FROM THE ARCHIVES 6: a review of "Miracle At St. Anna"

To preview my upcoming Top Ten feature on filmmaker Spike Lee, I am introducing an archived review of his World War II film.

Originally written November 2008

"MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA" Directed by Spike Lee
**1/2 (two and a half stars)

Over the last 20 plus years, Director Spike Lee swiftly moved to the very peaks of my personal collection of cinematic heroes. By crafting often blazing cultural critiques of modern African-American life with a skill and artistry that signals the work of a natural born filmmaker, I have anticipated each "Spike Lee Joint" with palpable excitement. This could not be understated in the least with his latest effort, "Miracle At St. Anna," a WWII film that focuses on a quartet of African-American GI's trapped in a Tuscan villa.

The importance that this film exists cannot be denied as it serves to right the cinematic wrongs of films past by including the faces and lives of people who are often neglected when creating historical representations on film. I even have an uncle who served in Germany during WWII so this was truly special for me. I wanted desperately for Spike to hit that grand slam once again as his output quality is astonishingly high. And while he is more than able to handle a genre and an epic scale he hasn't tackled before, I have to sadly say I was disappointed with the final result.

Some criticisms of this film have mentioned that it lacks a clear focus. I disagree with that statement wholeheartedly. "Miracle At St. Anna" definitely has a clear focus but the many story threads unfortunately do not hang together into a tight narrative that would ultimately give the desired effect. Crucially, for a film that it meant to celebrate and honor the African-Americans who fought and died for our country, especially through the paradox of racist institutions, I was surprised to find that the four soldiers are so thinly drawn that the film remains somewhat ungrounded. Because of that, the additional plot points from the small Italian boy who attaches himself to the soldiers, the symbolically spiritual leanings of the statue head one soldier carries constantly, a mysterious tie to a 1980's murder, a love triangle, an Italian resistance force and so on do not congeal properly or build to the emotional force the conclusion wants to convey.

It reminded me of Director Anthony Minghella's "Cold Mountain," a film I felt left huge holes but ultimately led me to the excellent novel. So, it was not a complete failure by any means. Neither is this film as it also made me want to seek out the novel by James McBride, who also wrote the screenplay.

Perhaps that was the main problem: the screenplay. Maybe Spike needed to write it himself or else have a strong screenwriter adapt the novel to make all of the threads weave together stronger. Then, we could have possibly had a film, like Director Frank Darabont's "The Green Mile," that has a wide cast of characters, that is leisurely paced and contains a spiritual element that carefully created a world that built to an undeniable power.

This film definitely has sequences of undeniable power as well --the opening and climactic battle sequences, the massacre at St. Anna by the Nazis, and a gorgeously written and edited prayer that connects the faiths of the Black GIs, the Italian civilians of St. Anna and even a conflicted Nazi soldier. In fact, it is that latter sequence that is Spike's greatest gift as a storyteller and overcomes the greatest misconception about him. Spike Lee is often depicted in the media as the angry black man who hates all white people and I feel that many of his film reviews attack his persona rather than judge the actual work on the screen. On the contrary, Spike Lee has been quite the open-hearted and fair minded commentator, who has long balanced his depictions of racism with honest realities of communities ("Do The Right Thing"), politics (the excellent and compulsively watchable documentary, "When The Levees Broke") and even leveling his own moral outrage against the African-American community in films like "School Daze," "Clockers," and the underseen, undervalued and unrepentant brilliance of "Bamboozled."

Despite the profound importance of this film in the lexicon of cinematic history, "Miracle At St. Anna" has found itself in the lower ranks of Spike's efforts ("Girl 6" and "She Hate Me"). But...perhaps I will revisit this film sometime in the future on DVD and maybe, it will resonate more.

POST SCRIPT: After having seen this film, I did indeed purchase a copy of the book and while the finished film is quite faithful, the outstanding book is the way to go.