Spike Lee picks a fight

Tag : caravan shoes

Q. How do you shoot a battle scene so that it's fresh?
A. Well, it's going to be fresh to me because I've never done thatbefore. Also, we understood this was not going to be the first 45minutes of "Saving Private Ryan." This was not the invasion ofNormandy. This is a small battle that took place between the Nazisand the 92nd division. Yet people still died. I had a greatmilitary adviser named Billy Budd, and I looked at a lot of stuffwith my fantastic cinematographer, Matty Libatique. We sat down,storyboarded it, and shot the hell out of it.
Q. The Eastwood flap: What did that say to you about how WWII moviesare perceived by the media, by Hollywood, and by the public?
A. Well, I wasn't really thinking about perception. The first thing Isaid at Cannes is that Clint Eastwood is a great filmmaker. And Iwas just pointing out the fact that there were no African-Americansoldiers in that film. Now, there's a United States Marine,ex-Marine, his name's Thomas McFadden. I drove down to San Diego,put him on tape: He was at Iwo Jima. He was at the first photo. Thepipe they put the flag in they got from him. He said there wasnothing but black soldiers watching that photo get taken. They werethere.
Did any African-Americans help raise the flag in those two photos?No. But they were on the island. Was the Army segregated at thattime? Yes. But were black and white soldiers fighting and dyingside by side when those Japanese started jumping out of those holesand tunnels? Yes.
It was not meant as an attack on Clint Eastwood. It was juststating a fact. Clint Eastwood has not made every other Hollywoodfilm that has omitted the contribution of African-American men andwomen to the war effort. I think it's a great omission. I'm gladthat George Lucas is going to be producing a film about theTuskegee Airmen. It starts shooting in the spring and is going tobe called "Red Tails." And there's a lot of other stories, too:There's the Red Ball Express, there was a black tank division - Ithink the 761st - that saved Patton's butt in the Battle of theBulge.
The thing about it, though - these are patriotic movies. It's easyto pick up a gun and fight for your country when you have your fullrights.
I think it's even more patriotic to be fighting for the red, white,and blue when you still can't vote. When there's still segregation,when there's still Jim Crow, when you're still being lynched. Itwasn't in the novel, but that's why I had James McBride write thatflashback scene [in the base camp diner].
Put yourself in their shoes. You're a young black man, a youngNegro, who has enlisted. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor,United States declares war on Japan and Germany. You're beingshipped to the South, since that's where most of the base campsare. It's a little known fact that thousands and thousands ofGerman POWs were shipped back to the states to be imprisoned. Andmany of them are sent to the South, where they shared the baseswith black soldiers. So you're a black soldier, you believe in red,white, and blue, you want to help defend this country againstfascism. You look on the other side of the camp and the peopleyou're being trained to kill have better housing than you, betterfood, and better medical care. That's insane. That's completelyinsane.
There's a key line in this film, a debate between Derek Luke'scharacter and Michael Ealy's character, and Luke's character says,"This is about the future." They might not have thought about it,but all the stuff that has happened, the black men that have foughtin the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War,World War I, World War II, Dr. King, Rosa Parks, FrederickDouglass, Harriet Tubman, Jesse Jackson, Sojourner Truth, W.Dubois, Booker T. Washington - all these things that happened inthe history of this country have made it possible for a person likeBarack Obama to be possibly the next president of the United Statesof America. Now this cannot happen in any other country but thegood old USA. That's why I think this film fits in with this newvibe that's in the air.
Q. Nervous about the world premiere?
A. Nahhhh. Nervous was being in Italy not having the money to film.
Q. After the commercial success of "Inside Man," isn't it easier foryou to get movies made?
A. Nope.
Q. Harder?
A. Just as hard.