To answer:
I like Spike. For the umpteenth thousandth time. I like Spike, I like his movies, I generally agree with his viewpoints, I feel sorry for him when shown at Knicks games.
But I lost a lot of respect for Spike when he dragged Clint, unwillingly, into some PR generating bullshit. Once again: Flags and Letters were meant to be pitch-perfect recreations of a singular battle and the actual fall out of the actual lives the battle/AmeroPR bullshit touched. Not some catch all story about WW2, not some fictionalized (COUGH) battle meant to be shiny, happy and prop giving to all of gods children who fought so boldly, etc...etc...Spike in that tif acted as if he had not seen the movie or was being contrarian just to get his name in the papers. I wonder which it was? And if the argument is going to be Miracle is a "popcorn" WW2 movie, meant to shine the light on one particular regiment in one particular (marginally fictionalized for the sake of romaticism) battle, great, then be a popcorn movie and KIM. Don't box with someone trying to do something totally different; Spike had to go out of his way to make that beef about race, Clint would have had to go way out of his and reality's way to make Letters/Flags about or including black people.

And it looked like ass in a can from the early treatments and plot lines. Sorry. So yeah, I predicted the raft of negative reviews this film is soon to generate. I laughed a ton this past weekend when those commercials hit with a singular positive review quoted; not at the fact Spike is going to be left with a race-bait bomb on his hands, but that another attempt to sensationalize and demean another persons piece of work for your own glory BACKFIRED. Horribly. Kabloom.


That and it's another "Autumn of Basa's cred" moment.