Clint Eastwood’s Rebuttal

I was wondering when Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) was going to contest Spike Lee’s accusation of, well, racism. In an article at guardian.co.uk , Eastwood said, in a Dirty Harryesque way, about Spike Lee’s comments, “A guy like him should shut his face.” I second that.

In this article Eastwood speaks of his controversial (for Liberals anyway), Dirty Harry movies. The comments from the left went as far as calling the movie “fascist.” Did these outrageous comments stop Eastwood? No, he felt there “had been enough politically correct crap going around.” And so he kept on with the Dirty Harry series. All of which people love and watch over and over again.

He makes it very clear, he is not a racist, but a good director who will tell the story using facts and not Hollywood fantasy, or fiction. He will not enter the world of pandering either. There is no making Spike happy, even when Eastwood did a movie about a black composer, Charlie Parker (Bird), Spike complained about that. Spike said (boo-hoo), “Why would a white guy be doing that?” Eastwood: “I was the only guy who made it, that’s why.” The epitome of the cliché “dam if you do, dam if you don’t.”

You know here is my take on this whole stuff, Spike should concentrate on making good movies, and stop making outrageous statements, which only perpetuates the race issue. This type of talk makes me feel we are still in the hype of the civil rights movements of the 60’s. Hasn’t America made tremendous strides in race issues? You may argue that we have a ways to go, but we have moved forward, haven’t we? This type of talk takes us backwards, not forward.

Eastwood is an artist who makes his points of view quite obvious in his movies. He doesn’t care who gets offended. He is gifted and talented, and as such he will tell the story as it was, and not the way anyone thinks it should’ve been. That is fantasy land. If Lee chooses to have a gripe with anyone, it should be with history and not Eastwood. Things happened in the past, ugly things, which can’t be changed.

Eastwood is not losing any sleep over Lee’s comments. According to the article, Eastwood is going to be working on a movie about Nelson Mandela. When asked if he would be “sticking with historical record on this film,” he laughed, and said, “Yeah, I’m not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy.” What now Spike?