Miracle at St. Anna
Headline: ** Jesus Saves **
Title: MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA
Quality: * * * * Acceptability: -2
SUBTITLES: -- Some Italian and German with English Subtitles --
WARNING CODES:
Language: LLL
Violence: VVV
Sex: S
Nudity: NN
RATING: R
RELEASE: September 26, 2008
TIME: 160 minutes
STARRING: Derek Luke, Omar Benson Miller, Laz Alonso, Michael Ealy, Matteo Sciabordi, Valentina Cervi, Pierfrancesco Favino, Sergio Albelli, Walton Goggins, Kerry Washington, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and John Turturro
DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
PRODUCERS: Spike Lee, Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Marco Valerio Pgini and Jon Kilik
WRITER: James McBride
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY: James McBride
DISTRIBUTOR: Touchstone Pictures/Walt Disney Company
CONTENT: (CCC, BB, FR, Pa, PC, LLL, VVV, S, NN, A, D, M) Very strong Christian worldview with references to Jesus and an ultimately uplifting ending with the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" over the end credits which, however, shows the graphic brutality of war and contains macho use of foul language, plus some mystical and antinomian elements reflecting the paganism of a humanity without God, and some light political correctness because the only two American Southerner characters with speaking parts are racists; about 74 obscenities, 22 strong profanities (only one or two referring to Jesus, most are GD), 11 light profanities; very strong, sometimes graphic and bloody war violence includes image of a stump of an arm and a leg, head wounds, people shot with pistols, rifles and machine guns, explosions, bombs falling, man lifts fallen beam off child, implied stabbing of an infant in massacre scene committed by National Socialists from Germany, man's neck stabbed, citizens shot by troops, priest shot in head by National Socialist officer, National Socialist troops massacre civilians with machine guns, faces of dead soldier floating in river, etc.; implied fornication in two scenes (one set in 1944 and one set in 1983), woman dressed in lingerie in 1983 sits on man's lap and kisses him passionately, and some crude comments about sex, especially by one soldier who's not seen in a favorable light; upper female nudity when woman takes off garment to wash it and she lets a soldier see her, and upper female nudity of murdered mother who was suckling her infant before she died; alcohol use; smoking; and, treason, betrayal, man gets away with a crime though the crime may be justified in one sense.
GENRE: War Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers to adults
Please address your comments to:
Robert Iger, President/CEO, The Walt Disney Company
(Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, and Buena Vista Distribution)
Dick Cook, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Phone: (818) 560-1000
Website: www.disney.com
SUMMARY: MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA is about four black soldiers in World War II who befriend Italian villagers after they become trapped behind enemy lines when one of their number rescues a traumatized Italian boy with a deadly secret. MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA is a very powerful movie showing the brutality of war, with a strong positive Christian worldview, but it contains plenty of very strong war violence and foul language, and some sexual content, including explicit nudity in two scenes.
IN BRIEF:
MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA opens in 1983 with an elderly black postal officer in New York shooting an elderly Italian immigrant in cold blood. As a reporter investigates the story behind the murder, the movie cuts to 1944 Italy during World War II. Four black soldiers get trapped behind enemy lines when one of them rescues an Italian boy affected by a terrible trauma. They befriend a group of Italians in a village abandoned by the Germans, but one of the Italian resistance fighters is a traitor. Things come to a head when the Germans begin to mobilize for a final assault on American troops across the river.
MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA is a very powerful movie showing the brutality of war, laced with a stunning, impressive, eloquent, and ultimately inspiring spirituality. The cast, coached by director Spike Lee, does a brilliant job. The movie has a very strong Christian worldview that ultimately focuses on God and Jesus, and on compassion and love. It contains, however, plenty of very strong war violence, foul language and some sexual content, including brief explicit nudity. This warrants extreme caution, even for older viewers.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
