While working to promote his own movie, director Spike Lee recently spent a little time making jabs at some of his fellow comrades.

Lee was at the Cannes Film Festival to talk about his upcoming project, Miracle at St. Anna. The Italian-set war film - currently in post-production - focuses on four black American soldiers during WWII.

While discussing the film, Spike chose to compare his artistic choices to those of three Academy Award winners. When the topic of violence came up, Lee told the press that unlike Joel and Ethan Coen, he treats death respectfully:

“I always treat life and death with respect, but most people don’t. Look, I love the Coen brothers; we all studied at NYU. But they treat life like a joke. Ha ha ha. A joke. It’s like, ‘Look how they killed that guy! Look how blood squirts out the side of his head!’ I see things different than that.”