Spike Lee’s Latest Film Tackles War and Racial Tensions

“We fought for this war too.” And so begins Spike Lee’s newest movie.
An anti-war film at the outset, Miracle at St. Anna also explores the inherent racism within our society. Months ago, Lee famously criticized Clint Eastwood for the lack of African American soldiers represented in Flags of Our Fathers. Miracle at St. Anna’s opening line, spoken by Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) while watching John Wayne in The Longest Day, perhaps best expresses Lee’s and screenwriter James McBride’s feeling that World War II media generally lack representation of African Americans.
The film, produced by Lee’s production company 40 Acres & a Mule and based on McBride’s novel of the same name, begins with a postal worker who kills a customer, after which detectives find a multi-million dollar statue head in his closet. The story then jumps back 40 years and follows a group of four Buffalo soldiers—Stamps, Bishop, Hector, and Train—who have landed behind enemy lines in a little Italian village called Colognora in the final years of World War II. With nowhere to go, they become good friends with the townspeople. Train befriends the Italian boy he saved, who dubs him the Chocolate Giant. All the while, the soldiers try to contact their superiors and rejoin their army.

Lee’s anti-war stance is apparent from the moment the first little white cross appears. As the screen fills up with more of these crosses, the endless graveyards at various war memorials spring to mind. The sight of the crosses becomes mesmerizing—there are too many to count. Coupled with the somewhat gratuitous images of dead soldiers in the river, blown-off legs, and other shocking images, Lee seems intent on bringing the realities of war home, and reminding the viewer that this violence continues today.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a Spike Lee flick without a discussion of racism, and Miracle is full of this. Lee is keen to join all humanity into a brotherhood, where it doesn’t matter which languages people speak. He demonstrates this with a montage of the Germans, Italians, and Americans praying—what matters is that we are human. Lee examines the diversity of backgrounds, and connects it to the present moment in one scene where the four soldiers simply stand and stare at the viewer accusingly. When the camera finally reveals what they are looking at, it turns out to be a series of racist propaganda posters put up by the Germans.

While Miracle at St. Anna doesn’t quite approach its director’s masterpieces, and its complexity sometimes overwhelms the narrative, the film is a healthy exploration of serious themes, and ultimately succeeds in entertaining and moving the audience.

Miracle at St. Anna was directed by Spike Lee. It is currently playing at AMC Loews Harlem USA and AMC Loews Lincoln Square.