Review: ‘Miracle at St. Anna’

Scott:

This Spike Lee joint is filled with emotions that we haven’t seen from a war movie lately, and left me wanting more. The story follows 4 black soldiers in WWII that are part of a group that has to storm a Nazi covered hillside. After making it over the river with most of their fellow soldiers getting killed, they run up the side of a mountain and seek cover while backup comes. In the process the meet a young Italian child that is in need of help, so they take him into a local village and camp out until they can secure cover, and reach back to their base.

In the process of repairing the broken radio, their commander gives them the task of capturing a German for questioning and then reporting back with any information they can gather. The soldiers quickly realize that the Italian people accept them without preconceived notions, and do everything they can to help them complete their mission.

Spike Lee is infamous for making epic movies, with epic soundtracks and ‘Miracle at St Anna’ is no different. The movie is facing a lot of ridicule because of the length of the film, the music they used, and the tone changes saying that it doesn’tknow what kind of movie it is trying to be. The movie is what it is, it has parts that are funny, parts that are gruesome, and parts that are emotional. I don’t have a problem with this, and everyone else should just accept the movie for what it is. Why do typical movie rules have to apply to every movie? They don’t, and this one doesn’t either.

If you like war flicks that also deliver an entertaining movie going experience then definitely go see this movie!

[rating:4/5]

Ram Man:

Spike Lee’s return shot in his little scuffle with Clint Eastwood is opening in theaters today. Lee has been very vocal about Eastwood’s ignoring the key role that the  African-American  soldiers played in WWII. “Miracle at St. Anna” tells one of those stories, following four “Buffalo Soldiers” trapped behind the Nazi lines in a small Italian village.

The film opens in a NYC post office during the Christmas Holidays. When a customer asks for a 20 cent stamp and the elderly clerk pauses..then literally goes postal.. and puts one between the customer’s eyes with a German Luger! Hector Negron (Laz Alonzo), a veteran of World War II, is questioned by a rookie reporter for the New York Post (played by Joesph Gordon-Levitt) as to why he committed this awful crime and why he has a priceless Italian artifact (believed lost in the war) hidden in his closet.   Quicker than you can say “Holy S@#t” the film flashes back to the Tuscan Valley in Italy  near the end of World War II.

Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), Sergeant Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), Private Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller) and Hector Negron, separated from the rest of the 92nd Infantry division, discover a boy while hiding out in a barn from the advancing Nazi armies. Angelo (Matteo Sciabordi) is instantly taken with the large teddy bear like soldier “Train” whom Angelo refers as the Chocolate Giant. Train decides to keep the boy, he is safer with them than without them. Train isn’t only packing weapons and Italianrefugees..he has the head of a statue strapped to his hip that he continues to rub for luck.   Train believes the head makes him invisible to the enemy , a good trick for a 400 lb soldier! They make their way to a small village where the are welcomed by the townspeople. The town has been harboring a band of Partisans that have been secretly attacking the Nazis in the wooded hillsides near the village. Stamps and company soon discover they are surrounded by Hitler’s army and have no where to escape. We also learn that Angelo is also keeping a dark secret inside when he recognizes on the the partisans as a traitor helping the Nazi’s murder his entire village. The events that follow that lead up to the end of the film will have you in awe.

Spike Lee is usually pretty heavy on the racial tones in his films and St. Anna is no different. But the story he tell based on the novel by James McBride and the actual Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre is a wonderful film with outstanding performances by Luke, Alanzo andMiller. I love a film that even though you know the outcome, you still find yourself pulling for the underdog. That’s exactly what this group of soldiers were, four standing against hundreds..out gunned and out maneuvered… with absolutely no chance. This is where the Miracle at St. Anna takes place. With a running time of nearly   2 1/2 hours, Miracle at St. Anna is a long film that seems to bog down a bit in the middle, but is well worth the time invested to see such fine film.

[rating:4/5]

Melissa:

Oh, Spike Lee… you and your JOINTS!

War, racism, potty mouth language, bare female breasts… Sounds like it would be one exciting movie…

Miracle at St. Anna is the tale of four African American soldiers who are trying to make their way back to their fellow American soldiers during WWII. When their unit was ambushed and basically blown to smithereens, the four men were left to fend for themselves in Italy, and find their way back to their unit. Along the way, Private Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller), carries the head of a statue for luck. This statue is the main object in the movie, which I am sure you have seen in the trailer. By far he is the most likable out of the four soldiers!

They call for help over their radio on several occasions only to be shunned by their white commanding officer. The racial theme in this movie is very clear. At one point, one of the four men comments on how he feels more free in another country than he does back in the states.

The soldiers may be in trouble, but still find time to fight amongst each other, smoke their cigarettes, and chase ladies. All while they are surrounded by German soldiers!

The story is being unraveled because one of the soldiers, Corporal Hector Negron (Laz Alonso), is seen as an older man in 1984, who is working his window at a bank. When a man comes up to his window to purchase a stamp, Hector looks horrified. He pulls out a German Luger andshoots the man dead. While he is in police custody they find the statue head, worth millions, at the bottom of his closet. This is when the flashback to WWII start and the story really begins.

I know that this is suppose to be a historic war film, a portrayal of the time, but one thing that did slightly bother me was the language. Not only was the “N” word thrown around a ridiculous amount, but they also threw in a lot of nasty lines and words about women. I understand that some of this is necessary to correctly portray the time, but it was over saturated in the film! It’s one thing to make your point. It’s another to run it into the ground.

Overall the movie could have been cut down by a good 45 minutes to an hour. Parts of it were boring and really dragged on. I really believe that some filmmakers feel in order to have a great film it has to be over two hours! This is not true! If this movie would have been cut down, it would have been ten times better! Stick to the war, fighting, racism, cigarettes and womanizing! The rest was just a lot of unnecessary filler that left me yawning.

The ending was a bit of a disappointment! In theory it was a great idea… but the execution lacked something. It really didn’t match any part of the film.

I think that Spike Lee was on the right track with the story. The whole concept of the movie was inspiring. The characters were well developed, and the story was intriguing. Somehow, it just wasn’t what it could have been, but it was still enjoyable.

[rating:3.5/5]

Travis:

I have to begin by saying, for the record, I really wanted ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ to be good, no†¦ I wanted it to be stellar. I love historical war films, especially when they’re based on actual events. When I found out that a new WWII film was being made and that Spike Lee was taking on the project, I found myself wondering what a treat I must be in for. Spike had started to show a whole new side of his talent with ‘The 25 Hour’ followed by the awesome ‘Inside Man’.

I had heard about some critics reviewing this film badly, but I didn’t want to believe it. Then, I saw for myself just why some critics were not pleased. The story itself is solid. It’s a touching and dramatic story set amidst the chaos and carnage of war. The story is intended to revolve around a young Italian boy who survives the horrific ordeals set about in the film with the help of George Company, 92nd Infantry Battalion; a group of African-American fighters also known as “Buffalo Soldiers†. The company is stranded in a small mountain village of Tuscany, Italy. With the Nazi troupes moving in and surrounding the small village as they hunt down a small band of Italian Partisan guerrilla fighters, the company struggles to hold out for reinforcements.

‘Miracle at St. Anna’ begins with a very intriguing opening, whereas an elderly African-American man named Hector (LazAlonso) working behind the counter of a post office recognizes a man about his same age, a man who turns the expression on his face to a horrific realization, as if he’d come face-to-face with the devil. Almost without hesitation, Hector pulls a WWII German Luger pistol from under the counter and fires two shots into the man’s chest. As the crowded post office clears in a frenzy, Hector calmly closes his window and leaves his post. The mystery of the situation combined with the drama is excellent. This is followed by a great sequence of scenes starring brief performances by John Turturro and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a detective and a reporter trying to piece together what happened and why.

Unfortunately, it’s the long and generally slow-paced middle portion of the film that quickly departs from the dynamic opening. Contrary to the various qualms I have with this film, the starring cast does a decent job. Perhaps one of the biggest complaints I have is that ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ often strays from its original intent and distracts from what makes the film potentially very good. Much of the story itself is overshadowed by dialogue between the soldiers that dwells on the issues of race and sex. I applaud a film that tackles such issues, but the flaw here is that it’s out of place and inappropriately emphasized in a film that’s telling a different story. The failure of this film cuts even deeper when those elements that are deemed bad or evil are done so with such exaggeration that they become parodies of themselves in an otherwise normal reality. This factor in ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ results in a recurring awkwardness that makes taking the film seriously a real challenge.

By far, the most obvious and disastrous example of this phenomenon is whenever the big, bad Nazis return into frame with a scene the heavily ominous over-exaggerated dum-dum-dum instrumental score kicks in with full force, as if to say “here come the bad guys†. I don’t need to be reminded with such blatant intention that the Nazis were evil, especially every single time they appear on screen! At times this felt like I was watching a Mel Brooks film about WWII. It really got to be that ridiculous. Spike makes it very apparent who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy, but does so by taking any resemblance of realism away from the bad guys. One way to visualize this is to imagine an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ where a group of American soldiers are transported from reality and transplanted into a cartoon world of extreme “bad guy† stereotypes that are all out to get them. It simply doesn’t do justice to the story being told, which is supposed to be based on true events.

Other elements that further pulled me out of the story included scenes of unnecessary sexuality that had no purpose and went nowhere, some very pretentious freshmen-level visual elements that do not work as intended, a number of failed attempts at “subtle” comic relief, and a scene with John Leguizamo and his “lover” which has no purpose whatsoever… except, I suppose, as a way to include more of that unnecessary sexuality I mentioned.

Whichever story Spike was trying to tell (because it feels like he had two separate films in mind and couldn’t decide, so he just squished them together), the historical truth involved in this movie probably begins and ends with the fact that a brave group of African-American soldiers did actually fend off several Nazis in a small Italian town in an effort to protect the civilians. The details of this film, however, I feel are purely fictional and often strip more from the film’s success than add to its significance. As I said, I really wanted to love this film but instead found myself trapped for two-and-a-half hours trying to make sense of a movie that had no clearly defined identity.

[rating:2.5/5]

Jeremy:

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, you know there’s been some controversy between directors Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood.   Lee criticized Eastwood’s depiction of World War II in ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ for not representing the black Marines who fought during the war.   Eastwood responded that his film was specifically about the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima, and that none of them were African-American.   It is unclear whether this verbal sparring between the two acted as the catalyst for Lee’s WWII film, ‘Miracle at St. Anna’.   Filming on Lee’s film began in October, 2007, almost a year to the day after ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ was released.

‘Miracle at St Anna’ tells the story of four African-American soldiers, members of the all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldiers” Division, who are trapped behind enemy lines during the Italian Campaign of WWII.   After finding a wandering, Italian boy, they hole up in a small, Tuscan village.   With the Germans breathing down their necks, the four try to protect themselves, the villagers, and the boy.

The film is told in flashback from a bookend story of one of the soldiers, Corporal Hector Negron (Laz Alonso).   In 1983, Negron is an old man, working at a post office.   One day, a customer comes to his window to buy a stamp, Negron sees him, and, without a word, pulls out a German Luger and kills the man.   In Negron’s apartment, the police find the priceless head of a sculpture from the Ponte Santa Trinita bridge in Florence.   Who the man Negron killed, why, and where the sculpted head fits into the story make up the mystery that unfolds.

Because of the controversy between Lee and Eastwood, it is only fair to compare the two films.   Is ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ better than, worse than, or just as good as ‘Flags of Our Fathers’.   I would have to say both films are equal to one another, but that isn’t putting ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ in a good light.   Spike Lee’s film commits the same cinematic sin that Eastwood’s film committed.   Both films are overblown, bloated, and, ultimately, dumbed down stories that could have easily been told in about half the time that is taken.

‘Miracle at St. Anna’ is 160 minutes long.   The first hour of the film is completely scattershot in both idea and execution.   There are scenes that run five to ten minutes longer than they should, all involving people talking about things that really don’t have much to do with the progression of the story.   There are scenes of intensely brutal combat, then there are scenes of humor that are anything but funny.

Most of this is due to the shameless performance by Omar Benson Miller, who plays Private First Class Sam Train.   He’s overweight, he’s not too bright, and he plays the part just as you would expect him to.   Basically, he’s the Baby Huey of the group, and he gets annoying real fast.

And, about those scenes of brutal combat, they don’t work, either.   I hate to say it, but it really feels like Spike Lee read a book on “How to Make a War Drama 101” and lifted every idea off the pages.   Men get bullets shot through their head out of nowhere.   Limbs fly off in bloody explosions, and we get extreme closeups on all the carnage.   It’s overkill in just about every sense of the word, and it does nothing to give emotion to the scene.

The music doesn’t help, either.   Terence Blanchard’s score is bombastic and manipulates itself to fit whatever is going on on screen.   You want scenes of war?   Cue the blaring trumpets.   You want comedy?   Cue the oboe.   You want evil Nazis?   Cue the snare drum.

It takes ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ all of 60 minutes for Lee to finally button down the hatch and focus.   From here on out, there are moments that, in and of themselves, are beautifully shot and constructed.   Unfortunately, Lee doesn’t know how to let these moments speak for themselves.   Everything in ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ has to be spelled out for the audience.   There are times where we are told about something, then we see it, then we get more discussion about what happened.

One particular scene has 2nd Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps, played impeccably by Derek Luke, explaining how he feels more at home among the Italian villagers than he does in his own country.   It’s a wonderful scene.   It’s written well, acted well, shot well, and it gets it point across undeniably.   But Lee isn’t satisfied with that.   Immediately, we have a flashback that serves as a harsh slap across the face about racism and bigotry.   It’s unneeded, and really dumbs down the beauty of the scene preceding it.

‘Miracle at St. Anna’ is really a companion piece to ‘Flags of Our Fathers’.   Eastwood’s film was a bloated look at the way soldiers in WWII were used by those who didn’t fight.   Lee’s film is a bloated look at the way African-American soldiers were treated.   Both films get their point across well before the film is over, and both could have been made much better.   If Spike Lee’s intentions were to make a WWII film just like Eastwood’s, only from the African-American viewpoint, he succeeded.   Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ is worth seeing.

[rating: 2/5]