Spike Lee's monumental Second World War film, Miracle at St. Anna, turned out to be less than a monument and short of a miracle.
The film also lit a firestorm of controversy over its depiction of the war, after Lee had struck the spark by ambushing Clint Eastwood on race issues in his WWII movies.
Even though Lee later publicly apologized for dissing Eastwood and tried to open up an intelligent debate about African-Americans in the Second World War, the damage was done. The result was utter failure. Miracle generated extreme love-it or hate-it reactions. The film, which cost a reported $45 million to film on location in Italy, crawled to a miserable $9.3 million in world-wide box office.
It is now time for a reconciliation and reassessment.
With the debut of the DVD this week, Miracle at St. Anna can now be seen with sober second thought. Count me among those who believe this film, while seriously flawed, contains marvellous passages. It is absolutely worth seeing, despite the epic running time of 160 minutes.
Among many reasons to plunge in is that Miracle tells a story that has been ignored by mainstream Hollywood. During the Allies' Italian campaign, the U.S. mustered thousands of African-Americans to fight in the all-black 92nd Division of the U.S. Army. They became known, proudly, as the Buffalo Soldiers. Miracle tells a fictional story of what happens to four of them during critical battles with the Germans in Tuscany.
The film also shows how, on Aug. 12, 1944, the infamous 16th SS Panzergrenadier-Division murdered 560 Italian civilians at the town square in the village of St. Anna di Stazzema. Miracle also belongs to the Italian resistance.
But the film's problems remain the same. The 1983 bookends to novelist-screenwriter James McBride's flashback story are awkward, even ridiculous. The final 1944 battle scenes go over the top. But Lee layers the film with passionate, personal cinematic flourishes, too.
Now for the DVD. Disney made a tactical blunder. The standard DVD presents Miracle with a beautiful widescreen transfer. But there are no extras. Shameful!
Instead, you have to go to Blu-ray to find the history lessons that Lee promised. Profoundly moved, Lee sat down with surviving Buffalo Soldiers to talk about their exploits. Another doc chronicles their history. There are also deleted scenes. All this should be on the standard DVD, not just on Blu-ray.
Frozen River
Melissa Leo was nominated for an Oscar as best actress for her performance in Frozen River. Writer-director Courtney Hunt joined the red-carpet parade with a nom for her hardscrabble script. This is a remarkable way for a nearly unknown, yet compelling, American film to get noticed.
Frozen River debuted on DVD this week. Now you can see Leo's stunning performance as a newly abandoned mother of two in Hunt's story of perseverance and tough love. Leo's character is thrust into contact with a young Mohawk woman (the equally impressive Misty Upham) in upstate New York. The two earn money for their children by smuggling aliens from Canada to the U.S. across the frozen St. Lawrence through a Mohawk reservation.
This is a harrowing but beautifully wrought story of lives that are rarely depicted in movies. Moral issues are explored without polemics. The widescreen-only DVD adds to the debate with a commentary that teams Hunt with producer Heather Rae.
The Fiddle and the Drum
Join singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell with choreographer Jean Grand-Maitre, summon the muscular talents of the Alberta Ballet, and you get the rare stage hybrid, The Fiddle and the Drum. This 2007 stage production, which addresses environmentalism and war issues, made its way to DVD this week. The DVD presents the 54-minute ballet in a clean, straightforward way. Extras give us extensive background on the production, and its intent, including through a joint interview with Mitchell and Grand-Maitre. Social activism is given a fresh new artistic face.
