Spike Lee tackles Cannes favourite Clint over rewriting history

A good day and bad day for Clint Eastwood (left) at the Cannes Film Festival. While critical reception for his latest movie L'Echange (before it landed in Cannes it was called Changeling) has ranged from positive to ecstatic - so much so that it is tipped by some to win him the Palme d'Or and perhaps an acting award for Angelina Jolie (right) - he faced a wounding attack from fellow director Spike Lee who accused him of wilfully not including a single African-American soldier in his recent films about the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Speaking at a press conference to publicise his own World War Two film, Miracle at St Anna, a story about black GIs fighting in Italy, Lee said: "There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one [in the films]. That was his version: the negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version."

While refraining from using the word "racist", Lee left nobody in any doubt that he felt Eastwood's decision to exclude African-American solders in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima was deliberate, claiming that the director had been told of their contribution but ignored the "information".

"It's not like he could say he didn't know. It was a conscious decision not to have any black people. Here's the paradox. These African-American men wanted to fight against fascism in the name of democracy. At the same time, they were still second-class citizens."

At the other end of the Croisette, Eastwood was asked to comment on Lee's remarks. Clearly unamused, he answered each question with a Dirty Harry-style stare and silence.

There is speculation in Cannes that after the mixed reception for his film Mystic River in 2003, Eastwood might be in with a better chance this year. The lead actor in Mystic River was Sean Penn who went to win the Oscar – and now he is chairman of the Cannes jury. Does he feel he owes Clint a favour?