Flags of Our Fathers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Oh look, a Clint Eastwood movie with an Oscar-friendly release date. That's new. Actually, it is relatively new, if you look over the man's directorial career. Sure, he's had a number of films come out in the fall time, but not with the same consistency we've seen since 2003, when Mystic River arrived in a few theaters on October 8 then went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following winter.

Then in 2004, his Million Dollar Baby opened in limited release December 15 and went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Finally, in 2006, two of his films were released in the fall, Flags of Our Fathers in October and Letters from Iwo Jima in December. Both went on to receive Oscar recognition, the latter garnering major noms, such as Best Picture and Best Director.

A little bit ago I posted regarding Spike Lee's comments at Cannes, accusing Clint Eastwood of tacit racism because no black actors appeared on screen in Flags of Our Fathers or Letters from Iwo Jima. "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why," he told reporters. "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."

That post touched a nerve and elicited a barrage of comments from you folks, some of them nasty, but many interesting and thoughtful. So I figured I'd be remiss not to report Eastwood's recent response in a Guardian article to Lee's remarks.

• Ralph E. Donnelly (c.1932-2007) - Exhibitor who worked in the cinema business since the 1940s, primarily in New York City, working as a film buyer for City Cinemas, RKO-Stanley Warner Theaters, Creative Film Services and Associated Independent Theaters. He also was former president of Cinema 5 Theaters, he established Manhattan's First Avenue Screening Room and the Mini Cinema in Uniondale, New York and he was one of the founders of the annual ShowEast exhibitors convention. He died September 21 in Palm Harbor, Florida. (Variety)
• Gary Franklin (c.1928-2007) - Film critic and entertainment journalist known for his trademark Franklin Scale ("on a scale of 1-10, 10 being best ... "). He played a radio reporter in the 1977 film Rollercoaster and he appears as himself in An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn. He died October 2 in Chatsworth, California. (Variety)
• Richard Goldwater (c.1936-2007) - President and co-publisher of Archie Comics. He was credited as an executive producer on Josie and the Pussycats, which was based on Archie Comics characters, of which he was also credited as co-creator. He died October 2. (news from me)
• Charles B. Griffith (1930-2007) - Screenwriter and director who worked for producer Roger Corman. Some of Corman's films that he scripted include Death Race 2000 (directed by Paul Bartel), The Little Shop of Horrors, A Bucket of Blood and Not of this Earth. As a director, Griffith made the Jaws knockoff Up from the Depths, the Ron Howard-starred car chase movie Eat My Dust and the 1989 fantasy Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II. He also served as a producer, a production manager, an assistant or second unit director and an actor, appearing as multiple characters in The Little Shop of Horrors and appearing uncredited in Bartel's Eating Raoul. Quentin Tarantino dedicated his recent Grindhouse segment Death Proof to Griffith. He died September 28 in San Diego. (Variety)
• George Grizzard (1928-2007) - Actor (pictured) most recently seen as the older John Bradley in the modern sequences of Flags of Our Fathers (Ryan Phillippe played the young, WWII-era Bradley). He also played Tobey Maguire's father in Wonder Boys, Tawny Kitaen's father in Bachelor Party, a senator in Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent, a governor in Seems Like Old Times and the President in Wrong is Right. He also co-starred in Mark Robson's film of Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June as well as the director's From the Terrace, which stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Myrna Loy. Grizzard was most successful on television, for which he won an Emmy, and on stage, for which he won a Tony. He died of complications from lung cancer October 1, in New York. (AP)

• Claude Brosset (1943-2007) - French actor who appears opposite Jean Paul Belmondo in L'Alpagueur, Les Corps de mon Ennemi, Flic ou Voyou and Le Marginal. He also appears in George Roy Hill's A Little Romance, Costa-Gavras' Un Homme de Trop and Tavernier's Capitaine Conan and L.627. He died June 25 in Pontoise, Val d'Oise, France. (IMDb.com)
• Leo Burmester (1944-2007) - Actor who who played 'Catfish' in The Abyss (pictured). He also appears in Lone Star, The Legend of Zorro, The Last Temptation of Christ, A Perfect World and The Devil's Advocate. He died of leukemia June 28. (Playbill)
• Brian Finch (1936-2007) - British screenwriter, mostly for television (Coronation Street), who wrote 2005's Heidi, which featured Max Von Sydow. He died June 27. (The Independent)
• Anita Guha (?-2007) - Indian actress who portrayed Hindu goddesses in Sampoorna Ramayana, Tulsi Vivah and Krishna-Krishna. She also starred as the title character in the hit film Jai Santoshi Maa. She died of heart failure June 20, in Mumbai. (Variety)
• William Hutt (1920-2007) - Canadian actor who appears in Norman Jewison's The Statement and John Frankenheimer's The Fixer. He also provided his voice for the sci-fi pic The Shape of Things to Come and multiple documentaries. He died of leukemia June 27, in Stratford, Ontario. (Variety)

Back when Clint Eastwood debuted his two Iwo Jima-set films (Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima), there was some controversy surrounding the fact that no African American soldiers were featured, even though plenty were there fighting alongside their fellow countrymen. It now appears this was part of the reason why Spike Lee has decided to direct his own World War II drama which, according to Variety, will be based on Walter McBride's novel Miracle at St. Anna. Lee, who announced the project while in Italy, informed a newspaper there that he had "met a black veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, and he told me how disappointed he was that there was not even one Afro-American (soldier) in Clint Eastwood's two films."

Thus, as part of a joint project with Italian producers Luigi Musini and Roberto Cicutto, Lee will bring the true story of the U.S. army's 92nd division of all-black soldiers to the big screen; a film that will certainly prove to be his most ambitious to date. McBride, who will also write the screenplay, details how in 1944 the division became trapped in a Tuscan village and were forced to not only deal with their idiotic racist commanders, but also a whole slew of Nazis out for blood. Currently, no actors have signed on to star, but Musini told Variety that the "big-budget project will feature a mostly American cast." No word yet on when the film will go into production; aside from this flick, Lee has a number of other gigs lined up -- including a sequel to Inside Man, a James Brown biopic and a film about the L.A. riots.

• The Writers Guild of America presented its awards Sunday. Top prizes went to Michael Arndt for his original screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine and to William Monahan for his adapted screenplay for The Departed. Both scripts are the best bets for the Oscars. Amy Berg also won an award for documentary writing for Deliver Us From Evil.
• It remains a tight race for the animated feature Oscar, but Cars beat Happy Feet for the top honor at the Annie Awards Sunday. So far the former has taken some big awards like the Golden Globe while the latter has won most of the critics' prizes. Other than Best Animated Feature, Cars only won for its music. Flushed Away took home the most Annies (5), and Over the Hedge won 3. Bambi II won the award for direct-to-video titles.
• Sunday's Grammy Awards had some love for movies, honoring the soundtrack to Walk the Line, John Williams' score for Memoirs of a Geisha, Williams' composition "A Prayer for Peace" from his score for Munich and Randy Newman's song "Our Town" from Cars. Also semi-related are the Dixie Chicks' five wins, which make up for the Oscar snub of their documentary Shut Up & Sing.
• The Visual Effects Society Awards were also presented Sunday. The biggest winner was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with six awards, including the two top prizes. Other winners were Flags of Our Fathers, Casino Royale and Cars.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal presented the tech Oscars Saturday. You can look forward to the quick montage of winners shown during the Academy Awards telecast in two weeks.