The Problem with Spike Lee's Movie "Miracle at St. Anna"

I could hear it now. "What? 'Miracle at St. Anna' isn't worse than 'She Hate Me.'" Um, yes it is. The reason why is simple. Spike Lee wasn't trying as hard with "She Hate Me." It never felt as if he had something to prove. In his 2008 war film, he tried and tried, but in the end, it all went nowhere.

Spike Lee quarrels with Clint Eastwood about not including black soldiers in both of his World War II (WWII) themed films-Flags of Our Father and Letters From Iwo Jima. "Miracle at St. Anna" was supposed to be his answer to such issues. What baffles me is why would he work so hard in making the black soldiers look so ridiculous in his zeal to show blacks fought in World War II as well? From Spike's absurd vision, black soldiers couldn't follow orders; they were always fighting amongst each other and unfocused, lusted after the European locals. Whatever happened to the brotherhood of soldiers, watching each other's backs and working at preventing your brother from ending up dead? Miracle's soldiers were buffoons, jealous and fighting like little children. I'm surprised they made it that far in the war without getting killed. If that's how black soldiers behaved in WWII, it would be almost better not to show them, save Black-Americans from embarrassment.

The most important quality a film can have for me is characters I can empathize with. Not sympathize, empathize. Despite their flaws, do I care or can I connect to them, at least one? One of the major differences between this war film and say, "Saving Private Ryan," besides the battle scenes, has to be the connection between the characters and the audience. I couldn't care less about any of the main characters in MASA. In fact, I didn't like any of them. I found myself wishing for the Germans to come and kill them all, smash cut to the closing of the post office shooting case then end credits immediately after. I basically wanted the Germans to end the film as soon as possible, saving me from the excruciating pain of watching this steaming pile any further.

In the hands of a more talented director, this film would have humanized the Germans and the Italians just a little more. Unfortunately, Spike thought it would be worth our while seeing these mentally challenged caricatures running around on the screen. The Germans were over-the-top mean, just like the White-American chief officers in the U.S. Army commanding the Buffalo Soldiers. They all seem to be vying for the "Stupidest person ever award"-Italian villagers who would rather run outside in the midst of gunfire instead of stay in their homes, hide in a closet and be quiet. The black soldiers return armed and dangerous to the diner where they were asked to leave by stereotypical racist diner owner, basically holding him up for ice scoops.

I didn't like the many story lines either. It took the film in directions it didn't need to go. I see how they all were relevant to the mystery of the stone head and the post office shooting or whatever, but it didn't matter because the story was nonexistent. Story starts with a through-line for me and this film didn't have one. It was easy to follow. However, if Spike could have cut a few story lines out, maybe cramming them down to montages or something, and shave a few of them down, it would've been a shorter, much more tolerable film.

The performances were stiff and flat. However, I wouldn't completely blame the actors for this. They were working with one-dimensional characters. In fact, from what I heard, the main actors weren't inspired by the material.

I also had a major problem with the dialogue. If the characters weren't saying anything absurd and ignorant, most of the time running their mouths about nothing, then they were preaching. In fact, I would dare to say that Spike Lee's writing preached more in this film than any other of his past films.

Also, Spike Lee lost his sense of humor and it's evident in his work these days. All attempts to be funny failed miserably. I was so annoyed. He needs to lighten up.

As for the technical aspects, well, I should start with the editing. The film should have been cut down. The battle scenes looked like they were shot by some amateur, film school student. Wasn't it Roger Ebert, long time world famous film critic, who likened this film's battle scenes to that of "Saving Private Ryan"? Ebert is losing it. He has that neck brace thingy he wears too tight around his neck. It's cutting off circulation to his brain. I saw the amputee's arm blow off before the grenade hit and explode. It was all so laughable. The cinematography was terrible. The music was horrid, and I don't know about any of you readers, but I am sick and tired of Spike Lee's tight shots on inanimate objects and symbols, splicing them right in during the scene-like the tight shots on the German medals. He does this all too often. It's lame.

The biggest problem with the film was the believability aspect of it all. I wasn't buying anything. I didn't believe the black soldiers were soldiers. I didn't believe it was 1940 something, war torn Italy. I didn't believe the drama. I never once believed they were shooting or bombing anything, something I never felt before watching any war film. Previous war films never had constant bombs going off around the main characters for no apparent reason. I couldn't believe the characters were so brain dead. I didn't believe the Italian woman would be remotely interested in Michael Ealy or Derek Luke's character.

And I'm sorry. What most have called miracles at St. Anna in Spike's poorly executed film, I call contrivances, just another contribution to the overall lack of believability.