Miracle at St. Anna
Touchstone Pictures | Release Date: September 26, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
16
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Contains scenes of brilliance, interrupted by scenes that meander. There is too much, too many characters, too many subplots. But there is so much here that is powerful that it should be seen no matter its imperfections. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Man, oh, man, much of the dialogue is so heavy, and heavy-handed, that you can see fine actors such as Derek Luke and Michael Ealy buckle under the weight. Clearly, Lee fell in love with McBride's words and couldn't bear to cut them, even when the visuals made those words redundant. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
For all his excesses and wrong turns, Lee has made a grown-up movie with an adult sense of loss and an adult sense of hope. He may be addicted to broad flourishes, but he has the big emotions to back them up. Read full review
70
Film ThreatStina Chyn
So think of it this way: Miracle at St. Anna is a Spike Lee joint that possesses a European texture in the vein of Guillermo Del Toro and Jean Pierre-Jeunet. Imaginative, thought-provoking, and intense. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Miracle at St. Anna is overlong and poorly focused. It tends to meander, the military context is not well established, and too much time is spent on interaction with underdeveloped secondary characters. Read full review
55
NPRBob Mondello
Even in a film that clocks in at a quasi-epic 2 hours and 40 minutes, that's just too much narrative. And matters aren't helped by the fact that Lee, who has never staged battle sequences before, hasn't quite got the rhythms or camera angles right. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Half the time I wasn't sure what Lee was going for in terms of tone, or style, or focus. It was a tricky assignment to begin with, because McBride's novel, and his screenplay, is part socio-historical corrective, part magical-realist folklore, part wartime procedural. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's all too much and too little: a history lesson in institutional racism that falls into character cliches, a human drama that gets lost in melodramatic detours, a war movie put together by a fan rather than a filmmaker. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It is in the fragile bonds that form between the black soldiers and the Italian villagers that Miracle at St. Anna breaks free of its own grandiosity and tells a grounded, moving, human story. Not a miracle by any means, but an earthy inquiry into death, duty, friendship and honor. What we’ve always wanted from war movies. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Aspires to be epic, but mostly it's just unfocused, sprawling and badly in need of editing. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Of course the experiences and sacrifices of black troops, which were so often overlooked, should be represented and honored. But because Lee underestimates our desire to do so, the movie that follows doesn't do them justice. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Lee is not an action director, and the movie often feels like it was made in the 1940s rather than set then. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Lee's framing device - which ends with a head-scratching fantasy - doesn't work. At. All. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Throughout, Terence Blanchard's score swells and sweeps, reminding us, at every moment, what we're supposed to feel. If only we knew what we were supposed to think of this trite mess. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Miracle at St. Anna is not work of outrage or joy. It's something distressingly new for the filmmaker: a work of obligation. It feels like a movie Lee made in order to say he did it. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film collapses because Lee can't sew these vignettes into a seamless tapestry. He's more interested in getting even than he is in getting it right. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
This is first Lee's first attempt at a war epic, but it feels like it's his very first film: What should have been an eloquent answer to the likes of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood -- with whom Lee justly took to task over the total absence of any black soldiers in "The Flags Of Our Fathers" -- is instead a patchy war-time drama. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A picture that's dramatically compelling in some places and plodding and didactic in others. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Miracle isn't powerful, it's muddled and diffuse. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubStaff (Not credited)
Miracle plays like "School Daze" transplanted to the European front, with the token militant, the token uplift-the-race type, and the token buffoon all marching inexorably toward Checkpoint Irony. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Clocking in at 160 minutes, this interminable movie comes across like a rough cut. Perhaps Lee believed its length would give it gravitas. The opposite is true. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Odd too, for a film that wants to correct impression anyone had as to the abilities of black U.S. soldier in combat, are the ethnic cliches about Italians and Germans, to say nothing of rednecks. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
When Lee isn't doing cinematic somersaults or mining for injustice, he doesn't seem to know where to put the camera. The logistics of the plot make no sense, and he has nothing to sell but the theme of our common humanity--in which, on the evidence, I don't think he believes. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Pedestrian and awkward, this film is a disappointment not only in comparison with Lee's earlier epic, the underrated " Malcolm X," but also in comparison with another film with similar aims, Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory." Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Overblown and unconvincing, the director's bright, poppy style clashing with the grim subject matter. Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The movie winds up a casualty of schmaltzy, patronizing sentiment on the one hand and overweening ambition on the other. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The first and most honest thing to say about Miracle at St. Anna is that it's an awful mess. Read full review
20
VarietyTodd McCarthy
This is a sloppy stew in which the ingredients of battle action, murder mystery, little-kid sentiment and history lesson don't mix well. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
And for all Lee's ballyhoo about racial stereotyping, one might expect him to adopt a less hackneyed approach to his portrayals of Italians and women. Read full review
20
Village VoiceScott Foundas
You may begin to wonder if Lee really initiated this project or if it only fell into his hands after Roberto Benigni proved unavailable. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Given the importance of that subject, the real mystery of Mr. Lee's movie is why it's so diffuse, dispirited, emotionally distanced and dramatically inert. Read full review
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