Miracle at St. Anna

In 1983, Hector Negron, an aged, African-American World War II veteran, works as a post office clerk in New York City. After recognizing a customer, Negron shoots and kills the man with a German Luger pistol. Several hours later, rookie reporter Tim Boyle and Detective Tony Ricci are at the crime scene seeking information. At Negron's apartment, Boyle, Ricci, and other officers discover a finely carved statue head, the head of the Primavera, a long-missing segment from the Ponte Santa Trinita. Also found is a Purple Heart and a photograph revealing that Negron was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star. Negron, in a flashback, tells of his war experiences as a young corporal of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division in Italy, late 1944 during the Gothic line phase of the Italian campaign. A disastrous attack ensues on German positions across the Serchio River. An officer, Captain Nokes, calls down artillery on the 92nd's own position, refusing to believe their reports of how far they have advanced. Many American soldiers are killed, leaving Negron stranded on the wrong side of the river with three men: Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps, Sergeant Bishop Cummings, and Private Sam Train. Sam carries the Head of the Primavera that he found in Florence, which he believes to carry magical powers. He and Bishop rescue an Italian boy named Angelo from a collapsing building. While traveling through the mountains of Tuscany, the soldiers enter a small village where they form a bond with the residents. Sam grows especially fond of Angelo, becoming the boy's father figure. One of the villagers, Renata, soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with Stamps and Bishop, which creates conflict. After Negron gets his damaged backpack radio working, the soldiers contact headquarters and are told to capture an enemy soldier. A local Italian Partisan group arrives with a young German deserter, Hans Brundt, as their prisoner. Earlier, residents of the nearby village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema were killed by German forces following a betrayal by an Italian partisan, named Rodolfo, who knows that Brundt can identify him as the traitor. After concealing the fact that German forces are approaching the village in a counterattack, Rodolfo kills Brundt and the Partisan leader before escaping. It is Rodolfo whom Negron will kill 39 years later. Captain Nokes arrives in the village to interrogate Brundt and finds him dead. The Americans prepare to leave the village ahead of a German counterattack, but Sam refuses to leave Angelo behind. After promising to court-martial all four soldiers, Nokes and his contingent drive out of town, but are killed in the opening German offensive. The remaining Americans and Italian Partisans hold their ground, killing many Germans. Bishop and Negron hold off the Germans while Stamps tries to get the villagers to safety, but they are too heavily outnumbered. Sam, Stamps and Bishop are killed in the attack. While attempting to retreat, Negron is shot in the back, but is saved by his backpack radio. After Angelo gives him the Primaveras head, Negron gives the boy his rosary and tells him to leave. Angelo is led away by the spirit of his brother Arturo, who had been killed during the massacre at St. Anna. Negron is spared by a German officer who hands him his own Luger pistol and tells Negron to defend himself. More Americans arrive and secure the village before evacuating Negron. In 1984, Negron is the defendant in a court proceeding, facing a life sentence for his killing of Rodolfo. He is defended at his bail hearing by a powerful attorney acting on behalf of an unknown wealthy man. Negron is brought to the Bahamas and is reunited with the head of the Primavera, accompanied by its new owner who takes out a rosary and reveals himself as an adult Angelo. They both hold Negron's rosary and burst into tears of remembrance. ==Cast==

• Derek Luke as Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps: :One of four stranded Buffalo Soldiers from the 92nd Infantry Division. Director Spike Lee described Stamps as "the leader" of the men, while screenwriter James McBride stated that, "Stamps is a well-educated college graduate who has both faith and disappointment in the American system. He's deeply divided as to what his place and the place of the Negro in American society is or should be." Wesley Snipes was originally cast as Stamps, but could not commit due to his financial troubles. • Michael Ealy as Sergeant Bishop Cummings: :One of the four soldiers, a womanizer and card player. The character is also known for being arrogant and distrustful, and shows hatred towards his white commanders. Lee stated that the character is “a happy-go-lucky guy. He does not like to be under the thumb of authority. He likes card games and women.” • Omar Benson Miller as Private First Class Samuel "Sam" Train: :The "biggest" of the four soldiers, but later pulled out due to scheduling conflicts. Other cast members include John Leguizamo, in a cameo appearance, as Enrico; D. B. Sweeney as Colonel Jack Driscoll, an advocate for the Buffalo Soldiers; Robert John Burke as General Ned Almond, a high-ranking officer who opposes the 92nd Division; Omari Hardwick as Platoon Commander Huggs; Omero Antonutti as Ludovico Salducci, Renata's Fascist father; Sergio Albelli as Rodolfo Berelli, a Partisan of questionable loyalties; Lydia Biondi as Natalina, a village healer; Michael K. Williams as Tucker, a scared soldier; Walton Goggins as Captain Nokes; Christian Berkel as Captain Eichholz; Colman Domingo as a West Indian postal customer; Jan Pohl as Corporal Hans Brundt, the German deserter; and Alexandra Maria Lara as Mildred Gillars, nicknamed Axis Sally, an American broadcaster employed by the Germans as a propagandist. ==Production==

Development The novel Miracle at St. Anna was written by James McBride originating from his late uncle's experiences as a World War II soldier. He felt that McBride was the perfect person to write the screenplay, believing that his novel would serve as a guide. Lee's reputation as an acclaimed filmmaker in Europe, where he served as a jury member of the 2004 Venice Film Festival, also helped the filmmakers obtain two-thirds of the budget from Italy's RAI Cinema and France's TF1 ($30 million). Touchstone Pictures provided the remainder ($6.26 million), Filming then took place in Rome for one month; in New York for four days; in White Castle, Louisiana for two days; and in the Bahamas for two days. The trailers prominently feature the song "1000 Ships of the Underworld" by Two Steps From Hell. ==Release==

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures released Miracle at St. Anna through the Touchstone Pictures label. The film's world premiere was at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2008. The film later premiered in France at the 34th Deauville American Film Festival on September 10, 2008. Miracle at St. Anna premiered in New York City at the Ziegfeld Theatre on September 22, 2008. Disney released the film in the United States and Canada on September 26, 2008. The film was released in Italy on October 3, 2008; in Romania on April 10, 2009; in Bolivia and Brazil on April 30, 2009; in the United Arab Emirates on May 28, 2009; and in Lebanon on September 10, 2009. Box office Miracle at St. Anna grossed $7,658,999 in North America and $1,404,716 The end of the opening weekend saw the film take a total of $3,477,996—for an average of $2,935 per theater—finishing as the number eight grossing film of the weekend. Steve Mason of Hollywood.com believed that Miracle at St. Anna's negative reviews and moviegoers' declining interest in war films contributed to the film's poor box office performance. On its second weekend, the film saw a 50.1% decrease in revenue, moving down to fourteenth place and earning an additional $1,736,302—an average of $1,465 per theatre. Miracle at St. Anna was pulled out of theatres on November 25, 2008 after 61 days (8.7 weeks) of domestic release. Upon its release on DVD, Miracle at St. Anna debuted in eighth place, selling 142,782 units in its first week. In North America, the film has grossed $10.1 million from DVD sales. The extra features include a meeting of Spike Lee with surviving Buffalo Soldiers and Tuskegee Airmen discussing their personal war experiences. ==Reception==

Critical response The film has received mostly negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 121 reviewer and a weighted average of 5.2/10. The website's consensus states "Miracle at St. Anna is a well-intentioned but overlong, disjointed affair that hits few of the right notes." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a normalized score of 37% based on 31 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "a clunky, poorly constructed drama designed to spotlight the little-remarked role of black American soldiers in World War II." James Rocchi, writing for Cinematical, gave the film a mixed review: "When Miracle at St. Anna falters, it's in the moments that seem like they could have been crafted by any other film maker; when Miracle at St. Anna succeeds, it's in the moments that could only have been crafted by Lee." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that the film was "overwrought, overproduced, overbusy and overlong" and that "Miracle at St. Anna finally suffers from the worst filmmaking sin of all: the failure of trust, in the story and the audience." Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote that the film "aspires to be epic, but mostly it's just unfocused, sprawling and badly in need of editing" and that "[i]t tries hard to be inspiring, but it has jarring tonal shifts, stereotyped characters and a lack of narrative perspective." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described the film as "too long, lazily constructed, and crammed with too many characters and subplots for any director to develop fully outside of an HBO miniseries." Despite a mostly negative reception, Miracle at St. Anna received some praise. Eric D. Snider, writing for Film.com praised the film, writing, "This is beyond the scope of anything Lee has done before, and he rises to the challenge remarkably well, with battle scenes nearly as visceral and jolting as those in Saving Private Ryan and a multi-layered story involving the U.S. Army, the Nazis, and the Italian resistance movement." Snider criticized the film's frame story, which he described as "unnecessary and definitely corny." Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, criticized the editing but praised the film overall, describing it as "epic" with "one of the best battle scenes I can remember, on par with Saving Private Ryan...Miracle at St. Anna contains richness, anger, history, sentiment, fantasy, reality, violence and life. Maybe too much. Better than too little." Controversy Protests were scheduled for the film's Italian premiere in Viareggio, Italy, by unspecified organizations. The protesters objected to the plotline of a Partisan collaborating with the Nazis. This runs directly counter to the accepted historical version of events, ruled by an Italian military court in 2005, that the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre was entirely premeditated by the Germans with no reason except the aim to frighten the population. Giovanni Cipollini, deputy head of the National Association of the Italian Partisans, said the film was a "false reconstruction" and a "travesty of history". However, Lee, unrepentant, stated "I am not apologizing." He told Italians there was "a lot about your history you have yet to come to grips with. This film is our interpretation, and I stand behind it." McBride, the novel's author, stated: "As a black American, I understand what it's like for someone to tell your history... unfortunately, the history of World War Two here in Italy is ours as well, and this was the best I could do... it is, after all, a work of fiction.” In light of the film's controversy, Lee was awarded honorary citizenship by the mayor of Stazzema, Michele Silicani, who defended the film, stating, "It's true that the film depicts a partisan who betrayed civilians. But above it is the tale of those partisans who fought to the death to defend civilians." On June 21, 2011, a Paris court ruled in Lee and On My Own's favor, believing that TF1 failed to honor the contract, which proved "disastrous" for the film. TF1 was fined €32 million (US$46 million). ==See also==