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Spike Lee’s newest cinematic project is a departure from what he has been known to give to us.  Fans of his work know him best for movies that deliver a pulse and a very open view of New York City.  He does this better than any other director and he deserves to be recognized as probably the most gifted at personifying a surrounding city as a movie’s biggest character.

With his newest project, Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee opts to go where many directors have gone before.   He moves his scene surroundings across the pond and uses WWII as his inspiration.  There are stories there, within the confines of the most interesting war of the 20th century, stories about smaller groups of people struggling to find a place behind the military lines.  This undertaking is a step forward in his willingness to move away from his beloved New York and try something new.

Miracle at St. Anna has its share of war scenes and struggle, but like all of his movies, there is a lesson to be learned and a perspective about the buffalo soldiers that most of us are unaware existed.  The war scenes in the first half of the movie struggled to provide a sense of danger though a megaphoned message from the evil forces of the Reich was very original and clever.  The cast, aside from the few early cameo appearances, is somewhat unrecognizable but too many well known faces can often overshadow a movie’s main goals.  As the movie meanders through the plot we begin to understand the soldiers’ interesting turn of events with religion, legend and luck.  There is a steady conflict for a group of men who fight bravely for a country that will not fight for them.  Interestingly enough, these men wind up behind enemy linesin a town and country that embraces them in an instant.  This undertone of racial equality is used effectively and very much shows how much Sike Lee has grown as a director.  There are some weird places this plot goes to in order to allow for a symbolic comparison between the black soldiers’ persecution and the Italian people during the war.

Although there are some elements of the music, battle scenes and ending that could have been served in a tastier way, Miracle At St. Anna delivers thought provoking material, well-blended flashbacks and a few exceptionally shot frames most movie goers can sink their teeth into.

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