Let me first of all start by saying that Spike Lee is an auteur, in the same class as Woody Allen or Francois Truffaut, but depending upon the subject matter, this can work for or against you. He has an original way of looking at things and an original point of view to express. This is in full evidence when you watch the film 'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA', which unfortunately fails to address its subject matter with the appropriate tone suitable to the massacre of over nine hundred people. There is a bleakness about the deaths of hundreds of people in one horrific incident that demands it assume the foreground and not the background.
The experience of catharsis in the Theater is a communal experience. Such an experience reminds one that the word 'religion' is rooted in an earlier word that can rightly be translated to mean 'community'. Catharsis was meant in ancient times to purge the community of unwholesome feeling and to act as a kind of therapy to lift the mind to a state bordering on philosophic reflection. The aim was to free all of cloying emotion in such a way that the community could see Life as it is and yet feel fortified to go on with their own lives.
Cinema does not aim or intend to achieve catharsis so much as it strives for a visual grasp upon the noumenal at its best, and the arousal of such kinetic emotions as makes one's heart race or causes one to hold their breath in its more commercial uses. However, an auteur will often roll the dice and find himself flirting with the phenomenon of catharsis in film and even rubbing shoulders with the noumenal. This has happened at times in Spike Lee films and been handled with varying degrees of success.
'MALCOLM X' did not get my last half of a star as a fully fledged four star movie because I could sense the ending was too celebratory and after seeing yet another black man sacrificed in the prime of his life and at the height of his powers for the sacred cause of greater Human Freedom, a moment of silence and more was probably most appropriate and fitting. The catharsis was spoiled by what seemed to be the attitude, "-alright! Let's boogie for the man!" and the reference to 'SPARTACUS' with the little African and African American school children declaring 'I AM MALCOLM X!' There were other shortcomings to this flawed masterpiece, but many of these were temptations any artist might succumb to and so Lee could be given leeway with them.
'HE GOT GAME' ran to an ending that was more in keeping with what film can do and flirted with that concept of the noumenal. 'GET ON THE BUS' presented an interesting range of characters and came to a resolution that was really suited to its subject matter. 'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA' was another opportunity for Spike Lee to stretch himself, but the characters are not as well drawn as in 'GET ON THE BUS', nor does the resolution leave one with the feeling of a full emotional discharge. One feels still 'worked up' as I did at the ending of 'MALCOLM X', although I could not deny it was a great show and a memorable experience.
'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA' is a wonderfully photographed and visually arresting film and yet it feels all stirred up without all its elements being properly rendered and clarified. Corporal Hector Negron's story, instead of bookending the film should have run intermittently parallel with the story building up to the massacre at St. Anna. This would have given the audience time to develop some background on the relationship between Negron and the Traitor. The shooting instead of occurring at the beginning should have happened at the end after the massacre and the formulaic Hollywood Happy Ending should have been eschewed. This would have been in keeping with the bleakness of the subject matter. Before all this as well, Director Spike Lee and Writer James McBride should have established for the film at least what 'the miracle' was going to be, as it should have been something a little bit more substantial that a half a dozen incidents that might vaguely suggest themselves.
A few other things are worthy of note. One of the things no filmmaker has captured to my satisfaction is the sullen residual dignity I have often seen in the faces of particularly urban blacks. I have often seen them on the bus, coming home late at night from their work shift wearing no social masks and there is a visual beauty to that I have never seen captured on the screen. It is similar to the way Kirk Douglas was photographed at the end of 'PATHS OF GLORY' and the way the waiters in 'A FACE IN THE CROWD' kept their cool when Andy Griffith was berating them for not 'loving' him enough. Spike Lee even touched upon it a little in a prison yard scene in 'MALCOLM X', but as I indicated, it is not anger exactly, but a dignity that cannot be effaced by event or circumstance.
The other thing is that the delight and glory of interracial romance is one thing, and properly treated it can have dramatic value, but it has yet to be approached with any real subtlety or nuance in the films of Spike Lee or others for anything other than shock and controversy. Here in 'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA' it comes across as obligatory and yet at the same time as nonsequitur as it was in 'SWEET-SWEETBACK'S BAAAD ASSSSS SONG'. Unfortunately, the shroud of death should cloak this film because nearly a thousand people are about to violently lose their lives, along with four Buffalo Soldiers on the wrong side of an offensive.
That deserves a moment of silent prayer more than a hymn or gospel song.
The experience of catharsis in the Theater is a communal experience. Such an experience reminds one that the word 'religion' is rooted in an earlier word that can rightly be translated to mean 'community'. Catharsis was meant in ancient times to purge the community of unwholesome feeling and to act as a kind of therapy to lift the mind to a state bordering on philosophic reflection. The aim was to free all of cloying emotion in such a way that the community could see Life as it is and yet feel fortified to go on with their own lives.
Cinema does not aim or intend to achieve catharsis so much as it strives for a visual grasp upon the noumenal at its best, and the arousal of such kinetic emotions as makes one's heart race or causes one to hold their breath in its more commercial uses. However, an auteur will often roll the dice and find himself flirting with the phenomenon of catharsis in film and even rubbing shoulders with the noumenal. This has happened at times in Spike Lee films and been handled with varying degrees of success.
'MALCOLM X' did not get my last half of a star as a fully fledged four star movie because I could sense the ending was too celebratory and after seeing yet another black man sacrificed in the prime of his life and at the height of his powers for the sacred cause of greater Human Freedom, a moment of silence and more was probably most appropriate and fitting. The catharsis was spoiled by what seemed to be the attitude, "-alright! Let's boogie for the man!" and the reference to 'SPARTACUS' with the little African and African American school children declaring 'I AM MALCOLM X!' There were other shortcomings to this flawed masterpiece, but many of these were temptations any artist might succumb to and so Lee could be given leeway with them.
'HE GOT GAME' ran to an ending that was more in keeping with what film can do and flirted with that concept of the noumenal. 'GET ON THE BUS' presented an interesting range of characters and came to a resolution that was really suited to its subject matter. 'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA' was another opportunity for Spike Lee to stretch himself, but the characters are not as well drawn as in 'GET ON THE BUS', nor does the resolution leave one with the feeling of a full emotional discharge. One feels still 'worked up' as I did at the ending of 'MALCOLM X', although I could not deny it was a great show and a memorable experience.
'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA' is a wonderfully photographed and visually arresting film and yet it feels all stirred up without all its elements being properly rendered and clarified. Corporal Hector Negron's story, instead of bookending the film should have run intermittently parallel with the story building up to the massacre at St. Anna. This would have given the audience time to develop some background on the relationship between Negron and the Traitor. The shooting instead of occurring at the beginning should have happened at the end after the massacre and the formulaic Hollywood Happy Ending should have been eschewed. This would have been in keeping with the bleakness of the subject matter. Before all this as well, Director Spike Lee and Writer James McBride should have established for the film at least what 'the miracle' was going to be, as it should have been something a little bit more substantial that a half a dozen incidents that might vaguely suggest themselves.
A few other things are worthy of note. One of the things no filmmaker has captured to my satisfaction is the sullen residual dignity I have often seen in the faces of particularly urban blacks. I have often seen them on the bus, coming home late at night from their work shift wearing no social masks and there is a visual beauty to that I have never seen captured on the screen. It is similar to the way Kirk Douglas was photographed at the end of 'PATHS OF GLORY' and the way the waiters in 'A FACE IN THE CROWD' kept their cool when Andy Griffith was berating them for not 'loving' him enough. Spike Lee even touched upon it a little in a prison yard scene in 'MALCOLM X', but as I indicated, it is not anger exactly, but a dignity that cannot be effaced by event or circumstance.
The other thing is that the delight and glory of interracial romance is one thing, and properly treated it can have dramatic value, but it has yet to be approached with any real subtlety or nuance in the films of Spike Lee or others for anything other than shock and controversy. Here in 'MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA' it comes across as obligatory and yet at the same time as nonsequitur as it was in 'SWEET-SWEETBACK'S BAAAD ASSSSS SONG'. Unfortunately, the shroud of death should cloak this film because nearly a thousand people are about to violently lose their lives, along with four Buffalo Soldiers on the wrong side of an offensive.
That deserves a moment of silent prayer more than a hymn or gospel song.