10.06.08
lee1990 Movie Review: The Miracle of St. Annas
I will freely admit that I am usually no fan of Spike Lee movies. I feel that they exploit and may in fact at times aggravate black racial resentments. That aside, I must say that he has produced one of the best WW2 movies that I can remember seeing.
It will be difficult to review this movie without giving away too much, but I will do my best.
The movie opens with a old black postal worker shooting a man at work with a WW2 German luger pistol seemingly for no reason as soon as he sees the man. As a reporter begins to question the otherwise silent man, all he can barely manage to say without bursting into tears is that he is the last one who “knows where the sleeping man lies”.
The remainder of the movie is a prolonged flashback displaying the attack in Italy in which a Negro unit under the command of a southern white officer (who just radiates “I am white trash”) is butchered after being ordered to attack head on at an entrenched German position. A group of 4 of the soldiers becomes separated and trapped miles behind the German lines. As they proceed looking for shelter, they come across a small, clearly traumatized Italian boy, who although it is not immediately clear, is central to the story.
There is also, interestingly, a flashback within the flashback, showing the black soldiers’ encounter with “Southern hospitality” when they stop at an ice cream shop in Texas near their base. Not only does the owner refuse to serve them, he chases them out of the shop with a pistol. They get served anyway, but I won’t give it away (think angry men with machine guns). In this scene, Spike Lee also shows that not all the white soldiers agreed with the racists; a group of white MP’s transporting German prisoners are so incensed by the owner serving German prisoners but not American soldiers that they angrily take the prisoners away and even threaten to have the shop declared off limits.
The movie has a good mix of characters, only a few of which are stereotyped.
The plot was very well thought out, with an ending that brings everything together in a way that makes you believe in a just God.
My only real objection is that the music for the Nazi’s was a bit over the top; the Nazi’s were an evil that does not need musical enhancement.
8 out of 10
