TORONTO - Hollywood has too long distorted the truth about the combat role of African-Americans during World War II, filmmaker Spike Lee says.
In a rare one-on-one interview, Lee told Sun Media yesterday that is why he spoke out against Clint Eastwood at the Cannes film festival in May, chiding the legendary actor-director for ignoring black characters in both Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, which showed the same Pacific battle from both sides.
The debate escalated after Cannes. Eastwood publicly said of Lee: "A guy like him should shut his face." Lee shot back: "The man is not my father and we're not on a plantation, either."
But the problem is not Eastwood, Lee insisted yesterday, as he clarified his position while preparing for tomorrow's world premiere of his own WWII film, Miracle at St. Anna, at the Toronto film festival.
"Here's the thing," Lee said. "To be honest, I was not speaking out against Clint Eastwood and Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. I said Clint Eastwood is a great filmmaker. But also I was stating a fact: There were no black servicemen in these films. Somebody told me that there was a shot of three in one film. I must have blinked.
"But I'm sorry it sort of escalated to where it did and, as far as I am concerned, it is over and done with."
Lee said he instead wants to focus on "the big picture" about the role of the so-called Buffalo Soldiers, the almost all-black U.S. Army 92nd Division that served in the Italian campaign as a social experiment backed by U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The film depicts a fictional adventure constructed around significant real-life events, including the infamous Nazi massacre of 560 Italian civilians at the tiny mountain town of St. Anna.
"The big picture is that Clint Eastwood was not the director of every single film in Hollywood in the War-Two genre that has belittled or disrespected or omitted the contribution of 1.1 million African-Amercan men and women who fought or participated in World War II," Lee said.
"It's not about Clint Eastwood. It's about Hollywood."
That is why he made Miracle at St. Anna, adapted by James McBride from his own novel. It is important to tell the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, even as drama, Lee said. Miracle shows what the Buffalo Soldiers had to endure, including racism within the ranks of the U.S. Army that meant some black troops were used as cannon fodder, or not given proper strategic support by white commanders.
"I think it's part of history, and these guys were American patriots -- true heroes," Lee said. "Look, I'm not saying that one person is more patriotic than another. But, when you are given the full rights of a citizen, I think it is much easier to pick up a gun and fight for democracy in the red, white and blue.
"But, to do that when you are treated as a second-class citizen, that takes a lot more, I feel, because you've got to get around that. That's what these guys had to do. They were fighting for a country they love which, a lot of the time, didn't love them back the same way."
Lee said many of these men felt that, by fighting for the war and fighting for democracy, somehow that would have an impact once the war was over.
"Of course, many were disappointed when they came back. But I felt that a lot of these cats coming back laid down the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. Because, when you fought for your country and you became a trained killer and you came back, there are just some things you're not going to take anymore."
Only Duke would do
The key protagonist in Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna watches a World War II movie on TV in the opening scenes. Because he was dealing with mythology, Lee knew what he had to put in front of Laz Alonso.
"I knew it has to be John Wayne," Lee told Sun Media yesterday, as he prepared Miracle for its world premiere tomorrow at the Toronto filmfest. "And I knew it has to be The Longest Day and the invasion of Normandy on D-Day."
As the African-American Alonso watches Wayne rally his all-white troops, he mutters, "Pilgrim, we fought in this war, too."
Lee said he hopes he can change Hollywood mythology by showing what some of the thousands of blacks in the U.S. Army 92nd Regiment did in Italy in 1944.
"Here is the thing that Hollywood does better than anyone else in the world: Mythology! When they want to build somebody up, or build America up, they do it better than anybody. You might say it is mythology/propaganda."
Growing up in Brooklyn, Lee said he saw too few Hollywood films that incorporated major black characters in the World War II genre.
"But I was happy as s--- as a little boy seeing Jim Brown in The Dirty Dozen."
Now he wants little boys growing up now to see black actors Alonso, Derek Luke, Michael Ealy and Omar Benson Miller in the four lead roles in Miracle at St. Anna.
