Clint Eastwood on Spike Lee: "A guy like him should shut his face."

The Guardian ^ | June 6, 2008

[Bodhi1]

Eastwood has no time for Lee's gripes. "He was complaining when I did Bird [the 1988 biopic of Charlie Parker]. Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that's why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else." As for Flags of Our Fathers, he says, yes, there was a small detachment of black troops on Iwo Jima as a part of a munitions company, "but they didn't raise the flag. The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. 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." Lee shouldn't be demanding African-Americans in Eastwood's next picture, either. Changeling is set in Los Angeles during the Depression, before the city's make-up was changed by the large black influx. "What are you going to do, you gonna tell a [edited] story about that?" he growls. "Make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is. When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like Bird, I use 90% black people."

Eastwood pauses, deliberately - once it would have provided him with the beat in which to spit out his cheroot before flinging back his poncho - and offers a last word of advice to the most influential black director in American movies. "A guy like him should shut his face."

[Bodhi1]

Eastwood still likes to let his views be known, often forcefully. In 2005, he vowed he'd kill Michael Moore if the documentarian ever showed up at his house, the way he had doorstepped Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine. This March he was sacked from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California state parks commission for objecting to the building of a toll road through a national forest. But though he has been associated in the public mind with Republican viewpoints, he's something of an individualist. "I don't pay attention to either side," he claims. "I mean, I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair. So I believe in that value of smaller government. Give politicians power and all of a sudden they'll misuse it on ya."

Amen, Clint. Amen.

[montag813]

I wish we had leaders with the spine this great American has. God bless Mr. Eastwood.

[Vanders9]

An actor without any pretension...a beautiful thing! :)

[Mr. Jazzy]

Eastwood is right.

Spike Lee has been, is and shall always be just what he is, a punk... Whose noise should be ignored.

[albie]

Great read! Unfortunately, there are so few like Eastwood in Hollywood. When he’s gone, Spike Lee and the rest can and will re-write history (as they already have). There will be a “Flags of our Fathers” where they are all black and Muslim, just as there are terrorist films (Die Hard) where the bad guys are all blonde haired, blue eyed Swedes.

[avacado]

Just last weekend I watched two Clint Eastwood movies: ‘Kelly’s Heros’ and ‘Where Eagles Dare.’ Great movies!

Yeah Clint Eastwood!

[gunnyg]

Who really raised THE Flag on Suribachi that day???

http://www.freerepublic.com/~gunnyg/
http://www.freerepublic.com/~gunnyg/

[sinanju]

I object! The first Die Hard movie was “integrated.” The main villains were (supposed to be) German but the one of the baddies was asian, one was russian and their security systems hacker-dude was black.

[inflorida]

Good for him! Nice to see someone who isn’t caving to Hollywood’s political correctness.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"and their security systems hacker-dude was black."

And the dude was a total dork, too.

[sinanju]

So black guys can be geeks too. I wanted to stand up and salute.

[wtc911]

Just last weekend I watched two Clint Eastwood movies: ‘Kelly’s Heros’ and ‘Where Eagles Dare.’ Great movies!

--------------------------------------

Both directed by Brian Dutton, who should have had a much longer career based on these two films alone.

[hodaka]

About time someone told that four foot tall Spike Lee to shut up. Now will someone tell Jesse and Reverend Al to do the same.

[Tallguy]

Spike should worry when the tobacco juice hits the top of one of his Air Jordans — that’s the clue that Clint’s about to get medieval on him.

[Huck]

Clint’s still the man. One of my heros since I was 8.

[fieldmarshaldj]

No, no, I meant he was annoying. It’s hard to believe Hans Gruber would’ve kept somebody that irritating in his employ.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go, ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’

This reminds me of the flag raising by the white firemen after 9-11. Someone wanted to make a monument of it with an integrated cast, a white, black and Latino. Have they lost their minds?

[montag813]

just as there are terrorist films (Die Hard) where the bad guys are all blonde haired, blue eyed Swedes.

Can't agree there. "Die Hard" was basically a bank heist film, not a terror attack. The baddies were shrewd and used Cold War-era fake terrorist names to conceal their true intentions. One of the best action films ever made. Almost flawless.

However you would be 100% correct about Hollywood's perversion of Clancy's "Sum of All Fears" wherein his nuclear villains were Palestinian and Hollywood replaced it with white "neo-fascists" from Europe. Disgraceful and revolting indeed

"Caucasian pro-gun anti-choice retrograde neo-fascists did this! AAAAAAAAA!!!"

[7thson]

You know, I was somewhat souring on Clint the last couple years. But this raises him up again. That last line, I can hear it in my mind, the growl, the snear. The only thing missing was the word ‘punk!’

[6SJ7]

...just as there are terrorist films (Die Hard) where the bad guys are all blonde haired, blue eyed Swedes.

John McClane: So this is what it's about, Hans? A f***ing robbery?
Hans Gruber: Well, when you steal $600, you can just disappear. But when you steal $600 million, they will find you, unless they think you're already dead.

[freekitty]

Eastwood, Jones,

Eastwood, Jones,

Eastwood, Jones

I pick Eastwood. It’s so easy to pick the one that isn’t the race baiter and race hater.

[Rummyfan]

"A guy like him should shut his face."

Alright Clint!

[brwnsuga]

So black guys can be geeks too.

I have two geeky married brothers. My little brother loves comic books, comic book movies, computers and video games. My big brother loves anything to do with computers, computer programming, visual effects and is always inventing goofy things. He does sound and light technical stuff for a living. They are textbook examples of geeks.

[normy]

While I liked “Get on the Bus”, “She's Gotta Have It” and “Do the Right Thing’ they were amateurish, like Van Dam's early movies but pretty entertaining. Since he tried to go bigger budget all his movies suck. He only knows race issues. The big budget stories with big budget actors suck.

[woofie]

years ago a liberal told me Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was racist...I suppose because it has the “N” word in it , In truth Mark Twain was the exact opposite of a racist and Huck Finn was far advanced for its time in portraying the black experience.

[normy]

Thank you for objecting. Now if we could vote for John McClain instead of John McCain. While we’re at it his VP could be the guy who ran the airport in Die Hard II, what was his name.....?

[traderrob6]

Related...

http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2008/05/go-back-and-study-your-history-and-stop.html

[fieldmarshaldj]

Who the heck is Jones ?

[normy]

My Canadian neighbor by way of Ukraine told me that Mark Twain is banned in Canada. I don’t know what that means but as we sat out back listening to his new bluegrass CD (I live in suburbia by the way) he told me “this is how I imagined the South, hot, humid and I drink my beer. I think I will read Mark Twain.”

[Swordfished]

But though he has been associated in the public mind with Republican viewpoints, he's something of an individualist. "I don't pay attention to either side," he claims. "I mean, I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair. So I believe in that value of smaller government. Give politicians power and all of a sudden they'll misuse it on ya."

Eastwood, a real man. And, most definitely, NOT a neo-con.

[popdonnelly]

I found my choice for McCain’s Veep.

[freekitty]

Sorry, to early in the morning.

Eastwood, Lee.

[popdonnelly]

Could it be SPIKE Jones, humorist and band leader?

[JZelle]

Weren’t some here PO’d about Clint’s follow up to “Flags of our Fathers”?

[crghill]

Dirty Harry for president 08...

[sinanju]

Urkel!!!

[driftless2]

"Twain"

Canada has banned "Huckleberry Finn" as have a lot of American public libraries.

[sinanju]

The funny thing about Spike is that his movies tend to be a lot more intelligent than his personal rants.

[Admin Moderator]

Please use original headlines. Saves work for us.

[Gondring]

I recall complaints in a review about Memphis Belle...about the lack of women. My girlfriend (now wife) had the most hilarious reaction to reading that...I can still recall her incredulity at the idiocy of the reviewer. :-)

[television is just wrong]

history is written by the winners. Spike Lee get used to it.

[Gondring]

I found my choice for McCain’s Veep.

I would seriously consider voting for McCain in that case.

[sinanju]

Typical libs, Twain uses the “N”-word and that’s all they have to know to denounce it.

Huck starts off the adventure certain he is going to hell for helping to steal his aunt’s “property.”

The best parts of the book were where Huck wrestles with his conscience as he gradually comes to start thinking of Jim as a full-fledged human being as good as him. Then he realizes the only decent thing to do is aid his escape.

[PLMerite]

You forgot “bitter.”

:)

[definitelynotaliberal]

I would recommend that he begin with Pudd’nhead Wilson. Twain’s entire body of work was an indictment of the institution of slavery. Huckleberry Finn is among the most amazing books I have ever read. It is completely different than what I had thought it would be.

Like your neighbor, I’m also a non-native speaker. Twain can be hard to read. We had read the Tom Sawyer painting the fence story in school for an English class. Huckleberry Finn is a completely different character than Tom Sawyer. Just thinking of my experience reading it brings a smile to my face. 2 years gone by since I read it and I’m still relishing it.

I know a gentleman who is 68 now, who read HF 2 years ago as well. He is a voracious reader, and he also acclaims it as 1 of the best of his life.

Of personal interest, Twain shared a birthday (and political orientation) with Churchill. He introduced him once to an audience at the Waldorf Astoria. You should look it up. Your friend will like it.

Twain was always politically active. He campaigned for Rutherford Hayes, and despised Ted Roosevelt. I don’t know the story there, but will some day enjoy reading about it. TR ran as an independent (on a Bull Moose ticket) and the election went to Woodrow Wilson. Twain regretted that.

He also had a lot of fun things to say about France, such as:
France has always been governed by prostitutes.
France is where insignificant Americans go to die.

I’m really excited that he’s going to read Twain. I think everybody should.

[avacado]

But there's one film project on the cards that might interest Spike Lee. Eastwood's next project, The Human Factor, is about Nelson Mandela and how he used the country's victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup as a means of fostering national unity. Will he be sticking with the historical record on that one? He laughs. "Yeah, I'm not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy."

LOL!!

[normy]

I will pass your words along to him. By the way, what is your native tongue?

[Enterprise]

LOL - it took me a moment but I realized the association. Spike Jones - Funny though! But that’s why God made coffee for the morning!

[messierhunter]

Oh you have got to be kidding... we’re doomed.

[Larry Lucido]

Wait. Didn't Spike Lee pay "Theo" in Die Hard?