Miracle at St. Anna (2008)

This movie gave me the distinct preconception that it was about a miracle somehow involving an Italian orphan boy, a decapitated architectural head, and the escape of a group of American "Buffalo soldiers" surrounded by Germans during WWII. What the movie turned out to be, however, was a powerful if extended and often muddy exploration of wartime violence, suffering and injustice, racial prejudice, hope, and sacrifice -- with a whimper of a so-called miracle at the end. Miracle of St. Anna not only felt like a mix of several movie plots in one but also a mashup of scenes from probably every movie Spike Lee has ever seen. (No kidding, I could name several dozen movie scenes that felt strongly reminiscent if not lifted from other directors' offerings: Millions, Glory, Platoon, Blackhawk Down, Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, 300, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Life Is Wonderful, A Time to Kill, and so on.) The wartime story is powerful with often graphic carnage of Buffalo soldiers pinned down for the slaughter and of innocent civilians slaughtered like bowling pins. (One of the most reprehensible scenes of Nazi carnage is the assassination of a parish priest followed by the massacre of an entire town in the church square, with blood splattering across the bullet holes being pockmarked in the church walls.) America's black soldiers are an experimental regiment, considered "equal enough" to fight -- just not alongside white soldiers. Their courage in an exceptional situation is exemplary -- this is a Spike Lee movie after all -- though racial turmoil is too simplistic of a scapegoat. The Italian boy is a salvific figure of innocence and his relationship with his "chocolate giant" is sweet and memorable. However, the stone head seems to be superstition only and I wish more than lip service could have been paid to the theme of a miraculous escape through the mountains of Tuscany. You don't want to know how many are left alive by the end (in the "then" or in the "now"). I will just say I loved the ending! 4 stars. (3-11-09)