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
“Tell that to the returning veterans who had to get up and move to another train car when the train crossed the state line.”
You talk like that was last week. It was 60 years ago. All of that has been corrected.
Your post says that racial PC as a form of reparations is good.
I have heard of the Harlem Rats from WWI.
My understanding is that the French cried on the US Soldiers to help them out. At the time, the US was reluctant to enter. Our units were segregated and we had a well trained unit made of men from Harlem. We sent the French some help by sending the unit from Harlem.
Well, my understanding is that the French put the Harlem unit between some French units and some Germans. The Germans started to get their butts kicked. When they Germans learned who these men were, they said that they knew they were not French. And the Germans gave the men from Harlem the nickname Harlem Rats.
I hear the Harlem Rats wore that name with honor.
These Black Rangers stood and held their ground is some really fierce fighting. If I recall, shortly after this, they desegregated our military. These Black Rangers could now go teach young fighters how to stand their ground.
Thank God for Black History month on the History Channel. I don't recall learning this stuff in School.
True.The fact that it's been corrected doesn't mean that it must be forgotten -- the Holocaust was 60 years ago, too.
Your post says that racial PC as a form of reparations is good.
My post says that it's an interesting story worth telling. Last time I heard, that's what movies do.
In the battle of Yechon, Bussey and three Army truck drivers were credited with killing 258 of the enemy and preventing a flanking maneuver against the 24th Regiment. Bussey was awarded the Silver Star. He believes that his race kept him from receiving the CMH, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree.
Interview here.
Upon returning from that war, Bussey could look forward to being called "boy" and murdered if he smiled at a white woman in a manner some yahoo found offensive.
Tell me honestly that a story like that isn't worth a scene in a movie.
HEAR HEAR!!
I think hollywood is racist.
I just want to say that I served in a combat unit. I saw no matter regarding color of skin in our unit. I saw us as brothers.
I dont have a problem with a movie that shows black veterans in a good light.
Its just that it seems Lee suffers from a syndrome where to show blacks in a good light he enjoys showing whites in bad.
The man is an outright racist,and thats ok too I suppose,but If his name were Mel Gibson he would be slammed for it.
Interesting. Brave men for sure.
Brown was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for performing dangerous combat actions that resulted in his fatal crash.
In March 1972, Brown's widow christened a Knox-class ocean escort ship the USS Jesse Brown.
True but compared to having one’s ass shot at by hard core Nazi’s and being told by some tin pot ticket puncher to swap seats are hardly comparable.
Civil rights heroes came later and are recognized as is proper.
My point is Fifty years from now are we going to make movies making heroes of every grannie or toddler who is forced to stripseach just to get on an airplane? or honor those who like Flight 93(IIRC) who took the extraordinary efforts to fight terrorism.
Make no doubt, I believe those veterans like the Tuskegee pilots and other black soldiers helped end the war against fascism and should be honored as such.
But so do other millions of unnamed veterans of various ethnic backgrounds with equal grievances who are content to know that they were part of the Greatest Generation and quietly accept their recognition as heroes simply as just soldiers who did their part.
Black vets Brown vets Red Yellow White.
The important word is vet.
And I fully expect Lee to overshadow that point.
Because they are veterans or because they are black?
Because they are veterans, of course, and their story is not well known.
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.
It should be.
I’ve been to a lot of veterans ceremonies in my life and I don’t remember blacks being “ignored” or unwelcome.
How many movies or TV shows have you seen in which black veterans have been portrayed, including their willingness to fight for this country even at a time when they faced true discrimination and racism? There are hundreds or thousands of movies showing white veterans of World War II, and maybe there was one about the Nisei vets, but I can't recall any about blacks. Why is it that having one, just one movie out of the thousands of World War II movies, feature blacks is not okay?
What you are saying is that Black veterans deserve special recognition.
Not at all. I just think it would be nice to tell their story. How is having just one movie out of all of the thousands that have been made about World War II "special recognition"?
“Does Lee ever do anything that isnt racial?”
Yes, he did a movie on the Son of Sam serial killings called “Summer of Sam.”
And he made a movie called “25th Hour” about a man (played by Ed Norton) getting ready to go to prison for 7 years on drug charges. “25th Hour” had no blacks in the movie but there was one Puerto Rican woman.
His last hit movie “Inside Man” starred Clive Owen as a genious bank robber who pulled off the perfect crime.
Lee is doing an “Inside Man” sequel as well.
Yes I know I was a young Marine lieutenant serving there back in ‘85-’87. It is named after Sgt Major Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson.
My father was a Silver Star recipient during the Korean War, he too face discrimination at home at least he could shoot back at the enemy in Korea. One event that my uncle recounted about my father was that he and a white soldier who he had fought with in Korea went to a bar in uniform. The bartender would not serve my father. The white soldier berated the bartender for not serving my father. He said “this man has been fighting for our country and was a hero and combat and you wont serve him here?” They left the bar and went to another place.
Spike Lee made a name for himself doing movies about race — although “School Daze” was about racial distinctions among blacks. It’s the best way for a young director to get noticed.
Similarly, Ang Lee (no relation) got Hollywood’s attention with “Eat Drink Man Woman,” and has made a string of films (Sense and Sensibility, The Hulk, Brokeback Mountain) that have nothing to do with being Asian.
A lack of respect from the fellow Americans whose asses you fought to save added insult to injury.
Civil rights heroes came later and are recognized as is proper.
There is a direct lineage from black WWII veterans to the Civil Rights movement. Vets began to claim the citizenship they had paid for in blood. Jackie Robinson was chosen to be the first black player in Major League Baseball in large part because of his service record -- including an incident in which he refused an unjust order, He was court-martialed and acquitted.
Make no doubt, I believe those veterans like the Tuskegee pilots and other black soldiers helped end the war against fascism and should be honored as such.
Then what's the problem with this movie?
But so do other millions of unnamed veterans of various ethnic backgrounds with equal grievances who are content to know that they were part of the Greatest Generation and quietly accept their recognition as heroes simply as just soldiers who did their part.
You can't tell me with a straight face that there's a lack of movies honoring WWII vets without singling out a single racial or ethnic group. Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan in recent years, to name but two of hundreds.
There has also been at last one movie about the Navajo Code Talkers. At least one about Ira Hayes. A couple about the 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team made up of Japanese-Americans. I wouldn't mind seeing additional serious treatments of all of those stories.
I don't think that focusing on one unique story diminishes all the others.
Checked out your home page. Awesome! God bless you for your service.
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