Spike Lee vs. "Dirty Harry "
I am big Spike Lee fan , from back in the day . However sometimes Spike goes off in a direction that is way on a limb .Check the below posting from Erik Pedersen on E On Line.
Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee are bickering, and we’d suggest the directors take the high road, but they might just use it to get a better shot at each other.
To catch up: At the Cannes Film Festival last month, Lee said if reporters "had any balls" they'd ask Eastwood why he didn’t include any blacks in his films based on the battle of Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Aside from suggesting that Cannes reporters are eunuchs, Lee was also promoting his own war film, Miracle at St. Anna.
Eastwood responded that he was being historically accurate about the makeup of the soldiers who raised the flag on the island, and added that "a guy like him should shut his face." Sounding stung by Lee's criticism, Eastwood, whose next film The Human Factor is about South African rugby and Nelson Mandela, also added, "Yeah, I'm not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy."
Lee’s latest salvo was a mixture of sugar—saying Eastwood is "a great director"—and spice—saying Eastwood sounds like "an angry old man." Despite adding that "we're not on a plantation," Lee announced he was going to end the feud with "peace and love."
At the end of the day the Black Experience can be told by many , as long as they have ther minds and hearts in the right direction . Afterall its Clint Eastwood making movies ,it is not the Klan producing black movies.This feud between Spike and Clint goes back to when Eastwood made the movie "Bird" . Eastwood a long time jazz aficionado wanted and did a great movie on the jazz legend. Spike's peculiar political correctness , Black Movies for Blacks , Produced by Only Blacks took stage . This was reminiscent of the criticism that Steven Speilberg experienced for producing "The Color Purple" .
It is ironic that Spike now is making movies that are not geared to an exclusive black audience that he attacks Eastwood.Its like the pot calling the kettle black . Spike Lee should ," Make my day " and "Do The Right Thing " and focus on doing what he does best.Spike Lee is one of the best , Spike only limits his greatness when he attacks other works because they don't subscribe to his political correctness. Political correctness in blackface is not appealing "and that's the truth Ruth".
posted by EdGray4America.com at
8:24 AM
2 Comments:
Spike sometimes goes over the edge and this is one of those times.
Fight The Power!
Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant caca to me, that sucker was racist simple and plain; the hell with him and John Wayne – Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet 1989
Public Enemy immediately came to my mind while reading about the body blows being exchanged between Malcolm X and Dirty Harry. Oh you didn't know that Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood were battling? That's 'because you play too much. You never really understood the Public Enemy hit "Fight the Power."
Even though the ugliest member of the group gets all the love now, the reinvented, repackaged, resourceful Flava Flav was never socially acceptable back in the day.
P.E. was the hottest hip hop group to hail from Long Island New York and all points below and they wasn't no joke. They espoused the "flavor of love," but it was the kind of self love that black folks are still afraid to embrace.
Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, D.J. Lord and the S1W, are responsible in part for establishing the dynasty and direction that Russell Simmons and Def Jam Records still enjoy. The group, led by Chuck D put it down on major wax at least ten times.
But nothing was as tough or as telling as their hit Album, "Fear of a Black Planet." That collection was the bomb, it was mad crazy nephew! Black History Month purists still revere those original rap rhetoric and rhymes because they were saying something.
Their smash hit "Fight the Power" was def, no pun intended. P.E made statements that are considered controversial and bothersome to this day. The point about Elvis and John Wayne though were reflective of P.E's distaste of blacks being left out of America's history.
Apparently Spike was on the same page as he commented on the legendary Clint Eastwood's beloved new release, "Flags of our Fathers." Spike did a P.E at the press conference of the Cannes Film Festival and admonished Eastwood's latest war film and the previous "Letters from Iwo Jima" for having no black cast.
Spike's point was that much like the Elvis and John Wayne genre of American delusionalism; Eastwood's two most recent films are devoid of blacks which make them devoid of a truthful depiction of the times.
Clint Eastwood shot back in classic slave master form. He replied, "'a guy like that should shut his face." Now what did he mean by "guy like that?" Lee's retort to ABCNEWS.com was, "First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation."
In other words, Eastwood's film is just like the movie Titanic and too many others. These films purport a historical reference but lack in truthfulness as it relates to the existence and contributions of non-white Americans. These movies would persuade uniformed audiences that Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans were of no import.
So Eastwood's assertion that Spike should shut his mouth was way out of line. That kind of statement was OK for "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly," "Dirty Harry", or even that chimp he co-starred with that looked so much like him, but not in this case.
Whenever Spike Lee is fighting the power, he has our support. And by the way Clint, our fathers made the flags, cleaned the flags and protected the flag even when the flag would not protect them. But you wouldn't know that 'cause you still whistlin' Dixie
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