Miracle at St. Anna

I watched a really good movie this past weekend, called Miracle at St. Anna. But I must warn you that it is really long--about 2 hours and 45 minutes. The movie follows four Buffalo Soldiers in World War II. If you didn't know, Buffalo Soldiers is the name of the first all-black regiments in the U.S. Army, which was established during the Civil War.

The movie opens in New York City in 1983 when an older gentlemen is working as a clerk at the post office. While working, he seems to recognize a customer and without a warning shoots the man dead with a WWII-era German Luger. During an interview, he tells his tale as a Buffalo Soldier in 1944 in Tuscany, Italy and about a carved stone head, a lost Italian boy, and the only "family" he ever knew.

This movie is unlike any war movie I've ever seen. Not only do these soldiers have to face the obvious dangers of war, they struggle with their own allegiance to their country and conflict with their fellow white solders. The Buffalo soldiers fought for a country that did not view them as equals. They had to endure prejudice back home and in the war zone.

These four soldiers seemed like real people and not stereotypes or caricatures. The movie shows them at their weakest and strongest moments. What made me love this movie is the bonds between these four soldiers. They were brothers. They were there for each other in the most desperate of times--mainly when bullets were flying their way. However, they fought and disagreed too. No matter what, in the end, they were family. During the terrible times of war, they only had each other.