Trailer of the Week - Miracle at St. Anna

I'm going to start a new weekly column highlighting my favorite movie trailer of the week.  This week's trailer is for Spike Lee's World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna, which opens on Sept. 26, and is touted as one of the front runners for the Oscars this year.

Now I know what you're thinking.  This is yet another opportunity for Spike Lee to get his revenge on Clint Eastwood.  First he criticized Clint for making a black film about the black jazz musician Charlie Parker way back in 1988 (The musical biopic Bird.).  He said a white man couldn't make a film about a black musician.  (Eastwood is a practiced pianist and jazz afficionado who has composed the music for several of his films, whereas Lee's father, Bill Lee, was a famous rock n' roll bassist who played for Aretha Franklin, among others.)  To combat this, Lee made his own musical biopic, 1990's Mo' Better Blues.  The films were equally well-received, though equally forgettable in the scope of their makers' careers.

Now we have Lee criticizing Eastwood's two World War II efforts, the back-to-back Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both dealing with the United States' invasion of Iwo Jima, the first told from the American perspective, the second from the Japanese.  Lee highlighted the lack of a single African American soldier in either film, although historically there were black soldiers there.  (To be fair, in the background of Letters from Iwo Jima, there are black soldiers visible in a few shots - though they have no speaking lines and no close-ups.)

So here is Lee's retort - a World War II drama that deals exclusively with a regiment of African-American soldiers sent into battle in Italy to counter a Nazi invasion.  But Miracle at St. Anna is a lot more intriguing than that, judging by this haunting preview.  You would think it was a crime film, you would think it was a Twin Peaks episode, before you would think it was a World War II drama.  It sucked me in.  It is intriguing, it is weird, it is fascinating, it looks like it could potentially give me nightmares.  Saving Private Ryan didn't do that, Flags of Our Fathers and Iwo Jima didn't do that - so I'd say Lee has a leg up on the competition.  Maybe we'll get to see him up there on the stage holding one of those golden boys yet.

(Be sure to freeze frame the trailer during the quick shot of one of the most beautiful actresses out there - Alexandra Maria Lara - positioned in front of a Nazi flag.  She's quite a sight.  I don't know why she isn't in more films.)

Click here to view the trailer.