Lee recently received a Peabody
award for excellence in electronic
media
Posted on 06/09/2007 4:25:15 AM PDT by yankeedame
Last Updated: Thursday, 7 June 2007, 14:26 GMT 15:26 UK
Lee recently received a Peabody
award for excellence in electronic
media
Director Spike Lee is to make a film honouring the contribution of black US soldiers during World War II. Lee, who recently announced he would shoot a follow-up to his documentary about Hurricane Katrina, said their role has been overlooked by film.
He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that before films depicting the Vietnam war, black servicemen were "invisible".
The picture will be based on James McBride's novel Miracle at St Anna and is due to be filmed in Italy.
'Patriots'
"I recently met a black veteran who fought at Iwo Jima and he told me how hurt he was that he could not find a single African-American in Clint Eastwood's two films," Lee said.
He added that despite suffering racial discrimination at home, "black men fought like heroes".
"They behaved like patriots while their brothers were lynched, or at best considered second-class citizens," added the film-maker.
McBride's novel, which is based on a true story, tells the tale of an all-black US army division fighting the Nazi occupation of Tuscany, and a friendship which develops between one of the men and a six-year-old Italian orphan.
Lee, whose other screen credits include Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing, said the film would tell both sides of the story.
"A lot of German soldiers were not faceless evil with no humanity, but simply men fighting on the wrong side - they too were tired, hungry and wanted to go back home," he said
Does Lee ever do anything that isnt racial?
I didn’t know we had any black troops on Iwo. I thought most of the black Army troops were in the European theatre (where most served with distinction. There was an excellent documentary recently on one of the Discovery Channel family (might’ve been the Military Channel) about the first all-black tank battalion in World War II, who served with Patton’s Third Army. They won a Distinguished Unit Citation, and Patton praised them as some of the best soldiers he had.
}:-)4
There's good money, no, great money, in racism. You got war and racism - all he needs to do is add sex and his movie will top the charts.
Looks like he’s been packing on the pounds. Maybe he’s trying to go for a cage match against Michael Moore.
Hey Spike! Hows about you just honor vets?
There were black Marines on Iwo most were used to haul ammo but all were in direct fire. You are correct about the 761st tank battalion which also liberated a concentration camp in Germany.
http://www.mpma28.com/page/page/2271596.htm
The Monfort Point Marines were the first black Marines.
Their story would be difficult to tell without pointing out the treatment they received.
The Tuskegee Airman operated out of my base at one time. We have had several ceremonies over the last year honoring them. I have met several of the surviving members and heard their amazing stories. They were a highly effective unit. Yet some are still quite bitter about the way their fellow soldiers and the officers treated them. They were not allowed in the “white” clubs on base at all. In fact, things became so tense that they were eventually shipped out.
It was the times. They were groundbreakers. Their service led to a fully integrated military. While things still aren’t perfect, in most places it’s not even thought about. They serve equally and well. That’s a story that could be told as well.
Yeah, Yeah!!! It’s time to re-write the history of WW2.
Yes, but those movies also suck. He tries to break out of the race movies but I think he is just not that good at anything other than race movies. Do The Right Thing was good and Get On The Bus was pretty good too, even She’s Gotta Have It was decent, but Son of Sam and his Heist film fell apart so fast because, I believe, his passion is not in story telling thats not racially tinged.
No, but that doesn't mean this isn't a good idea. Lee is right that these veterans have been ignored and they deserve to be honored.
“Lee, whose other screen credits include Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing, said the film would tell both sides of the story.”
“Both sides”?
Do not diminish the military service of our fellow Americans. Honoring black veterans is fine by me!
“No, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a good idea. Lee is right that these veterans have been ignored and they deserve to be honored.”
Ignored? Maybe in the pre sixties but there has been several movies and (real) documentaries on the service and hardships black soldiers endured during that period.
Do we have to breakdown by ethnicity/ subculture the contributions of everyone who fought and died for this country.
I though the only important identication needed was Americans
Not that I’m proposing it but how about German Americans, Italiann Americanswho fought against their own people (Japanese Americans hve been noted before)
Unless they did something truly out of the ordinary (like the Indian code talkers or the sinsei(Japanese Americans unit that won the the highest per capita battle ribbons/awards of the war, what is the purpose?
And after watching several of Spike Lee’s films and “documentary” on Katrina, I strongly suspect he would slant it as Americans as no better than the Nazis.
Agree. I'm glad I read down in the thread before posting almost exactly the same thing.
It's not like there's any lack of movies recognizing the heroism of WWII vets. The goal of anyone who writes about history is to find a good story that needs to be told and hasn't been done to death already, and I think Spike has one here.
Semi-on-topic, HBO made an excellent movie about the Tuskeegee Airmen several years back, with some of the best black actors in Hollywood -- Andre Braughaer, Lawrence Fishburne, Courtney B. Vance, Cuba Gooding Jr. It's worth checking out.
Tell that to the returning veterans who had to get up and move to another train car when the train crossed the state line.
“Lee is right that these veterans have been ignored and they deserve to be honored.”
Because they are veterans or because they are black?
I don’t seem to remember a “White Veteran’s Day” or “White Memorial Day”. I thought our honoring of vets was inclusive of all races. I’ve been to a lot of veterans ceremonies in my life and I don’t remember blacks being “ignored” or unwelcome.
What you are saying is that Black veterans deserve special recognition. The very foundation of PC. It’s sad that people who claim to be intelligent base how veterans are honored by what color actors are in the play-acting movies that come out of Hollywood.
From 1950 to 1953, 34,000 Americans died re-winning freedom for the millions of South Koreans whom the Democrats had abandoned in 1949 when we withdrew our troops. (S. Koreans were first freed in 1945, so they had enjoyed freedom for about 4 years, as has Iraq.)
It is estimated that 5,000 of those who died fighting in combat in Korea were black. (records of race were not kept)
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