C’mon Hollywood #165

… shut up Spike Lee!
by Sturdy

I’ve never been a fan of Spike Lee. It has nothing to do with race, although whenever you talk about Spike Lee, race has to come up. I just never liked his movies. I still claim DO THE RIGHT THING is the single most overrated film of the late 80’s and early 90’s. I just could never get past the end scene between Spike Lee and Danny Aiello. Much like one good laugh can make a comedy, one horrible scene can ruin a drama. I really enjoyed 25th HOUR and INSIDE MAN, but other than that, he hasn’t had anything that wowed me.

But this isn’t really about his films, it’s more about what he does off camera. I find his ignorant comments and off the wall accusations to be incredibly annoying and out of line for a director that has actually established himself in Hollywood. He complains about race and being judged on his skin color all the time, but yet he’s the first one to bring it up in a conversation. We’ve moved past it, why can’t he?

His best film in my opinion

The latest incident was when he blasted Clint Eastwood for not including African American soldiers in his Iwo-Jima films. Then he blasted the media for not asking Eastwood about it. Eastwood of course slammed and humiliated Spike Lee by pointing out that the soldiers who raised the flag and who were involved in raising the flag were all white. He could have gone on to say that less than 2% of the soldiers that fought in Iwo Jima were African American. Was he supposed to re-write history in order to appease Mr. Lee? Give me a break. Hey Spike, why didn’t you have a white guy playing Malcolm X? Why hasn’t the media asked that question yet? Because it’s a stupid f’n question, that’s why.

Why again would there be an African American soldier in there?

I also find it strange that he’s gotten away with complaining about some of Hollywood’s top directors for so long. He doesn’t seem to like it whenever a white director decides to direct a historical film featuring an African American. He complained that Michael Mann shouldn’t have directed ALI because according to him, white people don’t know black history. WHAT? Are you serious? So the color of your skin all of a sudden has an impact on the quality of film you make? If a white director said something like that about Spike Lee, Al Sharpton would be leading a picket of that director’s next movie. Yeah, he’s right, Mel Gibson shouldn’t have directed BRAVEHEART because he isn’t Scottish or Peter Jackson shouldn’t have directed the Rings trilogy because he isn’t a hobbit. Ethnicity has nothing to do with how well you make a film, or your understanding of the subject matter.

Maybe Spike was more upset that he didn’t get the job himself…

African Americans have fought a long, hard battle to gain respect and credibility in Hollywood and I hate that someone that should be leading the cause is actually too busy making these kind of stupid statements. Spike Lee needs to focus on making good films and sending a positive message to young people of ALL races, not furthering the racial divide with ignorant complaints.