Review of Miracle at St. Anna (2008) by Tanya L — 08 Aug 2009

I wish I could give this flick a better rating, I truly do. It looked like it held a lot of promise, and the style of the film could've made it epic.

The beautiful backdrop for filming, a handful of good actors, and the beginnings of a pretty good story were lost in its agenda. Being all for delving into the history and the roles of African-Americans during World War II, I was underwhelmed by some of the apparently faulty research done for the film. Although I understand the film was trying to portray the internal conflicts of African American soldiers of the time (and in a few ways, it was pretty successful) as well as external conflicts of race and prejudice, it was hidden by annoying flaws in period costume and styling, odd situations like German soldiers in an ice-cream parlor in 1944 Louisiana, and out-of-place slang. WWII was a different era- the world was a different place than it is today, and people walked, talked, carried themselves in a different way. I didn't feel that the script reflected that very well; it was as if a bunch of today's soldiers were plopped back in time and were trying to find the time machine to come back. This film would've been more believable if that had been added as a plot element.

The mysteries of the "Sleeping Man" and the severed granite head of Primavera were not well developed at all, and they were supposed to be some of the story's more dramatic pivotal points. Although I am a fan of other Spike Lee Joints, I feel that this potentially passionate story would have been better executed in the hands of another director. Sorry, Spike.