Show all (5)"Miracle at St. Anna" chronicles the story of four African-American soldiers who are members of the U.S. Army as part of the all-Black 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.
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Spike Lee has had his ups and downs, but he has never been an ineffective filmmaker before.
But now we have "Miracle at St. Anna," the first time Lee has made a movie that is certifiably dull and poorly made.
It appears that he was trying to make an epic, a large-scale picture encompassing race relations in America, war overseas, humanity, evil and religion. But everything he does to make the picture bigger winds up hurting it, from the slow camera moves to useless flashbacks and the addition of unnecessary scenes and characters.
Lee has been excellent of late, with "Inside Man" and "25th Hour," but it is as if he has suddenly forgotten everything he knew about making movies. "Miracle at St. Anna" is overacted and overdirected.
Based on a book by James McBride (who also wrote the screenplay), the movie begins with a cold-blooded murder. An investigation of the killer's apartment by cops and a reporter -- one of many utterly pointless characters -- yields the head of a statue, which in turn yields (Full review)