WWII has been lionized and mythologized countless times over in cinema be it in realistic Ken Burns-like documentaries or gritty narratives/parables from Jean Renoir. John Wayne or Steven Spielberg, but we’re not sure if WWII has ever stood in place for what’s a essentially a fairy-tale fable.
On paper and in theory, Spike Lee’s “Miracle At St. Anna,” is too many things at once, a brutal WWII film based on a real-life atrocity, a murder mystery, a race-perspective war film and a magical story of unlikely friendships, brotherhood with a little divine intervention thrown in for good measure.
A random murder takes place. An old African American Postal Service attendant suddenly recognizes his Italian customer, brandishes a German Luger and shoots him dead. The act of violence seems pointless and the man, three months away from retirement seems like an unlikely killer. A young reporter (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and a cynical veteran murder detective (John Turturro) ask, ‘why?’ And then we’re transported….
It’s 1944 and a battalion of African Americans (the Buffalo soldiers) are led to the slaughter by their clueless (and predominately Caucasian) lieutenants in Tuscany, Italy. The Germans await in hiding and the black fighters are easy pickings for the krauts (Omar from “The Wire” makes a cameo as a frightened solider that can’t cope, the gorgeous Alexandra Maria Lara plays a Fraulein spotting Nazi propaganda over loudspeakers urging the unloved negro soldiers to abandon their imperialistic and racist white leaders). The squadron is blown to smithereens, but four sharp soldiers, one perhaps blessed by a certain good luck statue he is carrying survive and go across enemy lines unseen (a quartet played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and relative newcomer Omar Benson Miller).
Initially separated, Private First Class Sam Train (Benson Miller) comes across a random Italian nine-year-old boy, Angelo, hiding in a barn. He’s wounded, dazed, traumatized and spouting nonsense about his friend imaginary friend Arturo (wonderful newcomer Matteo Sciabordi). They can’t communicate, but the boy quickly bonds with his “gigante chocolate” friend and won’t leave his side much to the chagrin of the other Buffalo soldiers. A spiritual man, Train soon becomes convinced that the boy has the spirit in him and is also eager to keep the seemingly orphaned child at his side.
The quintet travel to a nearby Italian village to give the feverish boy some aide and after some initial confrontations (some of the Italians have never seen a black person in person; there’s a war happening and men with guns are always to be treated with suspicion) the group slowly befriends their Eyetalian companions, who are at the mercy of German soldiers who loot their town for food and supplies whenever they’re nearby and so inclined.
Meanwhile, the Germans are in the area, trying to sniff out a rogue and renegade group of Italian rebels who have been expertly picking off their men in the area. This elite teams is like the wind, has grown in myth and become a complete thorn in the side of the generals. They must be captured and or killed for pride’s sake at the very least.
The Italians and Americans bond via imbibing and dance, bread is broken and a solidarity is built, but it becomes threatened when the renegades return with a captured German soldier who’s gone AWOL. We’re not sure his worth, but the Kraut generals have put a bounty on his head and recapturing him becomes a priority even larger than the rebels. Meanwhile, the American dunderheaded bosses are looking for some leverage, so they instruct their four soldiers to take the prisoner themselves which adds to the war-time tension. Soon all parties descend on the city in what can only be a explosive showdown. To get into what happens it to reveal too much, but all the threads expertly tether to one another tied by a real-life Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre of innocents that actually happened in Tuscany in 1944.
As mentioned above, there are a lot of disparate tones in the films, there’s a brutal slaughter and the gritty realism of WWII action and bullets, there’s much comic relief from the Chocolate Giant and his little companion, race tension messaging and a bewitching talismanic quality that comes from the intuition and visions of the young Italian child, but Lee seamlessly meshes them all together. It doesn’t hurt that a long (but not exhausting) running time helps develop all the individualistic story lines and character arcs with deep emotional investment.
The films not without a few small problems though. As usual per Lee films, any of the race-issue scenes while probably historically accurate, can’t help but feel forced, pedantic and a little contrived. A few such flashbacks just detract from the already long, 2 1/2 hour-plus film and could have been cut (it’s actually almost 3 hours at 166 minutes). Spike always serves his films best when he keeps these messages to a minimum and those few usually speak for themselves. Terrance Blanchard’s score is also a little overwrought in places and we’re not sure his “heroism” themes were the best choices here, but overall these are minor quibbles.
The perhaps far fetched conclusion and its wondrous fairy tale mien may divide some and test the limits of ones cynicism and or engage their optimism, and though some of it is sentimental, it mostly avoids being too treacly. And honestly there wasn’t much of a dry eye left in the house.
Lee continues the solid winning streak and full stride he found on “Inside Man,” and hopefully audiences will respond to the film. [B+]