Spike Lee blasts Clint Eastwood for deleting black GIs out of his war films

Spike Lee is condemning movie director/actor Clint Eastwood for failing to include black soldier portrayals in two of his films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Hundreds of black soldiers fought for the Japanese island in 1945.

Lee said: “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.”

According to the Times Online, Spike said Eastwood had information on blacks who served in the war, but “It’s not like he could say he didn’t know. It was a conscious decision not to have any black people.” READ MORE...

Spike was speaking at a Cannes Film Festival press conference and promoted his new World War II film “Miracle at St. Anna” an epic story about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought the Germans in Italy, and four African-American soldiers get trapped in a Tuscan village.

"Miracle at St. Anna" is due out in October 2008 and stars Derek Luke, Kerry Washington, John Leguizamo, Michael Ealy, Joseph Gorden, Derek Luke, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Matteo Sciabordi, John Leguizamo, and Joseph Gordon Levitt.

Here is Spike in an interview talking about the Miracle at St. Anna and race.