War stories in cinema typically follow the hero’s journey, or the journey of a group of soldiers, throughout narratives about loyalty, sacrifice, and the resilience that usually emerges when people are pushed to their limits. Some great examples of this are Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now, as well as The Bridge on the River Kwai. Interwoven in the pyrotechnics associated with flashy explosions usually resides a tale that calls on us, the viewers, to become the best versions of ourselves and heroes of our daily lives.
However, most war films throughout the history of Hollywood depicted only white US soldiers who fought in numerous wars, especially when it comes to narratives set against WWI or WWII. Director, producer, and author Spike Lee has long been critical of this, and his response to this injustice came in the form of 2008’s American-Italian epic war movie called Miracle at St. Anna. This film now stands as one of his most ambitious movies to date.
Lee burst onto the scene with a 1986 black-and-white comedy-drama She’s Gotta Have It, which not only propelled his career but also ushered in the American independent film movement of the 1980s. Its success was a groundbreaking moment for African-American filmmakers and a rather welcome change in the representations of Blacks in American cinema, as it portrayed its characters as intelligent, upscale urbanites instead of the usual stereotypical depictions.
He became known as the in-your-face filmmaker who doesn’t shy about making anyone rethink everything they thought they knew about race, culture, and identity — as he had masterfully done so in 1989’s Do the Right Thing. Oh, and don’t get us started on 1992’s Malcolm X; that movie marched right through the historical sins of our society without even batting an eyelid. Put simply, his work continually explored race relations and various other social and political issues, and his unapologetic storytelling continues to force the audiences to confront some uncomfortable truths.
However, in 2008, he decided to push things a bit further with Miracle at St. Anna. The movie follows the story of four Buffalo Soldiers (U.S. Army regimens composed exclusively of African American soldiers) of the 92nd Infantry Division, who find themselves trapped behind enemy lines in Tuscany, Italy. The soldiers discover an injured Italian boy and hide out in a Tuscan village, where some of the villagers initially see them as their saviors there to deliver them from the horrors of war, while others view them with suspicion, just as they would observe Nazis creeping around the next hill.
Stuck in the village, the soldiers aren’t just trying to outmaneuver Nazis; they’re also trying to navigate the cultural labyrinths and language barriers. This is where Lee does a really good job of asking some big moral questions: How did these soldiers fight an enemy abroad while enduring racial discrimination within their own ranks? How did they fight for a country that often denied them their dignity and basic human rights? But he also goes to show that compassion can sprout even from the blood-soaked soil of conflict.
Not only do they rescue an Italian boy and one of the soldiers grows especially fond of him, becoming the boy’s father figure, but they also interact with the villagers and transcend various barriers. A Nazi officer spares one of the soldiers, Negron, and even gives him his own Luger pistol so that he might defend himself — showing that empathy can flourish even among the devastations of war. However, while the cinematography is elegant and classical, Miracle at St. Anna is trying to do too many things at once.
Not only does it show the horrors of war, but it also juxtaposes them with the human kindness and empathy that occur amidst the carnage while asking all the big and important questions. Sadly, it only manages to ask those questions without providing an adequate answer while still trying to be an inspiring war epic and a wartime love drama at the same time, among other things. It didn’t really sit well with either the audiences or with the critics, though many have agreed that the film’s brightest moments could only have been crafted by Lee and no one else.
In the end, the film suffered from poor screening adaptation of the book it was based upon, as well as Lee’s willingness to adapt the whole thing, including the love triangle, the little boy’s story, and the moral quandaries associated with fighting for a country that doesn’t fight for you. It was, and still remains, a storytelling mess that flopped very hard at the box office, making it one of Spike Lee’s most ambitious movies to date, that would have probably fared better if it was filmed as an HBO miniseries.
But if we scratch the surface and dig a little deeper, beyond all the clutter, Miracle at St. Anna also offers an interesting exploration of the human capacity for both cruelty and compassion and forces us to examine just how history is written: who gets hailed as a hero, and who gets left out of the history books.
Miracle at St. Anna is available to buy or rent on YouTube Movies & TV