Clint Eastwood directed a World War II movie called Flags of Our Fathers, resulting in a mᴀssive feud with fellow director Spike Lee. In 2006, Clint Eastwood accomplished an impressive feat by directing two war movies, one from each side’s point of view. In Flags of Our Fathers, Eastwood tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from an American point of view. He also directed Letters from Iwo Jima​​​​,​ showing the Japanese point of view. While Letters from Iwo Jima was the greater success and an Oscar contender, Flags of Our Fathers was a box office bomb.

However, Flags of Our Fathers is a much better movie than people might remember. Sadly, it is mostly remembered for the feud between Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee. While Eastwood received credit at the time for showing both sides of the story of this war, a revolutionary idea since many war movies of the past paint one side as evil and rarely show sympathetic faces on each side, Lee felt that Eastwood was showing prejudice in making his movie. Luckily, Steven Spielberg eventually stepped in and calmed things down, ending the war of words.

Clint Eastwood & Spike Lee’s Flags Of Our Fathers Feud Explained

Spike Lee Felt Clint Eastwood Purposefully Omitted Black Marines

Clint Eastwood made Flags of Our Fathers around the same time Spike Lee made his war movie Miracle at St. Anna. These were about two very different events. While Eastwood’s movie was about the Battle of Iwo Jima and raising the American flag during one of the war’s most important moments, Miracle at St. Anna was about an all-Black U.S. division fighting in Italy in World War II. While Lee’s movie was about race, Eastwood’s was about the flag planting. However, Lee was still angry that there were no Black marines in either of Eastwood’s films (via THR):

“Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total and there was not one Negro actor on the screen. If you reporters had any balls you’d ask him why. There’s no way I know why he did that — that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It’s not like he didn’t know.”

This angered Clint Eastwood, who lashed out at Lee, claiming that the director was criticizing his movie to promote Miracle at St. Anna. Eastwood explained that there were no Black marines at the planting of the flag, which is what his film was about. He said the only Black marines were in the munitions company and not at the flag planting. He went on to say that Lee should “shut his face” (via BBC):

“The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. It’s not accurate. 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 picture and it’s 90% black, like Bird, I use 90% black people. I’m not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy.”

Sadly, Spike Lee wasn’t finished and said that Eastwood was out of line in his comments. Lee said, “He’s a great director. He makes his films, I make my films. The thing about it though, I didn’t personally attack him. And a comment like ‘a guy like that should shut his face’ — come on Clint, come on. He sounds like an angry old man right there” (via ABC News).

Lee went on to say he could ᴀssemble all the Black men who fought at Iwo Jima and tell them that Clint Eastwood said they didn’t exist and their contributions didn’t matter. “I know the history of Hollywood and its omission of the one million African-American men and women who contributed to World War II,” Lee finished. However, the truth is that there are Black marines in several scenes in Flags of Our Fathers, throwing a wrench into Lee’s argument.

How Steven Spielberg Helped Resolve Eastwood & Lee’s Feud

Steven Spielberg Was A Producer On Flags Of Our Fathers

While it seemed that any relationship that Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood could have had was ruined at that moment, one filmmaker who was close to them stepped in and helped resolve things. Steven Spielberg was a producer on both Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. He is also very close to Spike Lee and has always supported his work. After this feud ran on in the press, Spielberg called Eastwood on Lee’s behalf to settle things.

Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood never met face-to-face after the Flags of Our Fathers feud, but Spielberg smoothed things over between them as an intermediary. Lee later said that the “thing with Clint was overblown” and “that stuff was squashed” (via Collider).