks Clint's top five movies thusly: The Outlaw Josey Wales. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter, and possibly either A Fistful of Dollars, Paint Your Wagon or Two Mules for Sister Sara. Shit, he also loves Pale Rider. And Dirty Harry. And In the Line of Fire.

Thank you for the article. It inspired me to find more information.
Here's a slightly different perspective on the topic:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Story?id=5015524&page=1

Maybe someone should point out to Spike that there are more minorities than just black people. Flags included Ira Hayes, a native american, played by a man of First Nation decent. It seems to me that aboriginal people are represented far less often than black people in films, and most of there roles amount to cannon fodder in old westerns.

I'd like to point out I agree with Spike on this... I mean I don't recall a single black actor in "Letters from Iwo Jima"! And the argument that the story centered on the Japanese down plays the significance of the black contribution on the island.

I'm sorry.. but if Spike genuinely feels that the story of the black experience hasn't been told, then it sounds like there is a movie for him to make and a story to be told. Go to it... stop complaining that someone else skipped over it. And if its good people will eventually see it.

Have a little faith in people.

OMG! Logic! Spike Lee's only weakness.

Spike has jumped the proverbial shark and set a new low bar for being undignified in doing so.

I love Spike Lee, and I don't mind him being out there speaking his mind, but he really just sounds like a petulant spoiled brat here... this is not about racism, although to be fair, the world CLint was portraying was a more racist world. period.

If Spike can make another "Do the Right Thing" then maybe I'll respect him again. But please, tackle another topic besides race. There's a lot more to the world. Try something new.

Make another Do the Right Thing? Try something new? Stop talking about race?

Those three statements are incompatible.

If Lee is so worried about how one particular minority was portrayed in a war film, then maybe he should just make his own version instead. But if he does, he'd better make sure to include all the races of people that fought in the battle, not just African-Americans. Eastwood made a film portraying the men who raised the flag, not a film about everyone who had a part in the entire battle of Iwo Jima. I wonder if Spike Lee even saw the movie?
Also, I think it's a bit pathetic when directors, such as Spike Lee, feel that they need to openly criticize other's work. It makes me think that when directors do that, they feel insecure about their own work.
If he doesn't like it, too bad; there are wayyyy better things to worry about than race in a period movie, especially when it was directed by a man who obviously did his homework..

You produce a 1,000 word article on this and don't have anything more cogent to add that "Oh Snap!"? Why even bother? You must have a serious man-crush on Eastwood.

This controversy is nothing new. When the film first came out the same criticism was raised by several Black veterans of Iwo Jima and WW II historians. Lee's point is more than about Eastwood's films but about the overall trend not portray the role of Black soldiers in movies about WW II.

In the interest of balancing out the Clint Eastwood circle jerk, it worth mentioning another Eastwood film where he plays it "the way he reads it historically" The Outlaw Josey Wales is a film based on a novel written by Klansman, set in the post-Civil War South that is remarkably bereft of Black folks. The movie tell of the heroic adventures of a former Confederate soldier who continues to wage a one-man Civil War against the evil Yankee oppressors.

What's implied in Spike's words is that Clint Eastwood is a racist. If he is, these "points" Spike makes fall pretty flat for proof.

spike, we get it already. come on.

High Plains Drifter = Awesome
The Beguiler = Also Awesome

Dirty Harry's had a (n): African-American partner, a Hispanic partner and a Chinese-American partner. Come on, the man can't be racist!

by the way...

Way to go Spike! Now I have even LESS respect for you than I already did. Which was....I'm a mathematician let me think....oh bugger! I know it is less than zero though.

Thank you, Spike, for exacerbating the racial divide.

Eastwood's point is as plain as daylight; he's portraying history, as it was recorded - the facts. Kapish?

Indeed. It made me dislike Spike Lee more...

What a fucking douchebag. That statement is not as bad as putting a huge dance number in Malcolm X, but it's pretty close.

Go make a good movie Spike. If you can.

...

If Spike Lee is concerned with the respect that African-Americans are getting, then why the hell is he still calling them Negros?

Spike is not wrong about Clint's Iwo Jima films (which I loved and I wanted Clint to win best director for making 2 audacious anti-war flicks at a time when the US is occupying foreign soil).

Clint's claim that Flags was just about the flag raising is BS. There is a whole lot of story of bravery among the soldiers, before the flag raising and the sad story of the suffering of Ira Hayes and the others who were put on a propaganda war bonds tour.

Spike says Black Iwo Jima vets felt ignored. He claims he knows the men themselves, and could introduce Clint if Clint where so inclined. This is probably true.

Spike is however, and forever, a provocateur, and self-promoter. He was unnecessarily impolite to Eastwood, a Hollywood lion. But if Spike hadn't been rude, and Clint hadn't taken the bait, there would be no story on ABC, Entertainment Tonight or SG.

Spike has his own WWII flick coming soon to a theatre near you.