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Miracle at St. Anna
Director: Spike Lee
Release Date: September 26, 2008
Starring: Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Matteo Sciabordi, John Leguizamo, Kerry Washington, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Pierfrancesco Favino
Language: English
Country: United States
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Miracle at St. Anna is an 2008 war film directed by Spike Lee and written by James McBride, based on McBride’s novel of the same name. The film is set to be released September 26, 2008 The film is set during World War II, in fall of 1944 in Tuscany and in contemporary New York City and Rome.
A group of four black soldiers in the 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division of the U.S. Army during World War II get stuck behind enemy lines after getting separated from their squadron when one of them bravely attempts to rescue an Italian boy. Alienated from their own country, the soldiers find solace in the quaint Tuscan village of St. Anna. Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Omar Benson Miller, and Laz Alonso star in a war drama scripted by James McBride and directed by Spike Lee.
Miracle at St. Anna follows four black soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division who get trapped near a small Tuscan village on the Gothic Line during the Italian Campaign of World War II after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy. The story is inspired by the August 1944 Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre perpetrated by the Waffen-SS in retaliation to Italian partisan activity. There is also a reference to a sculpted head from Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence that acts as a plot device. Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.
Cast:
- Derek Luke
- Michael Ealy
- Laz Alonso
- Omar Benson Miller
- Matteo Sciabordi
- John Leguizamo
- Kerry Washington
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Pierfrancesco Favino
Miracle at St. Anna is based on a novel by James McBride and is scripted by the author. Principal photography started in Tuscany on October 15, 2007. The exterior scenes were filmed close to Barga on the Serchio river, and in the villages of Colognora and Sant’Anna di Stazzema. The production was then moved to Cinecittà and Piazza del Popolo in Rome. Scenes were also shot in New York City and Nassau, Bahamas. Principal photography wrapped in January 2008 and the first trailer of the movie was released in June 2008. The budget of the film was $45 million. When Lee came to Europe in the early middle of 2007 to scout locations, he had little money with which to make the film, and he stitched together a series of distribution deals for different territories before The Walt Disney Company picked up the U.S. rights.
Following the success of his 2006 crime-drama Inside Man, director Spike Lee originally intended his next movie to be a James Brown biopic or a film about the Los Angeles riots of 1992, but he found difficulty in bringing both projects to light. So Lee, who had two uncles who served in World War II, instead chose to film Miracle at St. Anna, his first foray into the war film genre, of which he said, “there’s really been a bad job of documenting the contribution African-Americans made to this country.” Although war films have tended to perform poorly at the box office during the time of the Iraq War, Lee said he believes the political climate will help the movie, commenting, “With an African-American running for president, anything is possible. There’s a whole new dynamic in the air.”
Wesley Snipes was originally slated to play one of the four leads, but had to leave the film due to his highly-publicized tax problems, and his role eventually went to Derek Luke. The actors had to endure difficult filming conditions, including about 12 hours of filming a scene in the Serchio River in Tuscany, but Michael Ealy said the most difficult scene for him was one in which the protagonists are subjected to racist abuse at a cafe in the American South. Regarding the scene, Ealy said, “My grandfather was in the Army at that same time. The fact that this is what he had to go through, it just hit me in a profound way.”
The score to Miracle at St. Anna was composed by Golden Globe-nominated composer Terence Blanchard, who has worked with director Spike Lee on over 15 projects. He recorded his score with a 95-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.
In late 2007 the yet-to-be-released film was strongly denounced by some survivors of the historical Sant’Anna di Stazzema atrocity and some local politicians, including a call to ban the movie for “a false reconstruction that does not take account of the historical reality … otherwise the damage to the memory and historical truth will be very serious.” The mayor of the village disagreed with this opinion, adding that he is “sure Spike Lee will make a masterpiece.”
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