By Amir Said
The most telling thing about war is its ability to pluck out the realities of a normal everyday life and replace them with the travesties and ironic opportunities of war-time normality. But American war movies, which tend to be very formulaic in narrative structure and cinematography, never accurately demonstrate this juxtaposition of the parallel normality that war creates. However, Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee's most ambitious film to date, does just that.
The movie centers around the mission of four soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Divison--the Buffalo Soldiers Divison, a segregated unit of all blacks who were the only black American infantry division to see combat in Europe during WWII. After their improbable cross of a German fortified river in Tuscany (Italy), "Stamps" (Derek Luke), "Bishop" (Michael Ealy), "Train" (Omar Benson Miller), and "Hector" (Laz Alonzo), are ordered by "Captain Nokes" (Walton Goggins) to locate and capture a German soldier. That "Nokes" (their commanding officer) is a white man, who's bent more on maintaining the segregation status quo of 1940s America than he is on effectively leading his men successfully at war, is not lost on the quartet. Thus the men must go on and conduct their mission, while dealing with the surreal understanding that segregation reigns even outside of America.
The story picks up, when one of the four Buffalo Soldiers discovers a young Italian boy. Having received their orders, the quartet makes their way into an Italian village with the young boy in tow. It is in the village where Spike Lee diliberetly and masterfully takes his time in unraveling each piece and morsel of the story. In fact, this is one of Spike Lee's greatest talents. His ability to suspend the time of a story and hold it up so that its most subtle nuances share frames with its most illuminating ones. But for Lee, the things that illuminate are not always the most obvious. And it is here, where Lee takes his biggest risk.
At the backdrop of 'Miracle' is the chilling, non-fictional event that occurred at Sant'Anna di Stazzema in 1944. It is unclear to me how close Spike Lee stayed to the original James Mcbride script, but there is no doubt that it was Lee's decision when and how a bevvy of pivotal Italian and German characters were introduced. With such an injection of new story data, Lee could have easily pushed the four Buffalo Soldiers and their story straight to the margins of the picture. However, the gamble pays off for Lee. Through several ingenious story blends and overlaps, he seamessly infuses the Italian and German perspectives and side-stories into harmony with the four black heroes and their plight, thereby keeping the Buffalo Soldiers penned down at the center of the plot. Pure genius!
There's the lovely and unapologetic "Renatta", the english-speaking daughter of one of the elders of the Italian village where the Buffalo Soldiers entrench themselves. There's "Peppi 'The Great Butterfly'," the hero Partisan soldier and apparent leader of the Italian resistance. And there's "Rodolfo" (Sergio Albelli), "Peppi's" shady-looking comrade. Lee savors the complexities of each of these characters, and in doing so, draws us even deeper into the uncertainty that each character is trying to cope with. For it is not the battles that make war movies interesting. It is the challenges of humanity within the conditions and parameters of war that makes war worth documenting on film. Spike Lee gets this, and that is how he's able to repeatedly sketch in strokes of brilliance.
One such stroke of Spike Lee-brilliance comes via the way he chooses to unload the dialogue. Throughout the movie, major verbal passages are given the acute awareness of a foreign indy rather than the sweeping English brush over that is common among big war movie send-ups. In 'Miracle', Lee opts to deliver the three main points of view--American, Italian, and German--in their native languages, with sub-titles applied accordingly. By deliberately presenting substantial dialogue (not one-liners or short transitional passages) in Italian and German, Spike Lee loosens up the narrative, instead of sticking to the typical (restrictive) Hollywood-style narration.
Hence, in Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee bucks many of the American war movie formulai and traditions; no tradition being foregone more notably than that of the plight of white hero-protagonists. Frankly, most American war movies have been a "white affair". Though some have indeed included black soldiers, their inclusion was nothing more than prop placement in the least and stereotypical marginalization at best. A marginalization, I must add, that seeks to portray black characters simply as caricatures (often exaggerated) rather than multidimensional human beings. But Lee doesn't dwell on the racial component, (as many film critics will undoubtedly purport that he does). Instead, he uses characters like "Captain Nokes" on several occasions throughout the movie not to raise attention to American segregation, but to drive home the fact that America's special brand of Jim Crow-style segregation (and racism) was so perverse, so deeply embedded that it didn't even subside during a time of war. A fact that the black soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Divison had to come to grips with in their own way. But alas, the "miracles" that occur in Miracle of at St. Anna have nothing to do with race; and the film itself is certainly not a "race movie." Though again, I suspect that many American film critics and movie-goers will trip over their words, while exclaiming that it is...
Though Mircale at St. Anna is a welcomed break from the sort of black tokenism that has permeated practically all other American war movies of the last half century, it is more than just a fresh look at the combat contributions of black American soldiers in Europe during WWII. It is a magnificent documentation of humanity at its most vulnerable, wicked, and honorable points. It is also a wonderful example of top-form storytelling. Through stunningly pleasing color, lighting, and photography strategies, and a unique supernatural slant, Spike Lee delivers a masterpiece. But I suspect many critics and some regular moviegoers will neither get, nor appreciate the supernatural component of the movie. Which reminds me. There's a scene at the end of Spike Lee's He Got Game, where Jake, the imprisoned father of high school basketball star Jesus, throws a basketball over a high prison wall. Jesus, who's on the basketball court of the college he's chosen to attend in an effort to help his father, looks up and spots a tattered prison basketball falling seemingly out of nowhere. The ball floats in slow motion, before resuming normal speed when Jesus retrieves it. Holding the ball, Jesus looks up at the raptors, signaling that he knows where the ball has come from. Just as I'm sure this supernatural moment went over the heads of some critics and moviegoers alike, I am certain that many of the incredibly beautiful moments and nuances of Miracle at St. Ana will do the same. But for devoted fans of superb storytelling and epic cinematography, Miracle at St. Ana is a very rewarding treat.
Miracle at St. Anna
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