Spike Lee is one of the best directors of our or any generation. His socially conscious yet fully realized films have produced some of the most iconic images of the past twenty years. Yet I've always found certain aspects of his work to be less than fulfilling. I've taken most of my pleasure in the films that weren't clearly tailored to mainstream audiences. My favorite films of his are School Daze, Do the Right Thing, and 25th Hour. Lee's last two films, Inside Man and Miracle at St. Anna, are clearly grabs at a larger audience, and to some degree I found them both wanting.
Miracle is the story of a group of soldiers from an all-black infantry division in WWII. The film is framed around the story of Hector Negron, a cashier at a post office. Hector, on just another average day, out of nowhere kills one of his customers in cold blood. The two clearly recognized eachother. The police check Hector's house and find the head of a centuries old statue hidden in his closet. Taking us back to the war, we see Hector as his division is being ripped to shreds not only by a German contingent firing down on them, but also by their commander who disbelieves the positioning given by the black soldiers. He rains down additional fire right down upon them, killing all except four, Hector included. The four soldiers, led by Staff Sergeant Stamps make their way to a tiny Tuscan village, where some treat them as guests. Others treat them less hospitably.
I like what Spike Lee was going for here. It appears that he was attempting to make a more conventional war story that puts African-Americans in the rarely seen position of hero. This point is highlighted by the first words out of Hector Negron's mouth as he's watching John Wayne's "The Longest Day", "We were there too!" My problem is that Spike seems to have let his message get in the way of the story. There's simply too much going on here to create an effective narrative. In the process, there's no room for creating well rounded characters and we are left with stock characterizations of past war movies.
Amongst the surplus of storylines are bits that could have made effective films by themselves. The token powerhouse of the squad, Sam Train, saves and befriends an Italian boy. Train initially is the one carrying the statue head, and I guess at the secret is exactly when and how Negron ends up with it years later. But no, we also have the feuding between Sgt. Stamps and token team lothario, Bishop Cummings. Stamps seems to feel that Cummings is presenting a bad example of African-Americans. Cummings doesn't really seem to care for whatever reason. We also got the mystery of The Butterfly, a Partisan who has been wreaking havok on the German army. And finally, we've got the mystery of St. Anna. Why were the people massacred there?
With so much going on it's no wonder the film clocks in at a healthy 2 hours and 40 minutes. Strangely enough, even with so much time I never felt like anything was really being accomplished. The squadmates always seem to be paired up together just long enough to have a brief discussion on the subject of the moment in a completely artificial way just so that their relative differences can be brought to light. None of it feels natural. One of Spike Lee's greatest assets is his ability to put real life on screen; to coax real emotion out of his actors. None of that is on display here.
What's worse is that the central plot element of the film is totally thrown by the wayside. We never really get any clue WHY they were carrying around this centuries old statue. I thought that was the point? It had to have been more than just why Hector has it because that question answers itself fairly early on. And it seems as if the final ten minutes of this film were tacked on by somebody clearly less skilled than Lee himself. Maybe an intern or something. The reporter scenes with Joseph Gordon-Leavitt are an afterthought. The resolution is so hokey and hackneyed that I'm convinced some empty suit demanded this shoehorned happy ending. The mental gymnastics required to accept it would earn you a gold medal.
Lost in my venom towards this film are a couple of genuinely good performances by Derek Luke and Michael Easley. Luke continues to show his dependability in playing the strong, quite, charismatic leader-type. Easley, in a much more showey role, plays the womanizer just right. He's the type you love to hate but root for anyway.
My hope is that this film will spark a return to the controversial, confrontative Spike Lee films of old. I appreciate the attempt to put a little of his usual stamp onto more traditional genres, but that is clearly not his stock 'n trade.
5/10
