Review of Miracle at St. Anna (2008) by Chads. — 28 Sep 2008

While set during the Korean War, Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" and the long-running television series that starred Alan Alda and Jamie Farr, was actually an allegory for the ongoing conflict in Vietnam(the CBS sitcom debuted in 1972, three years prior to our full withdrawal from the Asian continent).

Since the filmmaker seconds Chuck D.'s notion to "...mother****...John Wayne"(Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" from Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"), when Aubrey Stamps(Derek Luke) denigrates the Hollywood legend by appropriating his patented term of endearment, "pilgrim", in an ironical context that emphasizes how African-Americans were Indians, and not Pilgrims, at the Duke's table.

Lest not we forget, Wayne directed "The Green Berets", the controversial Vietnam film that nearly eradicated any trace of black soldier involvement, which ran contrary to the real war, where African-Americans were mobilized into combat at a clip that was disproportionate to their actual population in the armed forces(20% to 8% according to the historical record).

"The Longest Day"(also starring John Wayne) comments on "The Green Berets", therefore making the racism that Aubrey and his mates faced, a fluid thing that wasn't exclusive to WWII.

In "Do the Right Thing", Mookie throws a garbage can into Sal's Pizzeria for his people. Aubrey does the right thing in "The Miracle at St. Anna" when he shoots the man responsible for the bloodbath that went down in a small Tuscany village, forty years prior.

Judging from his sneering remarks about Wayne, it's not hard to image Aubrey as a separatist, a man harboring a grudge against the people who persisted on treating him and his people as inferiors on the wrong side of the hegemony, in spite of the uniform, and their willingness to lay down their lives.

The bullet he fires in the post office was for his kind and his kind alone, Mookie's kind. It's not until the final scene is his revenge killing transformed into an all-encompassing act for both the Indians and the Pilgrims alike.

Aubrey's vigilantism, in this new light, honors the memory of his friend Sam(Omar Benson Miller), who did the right thing, when being colorblind made you a saint.