Spike Lee isn’t afraid to call out fellow filmmakers for perceived transgressions. He takes a refreshingly outspoken approach to Hollywood, even when it’s in everyone’s best interest that he doesn’t. He’s been in a long spat with Tyler Perry, accused Justin Simien of blatantly ripping him off, and threatened (albeit comically) to beat up Wim Wenders for presiding over the Cannes jury that awarded the top prize to Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape rather than his own Do the Right Thing.
Not surprisingly, he’s burned many a bridge along the way, including with Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, and Jamie Foxx, who made no bones about saying that the Oscar winner had “run his course”. Still, Lee often has a point when he picks fights with people, and never has that been more the case than when he took aim at John Wayne.
In 2020, Lee released Da 5 Bloods, an action drama about four Vietnam veterans in the present who return to the country to locate the remains of their squadron leader and the treasure that they hid during the war. Lee was open about the fact that he drew heavily on other filmmakers when making the movie. He might have a reputation for being misanthropic, but he gives credit where credit is due.
“I’ve always given homages to films I love in my films,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair. Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now was, not surprisingly, a key influence. “I want to go on record on this,” he continued. “I’m not being disrespectful to any Vietnam film that’s been made, except maybe The Green Berets with John Wayne, who is not a hero of mine.”
Before any John Wayne fans start getting hot under the collar, consider the facts. The Green Berets is an atrocious film, no matter what angle you’re looking at it from. Cinematically, politically, historically, and plot-wise, it is a disaster. Released in 1968, it is a spectacularly tone-deaf and amateurish bid to rewrite history as it was unfolding in front of everyone’s eyes.
Wayne co-directed the film and was so passionately opposed to the anti-war sentiment sweeping the country that he removed any semblance of accuracy from the plot in order to turn it into virulently pro-war propaganda. The story follows an American colonel (played by Wayne, naturally) who picks two teams of Green Berets to carry out missions against the enemy in Vietnam.
It was received poorly when it was released and has gone downhill from there. Roger Ebert didn’t mince words in his 1968 review, noting that it was offensive to both pro and anti-Vietnam War activists because it was completely and utterly divorced from the reality of the conflict. Given the scope, complexity, and deadliness of the war, Ebert reasoned, “What we certainly do not need is a movie depicting Vietnam in terms of cowboys and Indians. That is cruel and dishonest and unworthy of the thousands who have died there.”
In short, Lee’s overt disdain for The Green Berets is probably the least controversial denunciation he’s ever made. Even the filmmakers who have condemned him would probably be more than happy to unite around his sentiments on this one.