In his World War II epic, Spike Lee dramatizes the all-black Buffalo Soldiers' battles at home and abroad, but comes up short.By Kenneth Turan, Times Movie Critic
September 26, 2008
AN IMPORTANT story indifferently told, Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" shows what happens when a film's execution does not measure up to its ideas.
The notion behind "St. Anna" is to create an epic World War II drama celebrating the largely forgotten exploits of African American infantrymen known as Buffalo Soldiers and to explore the complex dynamics of fighting for freedom in what was essentially a segregated Army.
To tell that larger story, however, another more plot-driven tale had to be found, and, as scripted by James McBride from his novel, the result comes up short. Pedestrian and awkward, this film is a disappointment not only in comparison with Lee's earlier epic, the underrated " Malcolm X," but also in comparison with another film with similar aims, Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory."
7 comments:
seems this is the talk of the day
have a gr8 weekend jones
Where else have you seen coverage on this T?
Funny. I'm about to go see that in a bit and do a review for my college paper. I'ma see what I think about it.
Just saw it. Best Film, Best Director. Nuff said.
Submariner said...
Just saw it. Best Film, Best Director. Nuff said.
Yeah?
With Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee comes into his own as a storyteller. Whether it's Clockers or Bamboozled, Lee assumes that black people are human. From the War of Independence to the 2008 Democratic Primary, black Americans have not suffered from a lack of achievement as from a lack of recognition of their achievements. The reviewer makes an unsubstantiated claim of the storyline being "pedestrian and awkward" but falls into the conventional redoubt of a foreign film's portrayal of similar subject matter as superior to the American treatment. (As an aside, is there any foreign film that doesn't win a major award or evoke praise from the critics? I sometimes feel these guys get awed by international cinema the same way that many folks think people with British accents are smart and refined.)
Certainly, the movie has elements of confabulation but so does Saving Private Ryan. It's clear that Turan didn't judge this movie on its own artistic merits but in comparison with what he considers an archetype. He also wants to constrain the movie into the well tread story of racial oppression. Spike, however, is striving for more than that. He is depicting a crew fiercely united to each other and heroic beyond belief. Resistance to white supremacy is only a facet of a complex tale.
It seems that the reviewer would have been more content if Spike did an updated version of A Soldier's Story. An action packed articulate drama with black men armed and dangerous debating the virtues of patriotism seems to elude him.
Saw the movie this evening. Excellent film.
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