Editing Spike Lee (section)

== Controversies ==
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Lee, who was then making ''[[Miracle at St. Anna]],'' about an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during [[World War II]], criticized director [[Clint Eastwood]] for not depicting black Marines in his own World War II film, ''[[Flags of Our Fathers (film)|Flags of Our Fathers]]''. Citing historical accuracy, Eastwood responded that his film was specifically about the Marines who raised the flag on [[Mount Suribachi]] at [[Iwo Jima]], pointing out that while black Marines did fight at Iwo Jima, the U.S. military was [[racial segregation|racially segregated]] during World War II, and none of the men who raised the flag were black. He angrily said that Lee should "shut his face". Lee responded that Eastwood was acting like an "angry old man", and argued that despite making two Iwo Jima films back to back, ''[[Letters from Iwo Jima]]'' and ''Flags of Our Fathers'', "there was not one black soldier in both of those films".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5015524 |last=Marikar |first=Sheila |title=Spike Strikes Back: Clint's 'an Angry Old Man' |work=ABC News |date=June 6, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7439371.stm |work=BBC News |title=Eastwood hits back at Lee claims |date=June 6, 2008 |access-date=August 4, 2009}}</ref><ref name="thr">{{cite journal |last=Lyman |first=Eric J. |title=Lee calls out Eastwood, Coens over casting |journal=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |issue=8 |pages=3, 24 |date=May 21, 2008 |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3if545c66bc7e57054b34aaa6cd2b36458 }}</ref> He added that he and Eastwood were "not on a plantation".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jun/09/news.usa |title='We're not on a plantation, Clint' |date=June 9, 2008 |first=Martin |last=Wainwright |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Lee later claimed that the event was exaggerated by the media and that he and Eastwood had reconciled through mutual friend [[Steven Spielberg]], culminating in his sending Eastwood a print of ''Miracle at St. Anna''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://omg.yahoo.com/news/access-exclusive-spike-lee-on-clint-eastwood-we-re-cool/12796 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105205333/http://omg.yahoo.com/news/access-exclusive-spike-lee-on-clint-eastwood-we-re-cool/12796|url-status=dead |title="Access Exclusive: Spike Lee On Clint Eastwood: 'We're Cool'" OMG!/Yahoo! September 6, 2008 |archive-date=January 5, 2010}}</ref>

Lee has been criticized for his representation of women. For example, [[bell hooks]] said that he wrote black women in the same objectifying way that white male filmmakers write the characters of white women.<ref>{{Cite book|last=hooks|first=bell|date=October 10, 2014|title=Black Looks|doi=10.4324/9781315743226|isbn=978-1-315-74322-6}}</ref> [[Rosie Perez]], who was in an acting role for the first time as Tina in ''Do the Right Thing'', said later that she was very uncomfortable with doing the nude scene in the film, saying, "I had a big problem with it, mainly because I was afraid of what my family would think...It wasn't really about taking off my clothes. But I also didn't feel good about it because the atmosphere wasn't correct."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/25/magazine/the-pressure-to-take-it-off.html|title=The Pressure To Take It Off|last=Udovitch|first=Mim|date=June 25, 2000|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 10, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Subsequently, Perez stated that Lee had offered an apology, and the two maintained their friendship.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/rosie-perez-spike-lee-matrix-audition-1235566016/#! | title=Rosie Perez on Making Peace with Spike Lee, Bombing Her 'Matrix' Audition and Why Hollywood's Latino Representation Still 'Sucks' | date=March 29, 2023 }}</ref>

Over the course of his career Spike Lee has defended [[Woody Allen]], [[Michael Jackson]] and [[Nate Parker]], all of whom have been accused of [[sexual misconduct]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2019/09/nate-parker-apologizes-venice-1202170368/|title= Nate Parker Apologizes for Being 'Tone Deaf,' Spike Lee Defends the Disgraced Director|website=IndieWire|date= September 2019|access-date= January 19, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/movies/spike-lee-defends-woody-allen-cancel-culture/ |title=Spike Lee defends Woody Allen against 'this cancel thing': 'Woody's a friend of mine' |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |first=Tyler |last=Aquillina |date=June 13, 2020 |access-date=July 21, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2020/06/spike-lee-walks-back-comments-defending-friend-woody-allen-against-cancel-culture-1202958635/ |title=Spike Lee Walks Back Comments Defending "Friend" Woody Allen Against Cancel Culture |website=Deadline Hollywood |first=Anita |last=Bennett |date=June 13, 2020 |access-date=July 21, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/entertainment/spike-lee-woody-allen-trnd/index.html|title= Spike Lee apologizes after appearing to defend Woody Allen|website= [[CNN]]|date= June 15, 2020|access-date= August 4, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/14/spike-lee-apologizes-after-defending-woody-allen|title= 'My words were wrong': Spike Lee apologizes after defending Woody Allen|website= [[The Guardian]]|date= June 14, 2020|access-date= August 4, 2020}}</ref>