Spike Lee tells Clint Eastwood 'you're just an angry old man' as Hollywood race row escalates

War of words: Spike Lee, left and Clint Eastwood

Now Lee, who is arguably America's most influential film director, has responded to 78-year-old Eastwood's saying he was an 'angry old man' and that they were not 'on a plantation.'

In an interview with American news channel ABC news.com, he said: 'First of all the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either.

'He's a great director. He makes his films. I make my films....And a comment like 'A guy like that should shut his face' - come on Clint, come on.

'He sounds like an angry old man out there.'

The war of words began at last month's Cannes film festival when Lee accused Eastwood of not using enough African-Americans in his films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both about the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.

Lee, who has been nominated for an Academy award, sparked the row while hosting a press conference to promote his own war film, Miracle at St Anna, at the Cannes film festival last month.

He said: "Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen,"

"If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that ... But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

He also accused Eastwood of ignoring other critics who pointed out that he had not used enough black actors.

Lee's own film, about members of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought in Italy, is an attempt to set second world war history straight.

Last week Eastwood defended his casting and said that the black troops that did take part in the battle didn't take part in raising the flag.

In an interview with the Guardian he said: '"The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go: 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate."

Referring to Lee, he said: "A guy like him should shut his face."