baldilocks

The Meaning of Spike Lee's Words

Roger L. Simon says what we all could figure out about Spike Lee--especially after the latter's "plantation" remark to Clint Eastwood:

Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, time has been passing Spike Lee by. His worldview comes from another era and he has never really sought to revise it, to open his eyes. Proof of that is that for more than a decade Spike has barely made a film any of us can remember. Compare that to Eastwood, who, although some twenty-seven years Lee’s senior, is at the top of his career, having scored big in 2003-2004 with Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby.

No wonder Spike’s jealous. So what does he do? He reaches back to an era when he was more successful. He plays the old identity/race card. Now we could all laugh and say this is just another case of an (prematurely) aging artist grasping for attention, but these times are more complex than that. We don’t know which way we are going - toward a post-racial future or back to a racist past.

Rumor has it that Hollywood is one of the most racist places in the country. Though I live in LA, I don't operate in that world, so I don't know first hand whether this is so; however, even if this is true, there was a time when Lee's career flourished, perhaps peaking with 1992's Malcolm X--something which may have been a function of Denzel Washington's Oscar-nominated performance.

Spike made a successful, vaunted career by making movies about race or with race as a backdrop. He was the go-to director for such a genre and perhaps that's the problem. When he tried to branch out and away from that racial strait-jacket, it became obvious that he really isn't that great of a director.

So now Lee does what he has to do to get attention for his new project, Miracle at St. Anna, even stooping to taking cheap racial shots at the far more successful (and old, white, male, Republican) Eastwood of all people. I hope that the actors, no one I've heard of except for John Turturro, don't suffer for his stupidity and short-sightedness. That's the only reason that I might go see the movie.

Roger wonders how Lee's tactic relates to the post-racial future allegedly on the horizon. Thinking about the tenets of James Cone's and Jeremiah Wright's and Barack Obama's Black Liberation Theology, I personally wonder what the term 'post-racial' means to the proponents of that religion and to the Spike Lees of the world. Post white-racial "dominance," perhaps, would be a more descriptive term.

The question remains, however: what would replace it?

PREVIOUSLY:

"You Not Ma Daddy!"
Lee Tries to Make Eastwood's Day

"You Not Ma Daddy!" (UPDATED)

After Clint Eastwood tells Spike Lee to "shut his face" regarding the lack of black characters in Eastwood's two World War II films, Lee responds in a mature, manly fashion.

Or not.

"First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," he told ABCNEWS.com.

"I didn't personally attack him."

Lee implied that Eastwood was a racist. Twice. I'd call those personal attacks.

Regarding that 'father' thing, I am reminded of the infamous You Tube clip of Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers demonstrating her similar daddy issues.

These people can afford to pay for psychoanalysis. But I guess than one would have to be not-crazy to realize that a shrinking is needed.

I was considering going to see Lee's film when it came out. Now I'm not so sure.

UPDATED: Former Spook (no, not that kind) says that there were some extras who were black in Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers.

If Mr. Lee bothered to watch Flags, he would find black Marines in a cutaway shot early in the film, and in a historical photograph that appears during the closing credits. Saying there are no African-Americans in the film is simply incorrect.

So, why aren’t blacks featured more prominently in the film? According to Professor Latty (and USMC records), a total of 700 African-American Marines served on Iwo Jima during the battle. But her opinion piece omits an important point, those black Marines represented less than one percent of the 80,000 who fought to take the island from the Japanese.

And, because of segregation, they were delegated to support roles.

Spook also details the Bronze-Star awarded courage of a pair of black Marines (in their combat support roles) but notes that they were not a part of the unit which raised the flag at Iwo Jima.

The battalion and its subordinate companies were all white—another product of the segregated Marine Corps of World War II.

Eastwood was, of course, adhering to historical accuracy rather than PC.

But Lee has succeeded in publicizing his film--and probably in riling up those who probably don't even know that the military was segregated back then and that it was probably one of the first--if not the first--government institutions to desegregate, undoubtedly stemming from the performance of men like the afore-mentioned Marines, the Tuskegee airmen and the "Buffalo Soldiers" which will be portrayed in Lee's WWII movie. Too bad he is doing them such a disservice.

(Thanks to Phelps)

Lee Tries to Make Eastwood's Day

Director fight: Spike Lee tries to start some stuff by complaining about the dearth of black characters in Clint Eastwood's two World War Two era films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, but Clint isn't cowed.

Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn't raise the flag. The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

"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." Referring to Lee, he added: "A guy like him should shut his face."

Ouch!

Spike is promoting his own World War II film, Miracle at St. Anna, which featured the story of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division--progeny of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 19th Century Indian conflicts--the only "colored" infantry division to engage in combat during World War II. They served in Italy. (The 24th Infantry Regiment--another "colored" unit--mopped up in the Pacific. The United States Armed Forces was desegregated in 1947.)

So if Spike knows that 92nd was the only black division to fight, that they engaged only in Europe and that Clint's two films are about the war in the Pacific, then what's he whining about? Oh yeah, I forgot. It's Spike Lee.

Clint goes on.

What are you going to do, you going to tell a f*ckin' story about that?" he said. "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 movie and it's 90% black, like Bird, then I use 90% black people.

"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."

Double Ouch!! I think Spike was making Nike commercials with Michael Jordan.

Have a seat, Spike. Or better yet--let the quality of your work do the talking.

Germans Give Cruise the Finger (Again)

During the Berlin filming of Valkrie--a biography of Count Claus von Stauffenberg, in which Tom Cruise plays Stauffenberg—eleven people (assumed to be extras) were injured

when a truck was trying to negotiate a corner in central Berlin. Eleven people fell out of the back of the vehicle and one was seriously injured, according to the police. Shooting in Wilhemstrasse, in the city's Mitte district, was called off and the injured were taken to hospital. The truck is now being examined for mechanical defects. Police have also opened an investigation into possible charges of bodily injury caused by negligence.

This isn’t the first setback for the film. The makers of Valkrie have had a hard time getting access to the historical sites in which many of the key events took place. (Stauffenberg, famous for his unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Adolph Hitler, planned the attempts and was executed for those plans in a singular location, the Bendlerblock—now the location of the German Defense Ministry and the German Resistance Memorial Center.)

Nor is it the first time that a Cruise project has run up against resistance (if you’ll pardon the pun) in the German capital city.

Three years ago, Wolfgang Thierse, the then-president of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, denied Cruise permission to film the dome of the historic Reichstag building, where the star wanted to shoot a scene for his action thriller "Mission: Impossible III." In the end, Cruise and his film crew left Berlin for Prague.

What’s Germany’s problem with Cruise? It’s his religion.

The film has caused controversy in Germany due to Cruise's membership in the Church of $cientology, which doesn't have the status of a religion in Germany and is officially monitored by government intelligence agencies. The organization has been under increased scrutiny since it opened a new center in Berlin in January.

Hmm. In spite of the whack job that is Tom Cruise and in spite of the, shall we say, curious aspects of his religion, the German government is doing itself no favors in the public relations department with regard to its treatment of adherents of that religion. (I assume that Cruise isn't threatening to have his fellows blow anything up.) Considering the film's subject, the FRG would do well to remember how its most recent forebear treated members of another “suspect” religion.

(Thanks to Glenn; not not that one)

Movie Night

TNR said...eh, forget it.

Yesterday, Ace of Spades talked about the best movie made from a computer game (Mindsweeper). But later in the post, he asks his guests a couple of more inclusive questions:

1. Guy Movies That You Can Force A Chick To Watch Which She Might, Possibly, Somehow End Up Kinda-Sorta Liking, and

2. Movies You Should Not Even Bother Forcing A Chick To Watch Unless Two Hours Of Accusatory Silence Is Your Idea of A Really Good Time

For the most part, I’m not a chick-flick fan (with some exceptions). But then, I’m not an average chick but a military-indoctrinated chick--a retiree of the USAF/USAFR—and I would say that this fact makes a difference as to my entertainment choices. Many of us women who serve/have served in the military defy some of the stereotypes that are held (rightfully) about women. Even a great many of us women who served in the USAF—considered the least face-to-face combat-oriented of the five services--aren’t inclined to be comforted entertained *in the traditional manner* via our pop-cultural intake. I’d daresay that this fact is what made us open to joining up in the first place.

Keep that theory in mind as you note my favorite fifteen movies (alphabetical order, ignoring ‘the’ and ‘a’).

1. The Abyss (water, claustrophobia, romance and magic)
2. Aliens (Great action and possessing of some of the most enduring one-liners and dialogue in cinema.)

Pvt. Hudson (a man): Have you ever been mistaken for a man?
Pvt. Vasquez (a short-haired, tough woman): No. Have you?

(You might be able to guess why that's my favorite dialogue from that movie.)
3. The Color Purple (yes, it’s a chick-flick, but as someone said over at Ace’s, Whoopi and Oprah shined in this one; plus there’s some serious blues/gospel singing near the end which would cause many present-day praise/worship artists to just hang it up.)
4. Glory (Denzel Washington greatly deserved his Oscar here.)
5. The Godfather, parts I and II (after a few viewings, III wasn’t that bad either.)
6. The Hunt for Red October (Sean Connery was the man, in spite of his Scottish-accented Russian; additionally, there’s prospective presidential candidate Fred Thompson’s line: “Russians don’t take a dump without a plan, son.”)
7. Lord of the Rings series (enough said; favorite character as portrayed in the movies—Theoden.)
8. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (I like Russell Crowe better with a little meat on him; favorite scene, however, was when that one-armed midget, Lord Blakeney--portrayed by young Max Pirkis--capped one of his foes.)
9. Scent of a Woman (One of the few scenery chewings—by Al Pacino—that actually enhanced a movie. “God doth have a sense of humor.” However, Chris O’Donnell gave the better performance here.)
10. Serenity (Tough men, tough women, cannibalistic zombies; what's not to like? I haven’t seen the TV series, Firefly, yet, but the DVD from the first season just arrived via my Netflix account!)
11. The Shawshank Redemption (Whatever we conservatives may think about liberal Tim Robbins as far as his political views go, no one can deny that he gave an awesome performance in this one.)
12. The Silence of the Lambs (For a long time, this movie was my absolute favorite; I had read the book and, as far as the movie went, the storyline and the performances were absolutely masterful.)
13. A Soldier's Story (A little known WWII tale about an all-black unit from the then-segregated US Armed Forces featuring Denzel Washington, the late Howard Rollins of the nineties TV show In the Heat of the Night and the late Adolph Caesar, who portrayed Mister’s father in The Color Purple.)
14. The Spy Who Shagged Me (So sue me; after walking out of the theater, I told my date that it was the stupidest movie that I’d ever seen. He countered with this: “Yes, but you laughed your a** off the whole time!" True. It deserves special mention for introducing the concept of a ‘mini-me’ into the English vernacular.)
15. Star Trek (the usual; the Original Television Series, Deep Space Nine, II, IV, VI and First Contact); I even liked Insurrection, if only for this Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) line:

We're *through* running from these mutha-f*ckas b*stards.

What I just watched: Syriana (I got the message--that unseen forces are pulling the strings of world events. I just wish that the message had been more entertaining. And I don't like George Clooney with a little extra meat on him. Perhaps that's because I don't like him slim either.)

UPDATE: Next on the viewing list--Lawrence of Arabia.

UCLA Study: Who Pollutes? (Baklava)

According to a two year study released Tuesday by UCLA "the film and television industry and associated activities make a larger contribution to air pollution in the five-county Los Angeles region than almost all five other sectors researched"

Although Hollywood seems environmentally conscious thanks to celebrities who lend their names to various causes, the industry created more pollution than individually produced by aerospace manufacturing, apparel, hotels and semiconductor manufacturing, the study found.Only petroleum manufacturing belched more emissions."People talk of 'the industry,' but we don't think of them as an industry," said Mary Nichols, who heads the school's Institute of the Environment, which released what researchers called a "snapshot" of industry pollution. "We think of the creative side, the movie, the people, the actors -- we don't think of what it takes to produce the product."

Seems to me conservation is in order..... we should buy less of their product !Additionally, we need to have government put caps on the amount of product available to the public OR put an additional tax on their product to pay for the environmental damage that they do OR set standards on the amount of all of this that goes on:

Special effects explosions, idling vehicles, teams of workers building monumental sets

I'd say the special tax is appropriate. Make that a double tax for Steven Seagal who gave us all a speech at the end of this movie.

Movie News

Susan Sarandon is considering a role as the lead in a biographical movie of celebrated (and maligned) Gold Star mother/Iraq War protester Cindy Sheehan.

More interesting is the question of who will play the role of the late Army Specialist Casey Sheehan and how he will be characterized.

(Thanks to Pajamas Media)

Academy Awards

Pajamas Media is "liveblogging" the Academy Awards.

I haven't seen any of the nominated movies, but I am interested in seeing Crash simply because I want to find out how racist Los Angeles allegedly is.

Anecdotally, the worst racism I've ever experienced was in Chicago and in Northern California; in the latter area, I was called the n-word openly, while in uniform.

Saving Private Ryan

First of all, I suggest that, if you haven’t watched the movie in a while, watch it again. Even after a dozen viewings, it’s rough going, and that’s not even a reference to the first bloody D-Day sequences.

In the comments to the 3-D Warriors post, reader CitadelGrad disputes my recollection of the plot. Little did I know that this dispute has been a long-running one among fans of the movie.

Laβ es uns beendigt.*

Es ist einfach für dich. Viel einfach.

Sorry, Marine, but I think that “Steamboat Willie” (Jörg Stadler) and the German who shoots Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) are the same person. The German, however, who kills Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg) is a different person. Recall that Corporal Upham (the translator; Jeremy Davies) could have saved Private Mellish. The latter even calls out to Upham several times, during Mellish’s battle with the German. Upham, however, cowers just around the corner on the stairs. After the German takes Mellish out with a knife to the heart, he saunters down the stairs past the still-cowering Upham, deeming—correctly—that Upham is no threat to him.

Just as the German reaches the bottom of the stairs, there is a full-on close-up of him as he looks around to see if the coast is clear. Different actor (probably Erich Redman, billed as German #1); smaller nose, no dimples, unlike Mr. Stadler.

Near the end of the movie, five Germans are the on the attack as Upham observes them--hidden, but close. His recognition of “Steamboat Willie” is obvious and, as it turns out, it is Willie who takes out Captain Miller. Upham sense of outrage overcomes his fear and he confronts the entire squad, forcing them to cease-fire and surrender.

Ich kenne den Soldaten.

Ich kenne den Mann.

Upham!

Upham takes Willie out with one bullet, then allows the others to escape.

Haut ab!

VERSCHWINDET!!

Even if the man Upham shot had not been Willie, but had been Mellish’s killer, the assertion still stands, however, that Upham committed a war crime: one cheered by movie-goers nearly the world over. And why? Because no real blood was shed. It was all make-believe.

(Cast information courtesy of the ever-handy Internet Movie Database)

ADDENDUM: I would like to thank CitadelGrad, however, for forcing me to watch the movie again. The difference of opinion was minor. It needs to be seen again and held up against the context of real-world events. Additionally, and again, very minor, I enjoy doing movie reviews.

*Not sure which verb was used: beenden or beendigen. Blame it on my deteriorating German. (Native Germans can feel free to give corrections.)

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

Brown Shirts? I’ve got your Brown Shirts right here.

(Jun. 25) -- The highly anticipated film, Fahrenheit 9/11, came with more than just controversy at one Las Vegas movie theatre. Moviegoer, Richard Streeter, was one of the many who made his way to a theatre to see what the hype was about. After viewing the film, he was greeted outside the theatre by members of the Las Vegas MoveOn.org.

The group was handing out leaflets on the importance of the film. Streeter voiced his view on the movie, "I made the comment, apples and oranges -- Kerry, Bush -- one's no better than the other. You really ain't got much of a choice. This guy comes up to me and says, 'Oh yeah?' " Streeter was then spat on by the same man.

He attempted to call police to report the incident when he was told not to, "A guy standing next to him said why don't you drop it. I said, 'No, I'm calling the police. I'm exercising my right as a citizen, I've been assaulted.' "

But the horror kept on growing for Streeter as he walked to his car on the phone with police, "This guy turns, and totally by surprise takes his hand and bam! It was a big guy. Shoved me onto the ground, I hit my head." A police report has been filed.

Crime: insufficient respect shown for the Party.

It will get uglier. I'm sure of it.

(Thanks to D.C. Thornton)