Miracle at St. Anna (2008)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Spike Lee

Writers (WGA):

James McBride (screenplay)
James McBride (novel)

Release Date:

26 September 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller | War

Tagline:

World War II has its heroes and its miracles.

Plot:

Set in 1944 Italy, the story of four black American soldiers who get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII.

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Italy | Village | Theft | Shot In The Shoulder

Awards:

9 nominations

Cast

Derek Luke	...	2nd Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps
Michael Ealy	...	Sergeant Bishop Cummings
Laz Alonso	...	Corporal Hector Negron (Young / Old)
Omar Benson Miller	...	Private First Class Sam Train
Pierfrancesco Favino	...	Peppi 'The Great Butterfly' Grotta
Valentina Cervi	...	Renata
Matteo Sciabordi	...	Angelo Torancelli (The Boy)
John Turturro	...	Detective Antonio 'Tony' Ricci
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	...	Tim Boyle
John Leguizamo	...	Enrico
Kerry Washington	...	Zana Wilder
D.B. Sweeney	...	Colonel Driscoll
Robert John Burke	...	General Ned Almond
Omari Hardwick	...	Platoon Commander Huggs
Omero Antonutti	...	Ludovico

Also Known As:

Miracolo a Sant'Anna (Italy)
Untitled Spike Lee WWII Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong war violence, language and some sexual content/nudity.

Runtime:

160 min

Country:

USA | Italy

Language:

English | German | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44568) | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Singapore:M18 | Finland:K-15 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Brazil:16 | Japan:R-15

Filming Locations:

Gioviano, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

Company:

40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks

Trivia:

Naomi Campbell was originally cast in the film, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the professor examines the marble head he recognizes it as the "Primavera" from Santa Trinità in Florence. He assumes it is by Bartolomeo Ammannati, but the bridge is by Ammannati; the sculpture is by Pietro Francavilla.

Quotes:

Private First Class Sam Train: God don't like ugly...
Sergeant Bishop Cummings: Well, he don't seem to like pretty a whole helluva lot either.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The O'Reilly Factor: (2008-06-09)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

He's Got The Whole World In His Hand

Awful

I am so very disappointed. Spike Lee, why? You know how movies have little scenes that don't make sense at the time but then all tie in at the end and they give you this awesome "OH!" feeling? This movie had those, but failed at the "OH!". The entire beginning sequence did not belong in the movie. The loose, boring, and un-original tie-in it provided was completely unnecessary to the plot. In fact, if they had skipped the first half hour of horrid over-acting it would have enhanced the plot.

I get it. War is horrible. African Americans were treated like dirt in the 40s. Everybody prays to the same God we're not so different. This movie even failed at making these very easy to portray messages resonate.

Every horrible death/war scene made you feel disgusted and sad and you wanted so badly for everyone to live. Exactly the feelings they should have been going for. BUT THEN they overlaid almost every one of these scenes with a joke! Or some stupidly funny remark or scene. In the end it made you feel disgusted with yourself for laughing while good men are laying dead on the screen. I'm pretty sure making an audience feel disgusted with themselves is not the goal here. And if it was, I have news for the producers/writers/director - we didn't need that lesson. Instead of making me think, it made me wonder what a sick person the writer must be to joke about death and war in such a manner.

Not to mention that the whole middle of the movie was one big black soldier joke. COME ON. Seriously? You seriously needed to through in all those lame silly stereotypes to make us feel for the characters? Your that bad at making movies? It was just an all around bad flick. Even the ending was completely awkward, which ruined any sentiment that should have been there.

A very poorly made and written film.