Search - Miracle at St Anna [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Good story, Worst possible execution

Alexander M. Walker | Chicago, IL USA | 03/03/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Plainly speaking: I'm not a fan of Miracle at St. Anna. While I believe that Spike Lee's self-described "untold story of courage and brotherhood" deserves to be told - I don't think Spike Lee should have been the one to tell it. He shouldn't have been let anywhere near it. If you trust the dialogue spoken by the characters within, James McBride's source material was racially polarized before Spike got anywhere near it. Allowing Spike Lee to emboss it even further with his own brand just makes the film all the more intolerable to watch - ironic really, considering how forcefully Lee and McBride hammered the film's message of intolerance into our skulls with each and every frame.



Spike Lee still hasn't learned that you don't win support or - as Lee was aiming for - regret by preaching at the audience. But Spike Lee doesn't preach, I'd be lying if I described his approach in such lofty terms as "preaching". Spike Lee condemns. Spike Lee damns. For the two hours and forty minutes of this filmmaking atrocity, if you aren't a black man who served in WWII Spike Lee wants you to feel horrible.



That's a lot of people.



Spike Lee takes the story of the U.S. Army's all-black 92nd Infantry division as they find themselves under siege from the relentless Nazi troops and the incompetence of their own white commanding officers. The story would have been fine had Lee (and McBride) insisted on the overboard abrasive racial conflict which pervades every moment of the film.



The film's plot, as stated by both McBride and Lee in the Extra Features, was to illustrate how these black soldiers, deprived of key human rights at home, went abroad and found the citizens of a foreign country to be more accepting than their own country. On this note, I agree with Lee and McBride as to the importance of such a theme being shown on film. These men were unsung heroes performing a duty under the most incredible circumstances. When a solider can't even rely on his own artillery to provide him with support - where can he turn? In Miracle at St. Anna you turn to a group of people undergoing the same oppressive regime you've lived under for years.



The idea behind the story resonates strongly with audiences of every age and race. The problem with St. Anna wasn't the underlying message. It was Lee's overt message which threatened to drown out all else.



Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, and Omar Benson Miller take the stage alongside more notable actors like John Turturro, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and John Leguizamo who all take backseat in honor of the 92nd Infantry's notable legacy. Of the former four actors mentioned you might have noticed that none of them are really household names. The more film-minded folk in the audience will certainly recognize their faces - but the fact remains that Spike Lee drove the point home even with casting. Message over substance. Derek Luke and Michael Ealy save the film from devolving into an incomprehensible mess void of any real redeeming quality. Providing steady performances and elevating a near-worthless script, Luke and Ealy offered the only beacon of hope throughout the entire film. Whereas Laz Alonso, who we see at the film's beginning and end masked as an older version of himself, gives us nothing but a laughably horrible run for our money.



If I didn't at least value what Lee and McBride were attempting to do for these unsung heroes I'm not sure I could have made it all the way through. The opening scene is just so horribly executed (worthless makeup and acting) that I was tempted to click it off. Slight regret.



Blu-ray Extra Features:



"Deeds Not Words" Featurette



Spike Lee, James McBride and a handful of veterans from WWII (all black, of course) recount their stories of discrimination and hardship during their service. The featurette is easily more interesting than the movie itself despite being only a fraction as long. Even having to endure Lee's prodding questions and McBride's zealous "Spike Lee turned my book into a movie" puppy dog eyes doesn't hurt as much when there're real people with meaningful experiences to be recounted.



"The Buffalo Soldier Experience"



We're treated to a documentary in History Channel form concerning the famous regiment of the army known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Yet again, the extra proves itself more valuable than the feature film it accompanies by giving meaningful testimony from living soldiers. This may be the first DVD or Blu-ray I've watched where the main feature looked worse in comparison to its supplementary materials.



If you like Spike Lee - you already know it and if so you think his suffocating style to be anything but. In which case the film is critic proof to you and you, assuming you read this, disagreed with my negative slant on the director. For the rest, you can sleep sound without ever having watched Miracle at St. Anna there's nothing here worth noting. Sure it has a purpose that we ought respect but the purpose was outdone by Spike Lee's inability to put political outrage aside and film the feature as a solid period piece war epic. Talk about ruining a good concept."

Spike blows his tribute to the Black soldiers of WWII

Dennis W. Wong | 03/01/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Since Spike Lee has slammed renowned director/actor Clint Eastwood for his lack of utilizing Africain Americans in his two war movies--I was curious to see how bad after reading the many reviews on this film was. The verdict? This has to rank as one of Spike's worst movies right up there with "Jungle Fever", "Girl Six", "School Daze", "Mo Better Blues", etc. You would think after he made two successful films like "The 25th Hour" or "Inside Man" but unfortunately he loaded this movie with his racial polemnics, stereotypes, irrevelant subplots--it's like he threw in the whole kitchen sink in this one!! Also the Black soldiers in this are depicted almost without exception as street types rather than the trained battle worn soldiers they truly were--what a disservice. What really surprised me was when the english speaking Italian Renata beds down with the most unsympathetic character in the movie!! Don't get me wrong there is some good acting in this film particularly from Derek Luke who has been in better movies than this like "Spartan" and "Antwone Fisher" and also the Italian actors were excellent too. In fact I found the segments with Italian partisans more involving than the subplots of the infantry--figure that out. What this film needed was a better story and director perhaps John Singleton, Carl Franklin, Bill Duke and even Mr Eastwood himself. I've heard that many of the Italian survivors of the atrocity are angry at Lee and James McBride, the writer of this story for taking liberties to the story. If you want a better film on the contributions of Africain Americans to the war effort, rent "Glory". Oh and by the way, in the early scenes of "Flags of Our Fathers", there are some Black soldiers shown as ambulance and stretcher bearers!!"