Miracle at St. AnnaMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Miracle at St. Anna."

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Avg. Critic Score: 37 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Contains scenes of brilliance, interrupted by scenes that meander. There is too much, too many characters, too many subplots. But there is so much here that is powerful that it should be seen no matter its imperfections. Read full review

  • 50
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    The film collapses because Lee can't sew these vignettes into a seamless tapestry. He's more interested in getting even than he is in getting it right. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Aspires to be epic, but mostly it's just unfocused, sprawling and badly in need of editing. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    It is in the fragile bonds that form between the black soldiers and the Italian villagers that Miracle at St. Anna breaks free of its own grandiosity and tells a grounded, moving, human story. Not a miracle by any means, but an earthy inquiry into death, duty, friendship and honor. What we've always wanted from war movies. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Miracle isn't powerful, it's muddled and diffuse. Read full review

  • 30
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Odd too, for a film that wants to correct impression anyone had as to the abilities of black U.S. soldier in combat, are the ethnic cliches about Italians and Germans, to say nothing of rednecks. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    The movie winds up a casualty of schmaltzy, patronizing sentiment on the one hand and overweening ambition on the other. Read full review

  • 30
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    Pedestrian and awkward, this film is a disappointment not only in comparison with Lee's earlier epic, the underrated " Malcolm X," but also in comparison with another film with similar aims, Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory." Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    The first and most honest thing to say about Miracle at St. Anna is that it's an awful mess. Read full review

  • 20
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    This is a sloppy stew in which the ingredients of battle action, murder mystery, little-kid sentiment and history lesson don't mix well. Read full review

View more reviews for Miracle at St. Anna on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Brutal WWII battlefield fable isn't for kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that, from start to finish, this is a violent war movie and not meant for kids. Though the filmmakers try to humanize the characters (including portraying a sympathetic Nazi), acts of cruelty, barbaric murder, wounding, and killing are graphically depicted throughout the film. Images include gunshots to the head, severed limbs, the massacre of innocent victims (including many children and babies), and blood gushing from heads and bodies and pooling around lifeless soldiers in the water. A young child is in danger throughout the film. Vicious racism is a continuing theme, and language is frequently crass and explicit (including many uses of both "f--k" and the "N" word). Two scenes show a bare-breasted woman; another includes passionate sexual foreplay.
  • Families can talk about what this movie is saying about American history. What was the country fighting for in World War II? Why were the military troops segregated during that war -- and throughout U.S. history? How has America's racial conscience changed since then? Also, what does Captain Nokes represent? Did he learn anything over the course of the film? How did you feel about him?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Some white American soldiers' blatantly cruel racism is tempered by the decency of other soldiers and officers; African-American soldiers are shown as courageous, heroic, and smart; a slow-witted soldier is depicted as brave, sensitive, and humane; the brutality of war is unsentimental and undisguised; a vengeful murder is seen as justifiable and satisfying.
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Explicit wartime brutality includes use of grenades and rifles, bloody deaths, severed limbs, and point-blank shooting. A savage massacre of an entire village in front of a church includes a close-up of a priest as he's shot in the head and graphic murders of children, women, and the elderly. A young boy is in jeopardy in many scenes throughout the movie. Also stabbings, a throat slashing, and several ambushes resulting in mass murder of unsuspecting villagers.
  • sex false3 Sex: A provocatively dressed young woman engages in seductive behavior to get her boyfriend's attention; a soldier views the bare breasts of woman preparing to do laundry; a brief scene of passionate sexual foreplay includes kissing, embracing, and undressing, with bare breasts visible.
  • language false5 Language: Pervasive swearing throughout includes countless use of all forms of "f--k," as well as "s--t," "bastard," "p---y," "sons of bitches," "whore," "goddamn," and more. Frequent use of the "N" word both as a racial taunt by white bigots and between African-American soldiers as "buddy speak."
  • consumerism false1 Consumerism: Camel cigarettes.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Smoking throughout, as was common during the period.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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