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Miracle at St. Anna
Starring Derek Luke, John Turturro
Directed by Spike Lee
The critical
reaction to director Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna has been
overwhelmingly negative – poised as a major Oscar contender and swamped with
massive expectations, the project was almost destined to disappoint when it
premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, mostly due to
over-hype.
The film first
gained notoriety when Lee openly criticized director Clint Eastwood for not
featuring any African-American soldiers in his World War II dramas Flags of
Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Based on the novel by James
McBride, Miracle at St. Anna depicts the struggle of four
African-American soldiers in Fascist Italy during World War II – a perfect story
for Lee, who clearly wants to pay tribute to unacknowledged heroes from The
Greatest Generation. But the Lee-Eastwood controversy has taken on a life of
it’s own, publicizing the film in a somewhat negative light.
But I’m not
here to argue for Eastwood or Lee (tough to choose a side between two
extraordinary filmmakers in a war of words) – I’m here to talk about the film.
Miracle at St. Anna is a masterful project from Spike Lee; certainly not
a perfect film – as many critics have noted, many scenes are extraneous and
overlong – but far better than any newspaper review would have you believe.
There are sections of the film that are astounding, featuring some of the best
directing Lee has ever done – and then there are other scenes that feel less
genuine. But I’d rather see a flawed near-masterpiece from the finest
African-American film director than a mindless thriller for attention-deficit
audiences starring Shia LaBeouf (yes, I’m picking on Eagle Eye – who
actually pays to see this garbage?)
The film opens
in the 1980s, when WWII veteran Corporal Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) shoots and
kills a man in the post office in which he works. Flashbacks revealing the
purpose of the murder unfold in 1944, where Negron and three other soldiers of
the 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division – played effectively by Derek Luke,
Michael Ealy, and Omar Benson Miller – are stranded in Tuscany with an Italian
family and a young Italian boy who seems prophetic in his observations. To
reveal any more would ruin Lee’s storytelling (which drastically improves after
the first somewhat meandering hour) into a visceral and powerful war movie about
race, miracles, heartbreak, and faith.
In an age
where most studio movies are disposable and readily manufactured for
small-screen viewing on an i-Pod, we are lucky to have auteur directors who
offer brilliant, unfiltered commentaries on the human landscape. We should be
grateful to have Oliver Stone’s W., Gus Van Sant’s Milk, and David
Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ahead of us in the fall
film line-up – having already toasted with the rich eccentricities of The Coen
Brothers and their superb Burn After Reading. Spike Lee is among the
greatest of the living auteurs (Lee, Stone, and the Coens all studied filmmaking
at New York University – not a coincidence, if you ask me), and his style, while
sometimes uncompromising, is visionary. From Do the Right Thing to
Malcolm X to 25th Hour, Lee has always directed films that
demand to be seen. Despite what you may have heard, Miracle at St. Anna
is no different.
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