It takes a lot to get me to go to the movies. I can't deal with the low sophistication level of most audiences in NY. I can't, I can't, I can't. However, I had to go see this film because of the buzz and because it's a "Spike Lee joint." Miracle at St. Anna is Spike's new WWII film that opened last week. It's a series of flashbacks and clues surrounding the film's namesake as related to four heroes in the Buffalo soldier regimen traversing the Italian countryside and fighting the Germans in Tuscany in WWII.I read lots of critics' reviews and viewers' reactions both before and after I saw it for myself. With a film like this, those commentaries have a wide range from disappointing and useless to brilliant and a masterpiece. I've always appreciated Spike's attempts at capturing the "Black story," from School Daze and Do The Right Thing to Mo' Better Blues and Clockers. I'm well-versed on 18 of his 25 or so films. So that speaks to the credibility of this review of Miracle. I remember leaving the theater after watching He Got Game extremely angry. Very very angry. Spike always puts it right out there for you to confront it, take it in and deal with it. He tells stories the way he wants to with no apologies. Although he didn't write this one (it was written by The Color of Water author James McBride), his stamp is definitely there.
Right up front, let me say that the film exceeded my expectations. Suffice it to say I found it to be very good, if not excellent. The casting, acting, original score by Terence Blachard, production design and cinematography are top notch. The young Italian dude who plays Angelo is absolutely amazing. I can't believe he was picked at an open casting call and had no prior acting experience. The relationship depicted between Train (one of the heroes) and the urchin Angelo, whom the latter humorously refers to the former as "the Chocolate Giant" is noteworthy and touching, simply due to the way their beginning and end pans out. The lead hero, whose story (surprisingly and violently) kick starts the film when it opens in Harlem in 1983 shines in the final battle scenes in a Tuscan village where the soldiers have taken refuge, a la Anne Frank. There's lots of comic relief amidst the blood and gore of war, running alongside and intertwined with the inevitable vignette or two of racial inequality and discrimination that Black soldiers faced in the US military. The heroes represent different facets of African and Latino Americans, which when infused with this story, all makes sense. This is most prominently showcased by the quasi-rivalry between Stamps and Cummings, the other two heroes. I think most critics missed this because it's not their story to tell. They didn't know what to look for or couldn't have been moved in the way that Spike probably intended.
Some of the imagery is graphic but that's what you'd expect from a war film. There are moments when you might have to look away from the screen, for example, during the scene where the film gets its name. At the end, I was not angry and I "got it." There were several miracles that occurred. The climactic 'Sleeping Man' scene is breathtaking. The two hours and thirty minutes don't fly by, but the story flows. I think some people might be turned off by the fact that this is a story within a story within a story. I sometimes wondered what was going on with the story lines with mini-cliffhangers as new stories emerged, but the answers all came at the end. All in all, I highly recommend this film.
