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The failure to transfer the active role played by African-Americans at Iwo Jima to the big screen does not surprise him. "One of the marines I interviewed said that the people who were filming newsreel footage on Iwo Jima deliberately turned their cameras away when black folks came by. Blacks are not surprised at all when they see movies set where black troops were engaged and never show on the screen. I would like to say that it was from ignorance but anybody can do research and come up with books about African-Americans in world war two. I think it has to do with box office and what producers of movies think Americans really want to see."

Were the black guys actors? I tend to think that only actors would be permitted on the set, as well as various crew. Whether the director decided to eliminate that portion of the film in the editing room, or whether he changed his mind at the last moment before filming I can't say. But if black actors were on the set to be filmed, we can't say that Eastwood didn't have the intention of including them in the film.