Miracle at St. Anna is A SPIKE LEE dis(JOINT)ed film. Unfortunately the only miracle at this premiere was that people didn’t get up and leave the theater before it was over. The film starts with the seemingly random killing of a man in a post office. While every part of you expects that the murder will be explained, two plus hours into the story you’ll be asking yourself if the opening scene actually had anything to do with this jarring jaunt back and forth through the lives of the main characters.

The movie at its core is about the plight of the 92^nd Infantry Division, known as the Buffalo Soldiers Division, during World War II. This segregated unit was the only African-American infantry division to see combat in Europe during the Italian Campaign.

Focusing in on four soldiers separated from the rest of their unit; Second Staff Sergeant Aubrey Banks (Derek Luke); Sergeant Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy); Cpl. Hector Negron (Laz Alonso), the man charged with murder 40 years later; and PFC Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller) find themselves holed up in the town of Colognora, Italy looking after an injured boy named Angelo (Matteo Sciabordi).

The storyline alternates between somewhat touching looks at wartime compassion, realistically gruesome battle carnage, way too much subtitled dialogue involving German forces and Italian partisans, and a clear look at the ugliness of racism.

It’s problem is that it dwells too long on parts that are utterly boring and makes you wonder if the subtitles are there to keep your eyes open and your mind engaged lest there be an important clue as to where the movie is going.  And then it whisks frantically through any sort of compelling character development that may have let you care about what was happening. By the end of the 160 minutes you leave wishing it had been about 50 minutes shorter, and wondering why we were force-fed more Italian war political discussion and German forces interaction than was needed to set up the conclusion.

At its best, this movie was a compelling and visually chaotic glimpse into what most blacks experienced as infantry soldiers in WWII. Spike Lee’s action sequences amp up the adrenaline in a visual cacophony that leaves you hoping you’ll never have to endure a firefight – and praying for the ones who have to each day or have been scarred by them in the past.

Ultimately, Miracle at St. Anna ends up being an overextended foray into 1940′s racism. While the unjustness of the story seeks to remind us of where we’ve been as a country; it’s clouded in a murder mystery, within a war crime, inside a vision of the supernatural, ending in a sigh of frustration despite the all too neatly wrapped up, but overly late conclusion.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆