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Review: MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA / Spike Lee (2008)

September 27th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
Directed by Spike Lee
Written by James McBride from his novel
Starring: Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Valentina Cervi, Matteo Sciabordi & D. B. Sweeney
Running Time: 160 min.
Aspect Ratio:

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

It all began when Spike Lee objected to the fact that there were no African Americans in Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. The first film details the story behind the famous photo of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima (none of whom were black), while its companion piece assumes the Japanese point-of-view. Why not just make one of the guys into a black Jewish lady Eskimo?

In an attempt to stir up some pre-release publicity, Lee made his indignation known. Clint responded with: “If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go: ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.’”

Flags is one of the few Clint Eastwood films that you will ever hear me knock. I do not go to see a Clint Eastwood movie for its messages any more than I would watch an Astaire, Rogers musical for the bridging sequences. Clint is a master visual storyteller and while his films have become progressively morose as the decade passes, he never once mounted a soap box. Flags is a predictable war film with a labored subplot concerning a “drunken Injun.’” The treatment becomes so forced and obvious that it begins to border on stereotype enforcement.

If only I could report that Spike’s handling of race matters in Miracle of St. Anna made Clint’s depiction of Ira Hayes look admirable. In this one instance, both directors are in sync. D.B. Sweeney is the token nice white guy while other all pigment challenged actors are racist soldiers, Italian comic relief or Nazis.

An arrogant white officer, who doesn’t believe the accuracy of information radioed in by a black soldier under his command, unwittingly aims at his own platoon. To expand his feud with Clint to near Charlie McCarty/W.C. Fields-like proportions, Spike cast Eastwood look-alike Robert John Burke.

Seen here in a still from something called Gossip Girl, Burk might look like a bad stretch of Gunny Highway. You have to believe me that when he’s made-up and dressed to play General Ned Almond, Burk looks like Clint’s younger brother Chip Eastwood. They swear alike, they walk alike; at times they even talk alike. You can lose your mind! Almond refers to the Buffalo Soldiers as “Eleanor Roosevelt n—ers,” and the Clint-clone is one of the few white characters in the film instructed to utter the invective. That’ll teach Clint not to rewrite history!

Long before Clint, Jr. enters the picture, Spike tackles another beloved all-American icon. The film opens in 1983 with a clip of John Wayne once again winning the war, this time in The Longest Day. It’s another example of all bluster and no luster as Lee’s Hector Negron (Laz Alonso rendered practically unrecognizable under pounds of aging latex) sits before his TV ranting at the Duke. If I ever get to make a movie, I vow to have a black dude parked in front of a TV set watching the insufferable Lilies of the Field. “Damn,” I’d have him mumble. “Only way that Sidney Poitier can appear next to a white woman is if she’s blind or a nun.” Poitier and Wayne were both products of their respective eras: one was a movie superstar that created memorable characters in dozens of American masterworks. Sidney Poitier made soft message pictures. If given the choice, I’d rather Rooster Cogburn came to dinner. At least I’d have a few cheap laughs.

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