Spike Lee criticized Clint Eastwood over his two recent Iwo Jima movies, saying that Eastwood overlooked the role of Black soldiers during World War II. Lee, who’s World War II film, opens this fall, “Miracle at St. Anna", the story of an all-Black U.S. Army division fighting in Italy during the war, said Eastwood’s 2006 movies “Flags of Our fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” whose next film is this fall's "Miracle at St. Anna," the story of an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during the war, said Eastwood's 2006 movies "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" were whites-only affairs.
"He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one Black soldier in both of those films. Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version," Lee said.
Due in theaters in October, "Miracle at St. Anna" centers on four Black Americans, played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and Omar Benson Miller, in the Buffalo Soldiers division in Tuscany.
Of course, Spike Lee is right, but Clint Eastwood is right also, because the military was segregated at during that time frame. And Eastwood’s movies like Lee’s center around individuals inside a larger group. Black veterans who survived that war, as well as other Blacks need to get pen in hand and write their story. Directors and producers get most of their stories from written form.
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