Miracle at St. Anna

I just went and saw the movie this evening. Overall I think it was well done, it did drag a lot... and took a while to put everything together. The acting was pretty well done also. Aside from getting a headache halfway through the movie, and my ass falling asleep... I would say, wait till it comes out on DVD or to a cheap theatre to see it!

 

Well I bet this movie wont be shown along with his other "Classics" in movie classes LOL.

 

I didn't like how it was spitting racism out from the start. Opening scene has the main character watching 'The Longest Day' and comments on how there aren't any black people in the movie. Now, I am not sure, but I am pretty sure they didn't have mixed units back then (thus the Buffalo Soldiers unit) so I don't see what the fuss was about?

Not to mention that 'Black' Divisions didn't make up the majority of the US Forces, so clearly they didn't go through the same sorts of things. Anyways, a few things I didn't like about the movie: [Make that 13 things I didn't like about the movie.]



[[[SPOILER WARNING: Do not read on if you wish the movie to remain a mystery]]]

1. It had nothing to do with St. Anna. (Unless I am mistaken here, St. Anna was where the Germans rounded up the civvies and killed them, and was not the actual place the fighting in the movie took place).

2. The 'Statue Head' that sparks the whole story didn't come from the area either (I would have expected it's capture to be part of the movie).

3. "Lets stand in a River while everyone is shooting us, while the 4 main characters are the only ones who try to seek protection!"

4. "I have a thommy, you have a thommy, everyone has a thommy!" (Of the 3 PFCs - only the one guy was an NCO, only one had Rifle. Everyone and their mother had a Thompson).

5. The Germans yelling "Kill those blacks!" in the end scene even though they hadn't seen them yet.

6. The 'Traitor' escaping. And "Peppi" never revealing why he is a self-proclaimed "Murderer".

7. Why the Italian boy was more scared of "Peppi" and not the "Traitor".

8. Why does every Civilian in the movie have to get killed?

9. Why grenades are not fragmentation grenades, instead causing those with in 20 yards to fly through the air and over walls when the grenades go off.

10. Why the 88's and other Artillery Pieces had no moving parts, and just puffs of smoke came out of their barrels.

11. How a Thompson is accurate over 100 yards, picking off Germans hiding on the reverse side of a roof.

12. Why no one tried to hide in a building during the end scene, instead choosing to run through the streets like chickens with their heads cut off.

13. Why the 'Traitor' didn't kill the one black guy (in the scene he kills the POW) and set the German POW free (instead of trying to kill both). AND, why didn't the black guy try to shot the Traitor when he ran off, up the hill, which he had previously been shown doing at great labor to himself?

 

Thanks for the heads up Musso. Sorry you wasted your money.

 

In light of the other discussions, there is some movie based in Argentina, where a woman was raped multiple times during a dark period of Argentinian history (or some South American country). She is married and never speaks of this, then one day during a storm a car breaks down and the guy comes to the house seeking help. She recognizes it as the man who raped her, especially once he says his favorite song is "XXX", which he played every time he raped her (and other woman who had been arrested). She plans on killing him, but ultimately doesn't, though reveals that he was the one who raped her (he now has a family).

 

Well I was lucky enough that I went at 1PM so only paid $5 to see it.

 

5th Platoon, K Company, 394th Regiment, 99th Division was the first black unit integrated with a white infantry company. That did not happen until March of 1945. You can read about the unit in Blood for Dignity, by David P. Colley.

 

Exactly. So why make a big song and dance about 'The Longest Day' which portrays events that didn't involve Black Units? Sure, they served in the Army long before they were allowed to play combative roles, but movies about Cooks and people doing the Laundry...well, who wants to see a movie about that?

 

I think Spike assumes that no one watching his movies actually pays attention to historical fact and he takes a lot of license. Whatever his reasons, he is a revisionist so I take his "history" with a grain of salt.

 

Maybe he should have made the movie about Task Force 45? Oh wait. He would have to add Whites AND Italians in it.

HISTORY OF TASK FORCE 45
(29 July 44 to 28 January 45)



FOREWORD


"Task Force 45 was a polyglot task force of American and British antiaircraft gunners acting as infantry, with Italian Partisans, Brazilians and colored American troops fighting by their side. Its artillery were the antiaircraft guns pointing earthward, the guns of tanks and tank destroyers and of captured German weapons. Its engineers were Italian civilians who were not afraid to work within the sounds of guns and who built well. It did much with little. British Tommies who rode forward on American tanks, with American mortars behind and American engineers forward, and the Yanks who stepped out of their foxholes with British artillery pounding protection behind, with Italians at their side and out ahead and with Brazilians on their flanks, learned that different peoples can fight well together."
"Major General Willis D. Crittenberger, IV Corps Commander, on 24 July 1944 advised Brigadier General Paul W. Rutledge, 45th AAA Brigade Commander, of the plans to employ the Brigade, minus some antiaircraft elements and plus elements of some of the other arms, as a Task Force to relieve the 34th and 91st Infantry Divisions. elements of those divisions had then secured and were holding the line of the ARNO RIVER from the 21 Easting to the Tyrrhenian Sea, a front of about 15 miles."
"General Rutledge at once began the conversion of his command to a provisional infantry unit."
Conversion to provisional infantry status was implemented by temporary assignment of an experienced infantry adviser officer to each company (ex-battery), battalion, group and brigade headquarters. Officer vacancies were filled by infantry officers, and support needs (Photo Interpretation, Surgeon, AMG, Engineer, POW Interrogation, Intelligence, Field Artillery) were augmented by assigning experienced officers to fill out the staff.
Each AAA battalion, with a minimum change of personnel, adapted from a four firing battery structure to the infantry design of three rifle companies and one heavy-weapons company.
"IV Corps, on 26 July 44, issued Field Order No. 6 which designated the 45 AAA Brigade as Task Force 45 with the following [initial] missions:
a. Relieve elements of the 34th Infantry Division and the 91st Infantry Division in zone and assume command of sector on Corps order.
b. Hold forward positions and conduct active patrolling in zone to prevent enemy infiltration.
c. Send small reconnaissance patrols across to determine enemy strength and dispositions.
d. Maintain contact with Task Force Ramey.
e. Protect left flank of Corps.
f. Prepare to follow up any enemy withdrawal."
"On the same date, Task Force 45 issued Field Order No. 1 assigning [the following mission to its AAA battalions]:
a. Assume provisional infantry T/O [Table of Organization] at once.
b. Assemble equipment not needed for infantry role at battalion rear echelon where only sufficient personnel will be left to provide security and maintain equipment.
c. Continue intensive training in Infantry tactics, stressing defense of river line, scouting, patrolling, and use of Infantry weapons. ..."
"During its operation, Task Force 45 had at varying times, 3000 to 8000 men attached from the following units:"

• American Antiaircraft Artillery (AA) Units
• 45th AAA Brigade, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery *
• 45th AAA Operations Detachment *
• 91st AAA Group
• 107th AAA Group *
• Battery C, 351th AAA Searchlight Battalion *
• 403rd AAA Gun Battalion (Mobile) *
• 434th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion *
• 435th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion *
• 439th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion
• Battery C, 450th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion
• 536th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion *
• 898th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion *
• 900th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion * * = component units of the 45th AAA Brigade at the initiation of Task Force 45.

• American Field Artillery (FA) Units
• 68th Armored FA Battalion, 1st Armored Division
• 125th FA Battalion (105mm), 34th Infantry Division
• 151st FA Battalion (105mm), 34th Infantry Division
• 175th FA Battalion (105mm), 34th Infantry Division
• 185th FA Battalion (155mm), 34th Infantry Division
• 194th FA Group
• 424th FA Group
• Battery C, 194th FA Battalion
• 338th FA Battalion, 88th Infantry Division
• 598th FA Battalion (Colored), 92nd Infantry Division
• Battery C, 697th FA Battalion
• 910th FA Battalion, 85th Infantry Division

• American Infantry Units
• 85th Mountain Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division
• 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division
• 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment
• 339th Infantry Regimental Combat Team, 85th Infantry Division
• 370th Infantry Regimental Combat Team (Colored), 92nd Infantry Division

• American Tank and Anti-Tank Units
• 2nd Armored Group, Headquarters and Headquarters Company
• 2nd Platoon, Company B, 13th Tank Battalion, 1st Armored Division
• 1st and 2nd Platoons, Company D, 13th Tank Battalion, 1st Armored Division
• Troop A, 81st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 1st Armored Division
• 91st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron
• 751st Tank Battalion
• 755th Tank Battalion
• 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion
• 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion

• Other American Units
• 34th Quartermaster War Dog Platoon
• 62nd Signal Battalion (4 crews)
• 84th Chemical Company (4.2 Mortar)
• 179th Chemical Smoke Generating Company
• 1st Platoon, Company C, 310th Engineer Battalion, 85th Infantry Division
• Company C, 310th Medical Battalion, 85th Infantry Division
• 615th Medical Clearing Station
• 671st Medical Collecting Company
• 672nd Medical Collecting Company
• 673rd Medical Collecting Company
• 1108th Engineer Combat Group elements

• British Antiaircraft (AA) Units
• 39th (Br) Light AA Regiment
• 47th (Br) Light AA Regiment
• U Troop, 167 Battery, 56 (Br) Light AA Regiment
• 168 Battery, 56 (Br) Light AA Regiment
• 71st Heavy (Br) AA Regiment
• 73rd Heavy (Br) AA Regiment
• 74th Heavy (Br) AA Regiment
• 80th Heavy (Br) AA Regiment

• Brazilian Units
• 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 1st (Braz) Infantry Division
• 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st (Braz) Infantry Division
• 3rd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st (Braz) Infantry Division
• 1st Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized), 1st (Braz) Infantry Division

• Italian Units
• 5th (Ital) Mule Pack Company
• 23rd (Ital) Artier [Engineer] Regiment

"It covered fronts of from 12 to 25 miles, both mountainous and on coastal plains and it advanced its initial front twenty miles from the line of the Arno River and Pisa to the Gothic Line of the Hun at the CINQUALE CANAL north of Forte dei Marmi."

 

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/21752-history-task-force-45-a.html

 

'Miracle at St. Anna' depicts those overlooked in WWII



Marjorie Hamburger

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Verve


Spike Lee's new film, "Miracle at St. Anna," is a tale of forgotten soldiers in WWII. The men are African Americans who have long been neglected in stories of the war in everything from history books to war films.

Based on James McBride's novel, "Miracle at St. Anna" may have a fictional plot, but its background is a reality that has been buried too long.

The film begins in 1984 when an elderly black man named Hector Negron is watching John Wayne's WWII film, "The Longest Day." He mumbles to the screen, "Pilgrim, we fought for this country too." Later he is seen working at a post office. When a foreign man comes up to him asking for a 20-cent stamp, Negron pulls out a handgun and shoots him in cold blood. After being arrested, detectives search his Harlem apartment and find the head of an Italian statue that had been lost since WWII.

The rest of the movie is a flashback to Negron's experience in the 92nd Division called the Buffalo Soldiers. Excluding the white officers, this division was solely comprised of African Americans. The government referred to their group as an "experiment."

While in Tuscany, Italy in 1944, the 92nd Division's white officer cross fires on his own men after doubting the honesty of their position. Only four men survive. The men include Hector Negron (Laz Alonso), the Puerto Rican; Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller), the simplistic dreamer; Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), the "do the right thing" persona; and Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), the slickster who often clashes with Stamps' moral ways. These four men make it to a small Italian village, and have to stay put after realizing Germans surround them.

The four men meet several different characters along their journey. There is Angelo (Matteo Sciabordi), the 8-year-old Italian boy who clings to Train, whom he calls the "chocolate giant." Renata (Valentina Cervi) is the Italian heartthrob who steals the hearts of both Stamps and Cummings. And there is Peppi (Pierfrancesco Favino), the anti-Nazi group leader from the Italian village.

But for a film that has so much potential, its actual outcome disappoints. Lee went way overboard in his attempt to grab the audience's emotions. "Miracle at St. Anna" reeks of symbolism to the point of nausea. There are only so many times that you can use close-up shots of swastikas and angry Germans to conclude they are bad guys.

The violent scenes, which are no doubt profuse, are both unrealistic and overdramatic. Many of the scenes don't make sense, but are obviously incorporated for the emotional appeal. This fails to enhance the film, and creates a growing sense of disbelief as the events play out.

The overlapping plots between the Italians, the Germans and the 92nd Division become muddled and arbitrary. With the addition of Negron's shooting mystery taking place in 1984, as well as the many Italian subplots, Lee's work could have been divided into three or four films, not one.

The most interesting aspect that should have been the sole focus of the film is the conflicting roles of the black men fighting for America. For a country that considered blacks "second class citizens," the men of the 92nd Division not only battled America's enemies, but they also battled America's prejudice. While in Italy, one of the soldiers said, "I feel more free in a foreign country than I do in my own."

The men often have opposing viewpoints about their position in the military. Stamps holds the position that having black men serve is progress for African American rights in the U.S. Cummings, on the other hand, argues the only reason they are there is because the U.S. is running out of white men to fight. That's not progress, it's just sick.

One of the most powerful scenes in the film occurs in the U.S. while some of the 92nd Division's men are in training. They walk into a diner to get some food.

There is a group of German POWs at the diner sitting in a booth relaxing and eating some ice cream. The black men look over at them in disbelief that Nazis are allowed into the diner. After the men of the 92nd Division ask for their food, the manager says they can go around the back of the diner to get it. The concept that the U.S. would cater to the Nazi enemies before their black allies is a big slap in the face.

"Miracle at St. Anna" has the right material, but is unfortunately a letdown overall. Despite the botched aspects of the film, the story of the black men fighting in WWII is paramount. When interviewed for this film, Lee said, "We continue putting out these lies again and again, and young people growing up have no idea that this stuff even happened." This film is a tribute to the men who fought for our country but never received credit.
'Miracle at St. Anna' depicts those overlooked in WWII - Verve

 

Cleveland WW II vets fought through the racism and war depicted in 'Miracle at St. Anna'

Posted by Clint O'Connor/Plain Dealer Reporter October 10, 2008 23:57PM

Categories: Real Time News
Chris Stephens/The Plain DealerRobert Madison, left, and William Perry served with the "Buffalo Soldiers," the 92nd Infantry division that is the focus of "Miracle at St. Anna." • America and race; three movies chart decades of racism and civil rights


Black soldiers in "Miracle at St. Anna" fight two enemies: the German army and their own white commanders. The big-screen bigotry was a real-life rule for several Cleveland men who served in America's 92nd Infantry division.
Dubbed "Buffalo Soldiers," they fought in Italy in 1944 and are the focus of Spike Lee's World War II film.
"The white soldiers had spread the word that black folks were animals, that we had tails," said Robert Madison, 85, the noted Cleveland architect who was wounded in Italy in 1944.
"The Germans did not consider black soldiers human. Hitler told them they were the master race. There was no kind of Geneva Convention for blacks from the Germans. They would just shoot them. They didn't want any black prisoners."

"Miracle at St. Anna" swirls with subplots, but its primary focus is the 92nd, the first unit of black soldiers to fight in the war for the then-segregated U.S. Army.
"The way they treated black soldiers, we fought World War II with one hand tied behind our back," said William Perry of Shaker Heights.
Perry, 84, was a consultant on the film and the book it's based on. He recently went to New York to tape DVD commentary with Lee and James McBride, the Oberlin College graduate who wrote the novel and screenplay. The film, starring Derek Luke and Michael Ealy, wraps a fictional story about helping an Italian boy around historic events.
Several former Buffalo Soldiers praised the authenticity of the film after a recent screening.
"The way it portrayed the stresses between the black soldiers and the white officers was very real," said Madison. "There was a lack of trust all the way along the line."
Before they shipped overseas, black soldiers were second-class citizens. In the South, where several military bases were located, they were denied entrance to restaurants, rode in separate cars on troop trains and faced stricter base rules than whites. Even organizing the 92nd was a challenge.
"No congressional delegation would allow a division-sized unit of 15,000 armed Negroes to be trained in their state," said Perry. The army finally settled on Fort Huachuca in Arizona, a distant outpost near the Mexican border.
"We weren't like the Norman Rockwell posters, going to the USO to drink coffee," said Perry. "We got to Arizona, and every city in the state was placed off-limits to us. They didn't want black soldiers socializing with the civilian population.
In Europe, with bullets flying and bombs blasting, they discovered something else.
"We were welcomed by the British and French troops and the Italians," said Madison. "They were just glad we were there fighting the Nazis. In the States, we weren't allowed in restaurants. In Florence, on R&R, I was welcome at the opera. For the first time in our lives, we were regarded as human beings who were citizens of the world."
It bothers the veterans that blacks have been largely omitted from the pantheon of Hollywood's famous World War II movies. But missing in their voices is bitterness. It comes down to two things: pride for what they accomplished, and a lingering salute of sadness to the thousands who never made it home.
"The story in the States during the war was that black folks wouldn't fight," said Madison. "We said, we're going to go and prove that we love this country as much as anyone else. We'll prove it by our actions. We'll prove it by fighting. And by dying."

Cleveland WW II vets fought through the racism and war depicted in 'Miracle at St. Anna' - Metro - cleveland.com

 

Hey Mussolini? How much of the fictional movie actually "focus" on the 92nd and its Black soldiers and how much on just the fictional soldiers?

 

lol

 

Ha ha, just have to laugh about its dismal box-office reciepts. I can't wait to read the 2010 edition to the thick and fairly useless book that the Dork Film Critic leonard maltin puts out every year-just so I could read his praise for this movie. I say that because I have only agreed with him on two movies out of about 14,000 he's criticized. :lol: :lol:

 

Thanks for all the heads-up dealing with this trash called-a movie. If I were enticed with a week stay at a resort of my choice-for free-but i'd have to sit through this movie-it would probably be a tough choice but-I think i'd skip the free resort stay.

If it's possible to have even less respect for spike lee-I sure have it now.

 

The movie doesn't even focus on the Division - just the 4 main character who are in such a far fetched position its almost funny. Not to mention there being maybe only 2 scenes involving white officers, and those are pretty poorly played out too.

 

wow ok here I was, looking at the title of the thread thinking finally, a good WWII movie ?
Sadly to say, I was dissapointed.

Ouch Spike Lee .... ouch ....

Herr

 

Hi Herr, spike lee is a nutcase if I ever saw one. After what he's tried to pull this year-starting with Clint Eastwood-i'll never take him seriously on anything-let alone ever watch anything he ever makes.