UNSUNG HEROES

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Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna depicts the exploits of four Buffalo Soldiers in Italy during World War II/ By R.M. Crossin

At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee criticized fellow director Clint Eastwood for not featuring any black soldiers in his recent World War II film – Flags of Our Fathers. However, instead of being content to sit on the sidelines, Lee was already in the process of backing up his criticism with action by delivering his own political and artistic statement of intent to theaters. Miracle at St. Anna is Lee’s attempt to rectify the overlooked contributions of African-American soldiers during World War II. Lee co-produced and directed the film, based on the 2003 novel by James McBride, who also wrote the screenplay. The novel is inspired by the exploits of the 92nd infantry division of Buffalo Soldiers in Tuscany, Italy as they advance on the Germans and, in particular, on four soldiers who find themselves behind enemy lines after a bloody battle. In particular, Lee examines what motivates these soldiers to put their lives on the line for a country in which they are treated as second-class citizens at best.

Second Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), Sergeant Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), Corporal Hector Negron (Laz Alonso), and Private First Class Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller) survive a horrific battle that makes it clear that they are considered little more than cannon fodder by their racist commanding officer who directs artillery fire on their position. Before they can regroup in the small Italian village of Colognora, they rescue an abandoned and injured Italian boy named Angelo (Matteo Sciabordi). Luke stands out the most among the five principal actors – his Stamps exudes honor and quietly leads his men by example. Ealy’s Cummings is a polar opposite of Stamps – cynical, streetwise, and quick-tempered. One of the central conflicts of the film is between these two men as they attempt, sometimes with words and sometimes with fists, to assert their dominance over the other. Stamps, while acknowledging the inequalities he faces at home, believes that fighting in the war will help bring about a better future for his children. Cummings, however, is constantly questioning why he is fighting in a “white man’s war”. A beautiful and resourceful Italian villager, Renata (Valentina Cervi) is also a point of contention between the two men. Another major focus of this film is the relationship between Angelo and his rescuer Train (named “the chocolate giant” by the boy for his enormous size and skin color). Train is a gentle, slow-witted, and brave Southerner who carries around a large marble statue head he believes makes him invulnerable. He senses something special about Angelo and is fiercely protective of him despite his difficulty communicating with the Italian-speaking child.

Some intriguing ideas are explored in Miracle at St. Anna. For starters, Lee examines the irony that these soldiers feel more at home and accepted in the foreign village than in their own country. Although some of the characters border on stereotypes, Lee shows that each army has its honorable and morally corrupt soldiers and that all the characters are praying to the same god. Unfortunately, a number of factors bring Lee’s epic aspirations crashing down to earth. The relationship between Train and Angelo, which should be the heart of the film, fails to connect emotionally. The magical realism surrounding their relationship (does Angelo have special powers?) stretches the limits of believability and feels out of place in the middle of a war movie. The momentum slows to a crawl when the soldiers arrive in the village because they have nothing to do but hide out – this might work if the dialogue was not so weak and the actors had better material to work with. Lee tries to include too many subplots, including battles between Italian partisans and German soldiers, and a murder-mystery from 1983 that acts a framing device for the World War II portion of the film, which is actually told in flashback. Eventually, Miracle at St. Anna collapses under the weight of it all – including the attempt to make a historically significant film. At 160 minutes, the film may have benefited from a shorter running time and the scenes taking place in 1983 could have been edited out entirely. The film’s ending, which attempts to wrap up all the loose ends, is contrived, unconvincing, and feels like it belongs in an entirely different film.

Ultimately, Miracle at St. Anna is a flawed but passionate tribute to the sacrifices made by men of color who served their country with honor. Kudos to Lee for at least having the guts and ambition to take a risk and try something so epic with a social conscience. We know he can make engrossing epic films - he scored with 1992’s Malcolm X. Perhaps he would have been more effective tackling this subject matter if the source material was better.

Miracle at St. Anna is currently playing in theaters.