With 2008's Miracle at St. Anna, director Spike Lee aimed to make a war movie like no other. Based on a book of the same name by James McBride (who also wrote the screenplay), it told the tale of four Buffalo Soldiers becoming detached from their unit and finding shelter in a Tuscany village. It was an ambitious project, much like all movies from Spike Lee. However, whereas other ambitious projects from Lee have yielded acclaim, the critical reception for Miracle at St. Anna was far more negative and widely directed at Lee's expansive canvas.
To be fair, reviews for Miracle at St. Anna were at least more mixed than outright toxic, with many observing that the feature did have its share of successful moments. However, glimpses of potential were largely overlooked in favor of Miracle at St. Anna's most widely noticed flaw: excess. Whether it was in regards to its runtime or the presence of a widely-disparaged framing device, critics found Miracle at St. Anna to be too much movie for too little of a rewarding experience. "There's a perfectly fine, Sam Fuller-ish, 90-minute war movie on a worthy subject trapped somewhere in the self-indulgences of Miracle at St. Anna," opined Lou Lumenick. Clearly, the kind of rave reviews that have greeted Spike Lee movies both old (Do the Right Thing) and new (Da 5 Bloods) were in short supply for Miracle at St. Anna.
