Our final film, and one of the last screenings of the festival, was Miracle at St. Anna (tiff), Spike Lee’s latest effort. Given that we were pretty tired, and our asses were pretty sore, I didn’t relish the idea of sitting through a nearly-three-hour film, but it never felt that long. There was plenty to keep us occupied right from the opening scene.

If Spike Lee set out to add a film about black soldiers to the WWII canon, I think he accomplished his goal. This had all the right elements of action, humour and character with a little intrigue thrown in. I can’t say whether he faithfully recounted James McBride’s novel, but he delivered a good story in his own voice. There are some scenes that are just so quintessentially Spike Lee, like the portrait shot of the four soldiers glaring into the camera and peeling off one by one until the camera swings around and you see what they were looking at. Very Lee, and always interesting.

There was some mild overacting and an overly sappy ending, but overall this was a good way to close out the festival.

B-

[tags]tiff, tiff08, miracle at st anna[/tags]