"I know you enjoyed the book, but did the Clint Eastwood schism play a part in your decision?
Well, that happened after the film was already made. I was just incredulous that he could do two films about Iwo Jima and not have a Black Marine say a line. I was able to interview some guys, and one of the guys, who just recently died, was Thomas McFadden, who was there. He said there were plenty of Black folks there on those islands. Thomas McFadden told me this story that there were two pictures of the planting of the flag at Iwo Jima. He was at the first, and there was a whole bunch of Black people watching them take the picture. And, because it was lava, the stick wouldn’t hold. He had a supply dump, and they said look to see if you could find something, so he found a pipe from his supply dump, stuck the pipe in the lava, and that’s what they stuck the flag in. So, at the time the picture was taken, there were a lot of Black folks watching the picture being taken!"
Well, that happened after the film was already made. I was just incredulous that he could do two films about Iwo Jima and not have a Black Marine say a line. I was able to interview some guys, and one of the guys, who just recently died, was Thomas McFadden, who was there. He said there were plenty of Black folks there on those islands. Thomas McFadden told me this story that there were two pictures of the planting of the flag at Iwo Jima. He was at the first, and there was a whole bunch of Black people watching them take the picture. And, because it was lava, the stick wouldn’t hold. He had a supply dump, and they said look to see if you could find something, so he found a pipe from his supply dump, stuck the pipe in the lava, and that’s what they stuck the flag in. So, at the time the picture was taken, there were a lot of Black folks watching the picture being taken!"
—
Spike Lee being asked about Miracle at St. Anna in a Wax Poetic interview
by Mark Randolph
