Review of Miracle at St. Anna (2008) by Joseph S — 03 Mar 2009

An old black man watches a John Wayne movie about WW2, and mutters, "We fought too, Pilgrim.", the next day at work, giving tickets at bus station, he promptly shoots a man dead with an antique gun. A journalist goes to interview him and ask him why he had an Italian statue of a head worth millions of dollars sitting in his closet.

Then we flashback, to the old mans service as one of the Buffalo Soldiers, the black division of combat troops in the war. Its the end of the WW2, in Italy, and the Nazi's are running out of important things like ammo and food. The Nazi's themselves are tired, starving, and more interested in going home, than defending the master race. A squad is trying to cross the river, as "Axis Sally" is bieng piped in on loudspeaker by the Germans. She asks them why they are fighting for a country that wont give them equal rights, that spits and shits on them, she promises them if they cross to the German side, they will be allowed to live free, even adds "fried chicken like momma used to make" and "German girls who love a man in uniform".

The squad begins a firefight, but when they call for back up, their white captain, orders the area to be shelled, he doesnt beleive Black soldiers could have advanced that far, though thats exactly what their orders were to do.

In this Catch 22, four soldiers, end up behind enemy lines, with a shell shocked Italian Boy, who talks to his dead brother. The soldiers, are a bit cliche, theres the cocky sex hound, the dumb giant with a heart of gold who carries around the statues head because he beleives it makes him invincible(called "my chocolate giant" by the little boy, its actually more endearing than it sounds), the middle of the road commander dealing with accusations of being an Uncle Tom, and our Dominocan protagnist Hector, who speaks Italian, but is otherwise lacking in formal personality, he breaks up fights between the captain and the hothead, and seems the most focused of the four.

They make their way to an Italian village, where they are told they have to capture a Nazi for recon, the Italian resistance is in the area, have caught such a soldier, who the ever bored Nazi commanders are ordered to find. Theres more than that, a legend about a "sleeping man" in the mountain, a romance kinda sorta, culture clash, etc. And on a high note, the treatment of the Nazi's is more sympathetic than Ive seen, maybe ever, and the Italian Resistance, less glowering than you would expect.

It aims for epic, and at times is. But its fair to say, Spike Lee's hands can get so heavy you think he's going to be sucked into the planets core by the earths gravity. But as long as Tyler Perry makes 40 million a movie, I'm willing to ignore some flaws and mis-steps. Lee is telling stories, that wouldnt be told otherwise, at all, and for the most part he does a decent job. In this he's the lesser of two evils, the devil we know.

The framing tale was too much though, and it ends with one of those walking across the beach to each others arms moments, that ought to be banned from moviedom all together. Its worth watching more for its subject matter than anything else, Lee delivers an odd but unique history lesson.

The most emblematic scene is a flashback when the soldiers, are trying to get some shakes, back in the states, and find German pow's being served in the dinning room with the regulars, while their asked to go round back. The owner pulls a gun on them after they question him about it, and they leave. A few moments later, after the pow's leave, they come back, and hold up the place at gunpoint, demanding their milk shakes to-go.

Its a sprawling mess, thats sad, amusing, wtf, and on one scene where the giant(now Im calling him the giant) is shown next to the mountain, is kind of awesome. Their sacrifice, is a bit more effecting, because they werent going to become heroes, for anything they did, and they werent doing it for a place that loved them, a bit like the X-Men, in that regard, protecting a world that spites them.

A unique perspective on the WW2 movie, but one that suffers from a kitchen sink script, some questionable to bad, acting choices, and a just a plain lousey ending. Still worth seeing though. At least, the Italians speak Italian, and the Germans speak German, take that "Valkrie"!