Customer Reviews

Miracle at St Anna (Widescreen Edition)

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

I had wanted to like this movie so much. As much as I wanted to like Windtalkers. Both had potential to be really great but were unable to rise above an absolutely juvenile and cheesy script. I am an avid WWII buff and I give alot of license to war movies and don't pick them apart for their accuracy or lack there of but this one not only insults the viewer but the legacy of the 92nd/Buffalo.

The Good : Absolutely beautiful cinematography. If you could mute the sound (dialogue) one might think they were watching a pretty decent WWII era movie. Battle scenes were shot well. Uniforms were pretty dead on accurate and the weapons were accurate although Thompson SMGs and 1911 .45 caliber HGs did not have 100 round clips......

The Bad : Awful and embarrassing dialogue embellished with overacting which made it almost comical. Obligatory nudity. Soldiers using language and phrases that would be used only today. A German louspeaker that blares Axis Sally's propaganda for several square miles over the battlefield and is audible to all. Fragmented story with a total lack of cohesion (like this review). My favorite is the commanding white officer (Nokes?) stating that the Germans were going to cause a race riot by piping in the propaganda. I think that those valiant soldiers were more interested in staying alive and protecting their comrades than starting a race riot in Italy under fire. But then again this shows the mentality of Spike Lee and the writer.

The Ugly : All white officers and soldiers portrayed as bigoted haters. In one instance the commanding officer refuses to believe members of the 92nd crossed the river so does not send supporting artillery strikes. His reasoning for this is "He is lying".
This same commanding officer condescendingly orders a black soldier to get him water. The black soldier spits into the canteen before giving it to white officer. Not only does this lower the mentality of the movie several notches but also slanders the memory of those brave men of the 92nd/Buffalo that fought for their country.

This movie had potential, unfortunately it was executed by someone who was unable to deliver. It is filled with contemporary language, modern topics of discussion, poor acting, and endless preaching about the evils of America. Spike Lee had scolded Clint Eastwood for not having any African Americans in Iwo Jima and had wanted him to rewrite history. Well, Spike has done that with this movie.

As it happens, the US 92nd Infantry Division was a dumping ground for incompetent white officers. The general staff operated on the assumption that these imcompetents would do the least damage, overall, commanding Negro soldiers, who were generally tolerated by the white man's army only at the insistence of the Roosevelt Administration. The high percentage of bad reviews this excellent and historically accurate movie has received has little to do with the movie itself, and everything to do with the persistence of institutional and structural racism in the US, because this movie is, as I say, painstakingly accurate. It is worth noting that the full range of racial attitudes are depicted here among every group. For instance, a second white company commander informs the divisional commander of why these men were isolated on the far side of a river their own company commander insists they didn't cross. White MPs intervene on behalf of the black soldiers who were denied service at a cafe in Mississippi, to no avail. A German officer stops a man under his command from shooting a wounded and unarmed black American. The black soldiers in this movie also represent the full range of men serving in the 92nd; just as white soldiers were not all exemplary, neither was every black man heroic simply because he was black. But this isn't just a war movie, it is also a complex mystery, which also makes it enigmatic to the typical Clint Eastwood/John Wayne fan. If you are a white person considering this movie, you must suspend most of your assumptions first, and accept the accuracy of this movie, even though you do not wish to believe that it is accurate. If you can't do that, you will dismiss it as nonsense.

The bloated, convoluted WWII flick makes no sense whatsoever. Nothing that is happening ever makes sense militarily or tactically, and the plot is silly nonsense.

For none of the above reasons, however, would I bother to review this dreck. What greatly troubles me is how Spike Lee, a black man, depicts the black soldiers in this movie: cowardly, undisciplined, mutinous, hypersexual, superstitious, ignorant, contentious, sloppy, etc. What gives? If a white man had made this movie and drawn the black characters this way, he would be widely derided as a racist, and rightly so. Why in the world would Spike Lee perpetuate these sorts of racist stereoptypes about soldiers of his own race???

This garbage deserves swift oblivion, and Spike Lee needs to do some serious soul-searching.

Spoilers in this review:

This movie just stunk. The whole 'Sleeping Man' and 'Chocolate Giant' thing was corney and stupid. I got tired of the whole Train character in about two seconds. And the Italian woman with the glorious breasts was nice but then they have her say that she is married and then develop some kind of emotional thing with one guy then turn around and have sex with the other guy and then right before she dies she redeems her virtue by looking at the 'good guy' and saying his name as if to say, "it was you that I wanted... but the other guy was just so damned smooth that I couldn't stop myself'. This movie was ridiculous up to the very end when SPOILER ALERT 'Seat Belts' becomes a great revelation.That big stupid 100 pound bowling ball of a statue head that the big stupid idiot carries around for the entire movie was just that SToOpId. And so were other things like the newspaper fling out the window when John Leguizamo (who is in the movie for no other reason)is having his morning coffee and sex to land on just the right guys table at just the right time. This stupid junk was also seen when the mail man just happens to have just that one guy come up to his window and he just happens to have that gun.

The only part I liked was the part of the Italian partisan 'The Butterfly' and I wish they would have done more with him.

This movie was just plain bad. I expect much better from Spike.

This picture was a big dissapointment. There was a great opportunity to tell the struggles and triumphs of members of the Buffalo Soldiers in WWII. He could have told the story of a couple of soldiers as they progress through bootcamp and enter combat. But instead Spike Lee produces a ridiculous, heavy handed, grossly fictional account. The film fails on several levels:

1) All the white officers are vicous racist. The protagonist are sterotypes. There is the obligatory over-sexed African American, the big simple guy, the quite reflective wise one, etc. The Italian peasants seem to be only interested in jumping into bed and showing off their breast. In reality, they were starving and caught in terrible cross fires.
2) The story is absolutely predictable
3) A group of African American soldier pull their weapons on racist civilians in town during boot camp. They would be instantly identified, court marshalled, and put in the slammer.
4) The CO drives in a Jeep to the supposedly encircled hilltop town thick with Germans to curse out the protagonists. Shortly thereafter the Germans blitz through the town.
5) An enlisted character assaults an officer during a combat situation. He would be restrained and quite possibly shot on the spot.

I could go on, but you get my drift. One of the top worst war movies I have seen. It could have been great.

This was a horrible movie. I believe Spike threw this together in attempt to prove a point after blasting Clint Eastwood on Flags of our Fathers.

Spike did the Buffalo soldiers no justice since this movie was more of an agenda of proving all whites are bad and cause wars. How about people in general cause wars, Spike?

In my opinion, "The Tuskegee Airmen" movie, starring Laurence Fishburne, is a much better movie about real people who did real things.

Yep, this movie is well on its way to the 99 cent bargain bin, but even then I wouldn't waste my money on it!

I had read a review of this movie from some well-known critic who raved that it was one of the best movies he'd seen all year. Naturally, of course, I decided to try it out. I am glad, now, that I only rented it from Redbox.

To be honest, I felt that there were a lot of unnecessary characters that jumbled together in one confusing mass. For instance, there is a scene where one officer meets a superior in their headquarters to discuss the battalion. It lasts about 5 minutes and they only discuss things that the viewer already realized. These two men are never revisited. What was the point?

There are also a lot of villagers that get face-time, when really, the movie should be focusing on its main characters. Because of these extra characters, I feel like one never really gets to know about the 4 men in the movie. You never know anything about their past, their thoughts or beliefs, what drew them into enlisting, etc. I didn't understand why those 4 men were basically hanging out in that village and, astonishingly, going to parties and just walking around like they owned the place.

Another thing that annoyed me was the need to show nudity in the film. Spoiler Alert: there is no overly explicit sex scene, rather the Italian female just takes off her shirt while she's doing laundry and lets one of the guys look at her. I mean, who DOESN'T strip while their doing laundry?? Another opportunity was showing a dead woman's breast who had a baby. The camera zoomed in on it as if saying, "Look! Look! Boob!" There also seemed to be something of a love-triangle going on between her and 2 of the guys, but it was never realized. It just confused me even more from the plot.

The camera angles were strange and distracting, cutting from one person to the next as a variety of people are praying. It didn't draw me into the film, it just made me realize more fully where I was.

Finally, the thing that totally confused me was the ending. Another spoiler alert: a German officer just gives his gun to one of the severely wounded men. What?? It's nice that there was a spark of humanity in war, but you have no idea who this German officer is and why he would give this man a GUN, never mind taking him prisoner or something. Was that the miracle??? I don't know. I never figured out what the miracle was. And why did that guy get a Purple Heart? What did he do except survive?

After writing all this down I've just realized that I want to change this rating from a 2-star to a 1-star. I'm never watching this again, I can tell you that. If you're curious, go rent it - but I recommend Redbox. It truly is unfortunate. I loved the overall premise of the movie - to focus on men who fought just as hard and bravely, but are forgotten not only on film, but when we learn about WWII in school. Unfortunately, this movie will be forgotten.

The tag line above states, "Every major American filmmaker has a war movie inside them. After the twin triumphs of When the Levees Broke and Inside Man, his biggest box office hit, Spike Lee puts his distinctive stamp on World War II."

Well, Spike Lee put a "distinctive" stamp on World War II alright, with poor acting and a terrible script. This has got to be one of the worst movies ever made and the saddest part in this is that the expectations were so high. I'm not sure what the studios were thinking with this film, but obviously Spike Lee has earned enough clout to get away with garbage like this. When a Buffalo Soldier is quoted as saying, "Yo baby, I'll keep you warm tonight!" while making overt sexual gestures, you've got to question Mr. Lee's take on history. If you want to see a good war movie, get something a bit older or, if you are looking for something new, Valkyrie didn't do a half-bad job. As for Miracle at St. Anna, it's a miracle this movie was made at all. If this is a "must-have", then at least wait until it arrives on the discount bins for it's definately painful to watch this knowing you've dropped a $20 on it.

Positives:
(1.) ???
Negatives:
(1.) Disjointed storytelling with poorly constructed flashbacks (everyone's currently popular cinematographic technique to showoff cleverness).
(2.) Stereotypic characterizations with sophomoric scripting.
(3.) Cheaply constructed military & war effects e.g. military uniforms that look as if they were cleanly pulled out of museum storage each day; cigarettes & munitions that last forever despite long term isolation from supply support.
(4.) Worst of all was that the important story of black WWII infantry was turned into preachy propaganda & simplistic absolutes that do not permit the audience to be thoughtfully educated but instead to be insulted as if they were moronic simpletons.

If I could give this movie a "0", I would! I would have thought that Spike would have matured and grown as a director but he still sucks as a director. This movie is an utter mess. Bad writing, matched with bad acting, bad music that did not match the scenes and actions - made this move a waste of my valuable time. I felt like I was watching his movie - "She's Got To Have It" again. The actors spoke (lines and phrases) as if they were in THIS time period, not in this war time. The Germans did speak German very well but I believe the force and brutness of the delivery was not there. So many things about this movie is not accurate and just distrubed my movie watching experience. I believe this movie was directed by an amateur. Spike Lee couldn't direct himself out of the bathroom, let alone out of this movie. If you rent it for $1, you would have paid to much. Save your time and your money!