Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II, four members of the U.S. Army's all-black 92nd Infantry Division are trapped behind enemy lines after one of them risks his life to save a traumatized boy. The group then works its way to a nearby village where the soldiers gather intelligence behind enemy lines.

I'm usually a fan of Spike Lee movies, but Miracle at St. Anna is a bloated mess and lacks direction. The flashback/forward sequences are poorly orchestrated, there are too many subplots, and numerous scenes shouldn't have made it into the final cut. The actors do their best with the material, but the nearly 3-hour runtime felt like an eternity.

The AVC encode is difficult to rate because of the cinematographic choices made by Lee. The 1983 footage features a clean print with punchy color saturation and rock-solid black levels. When flashing back to WWII, the picture takes on a much grittier look with lots of grain, noisy blacks, and a muted color palette. Detail wavers from razor-sharp in close-ups to a softer appearance in wider shots, but the Italian countryside looks fantastic.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack isn't as aggressive as I've heard from other war movies, especially in the LFE channel. The surround speakers have ample effects and provide an encompassing soundfield, but when the artillery shells impact the earth, I didn't have that "being there" experience. On the plus side, the dialog sounds natural in its tone, and the score by Terence Blanchard fills the room nicely.

The supplements consist of nine deleted scenes, a discussion with Spike Lee and WWII veterans, and a 20-minute featurette about the Buffalo Soldiers' firsthand accounts from the war—all in HD.

While the historically based story attempts to portray the lives of black soldiers during WWII, the screenplay lacks coherency and it's much too long. The presentation is solid, but there are much better films on Blu-ray that are more worth your time.

Release Date: February 10, 2009
Studio: Touchstone

Movie: 3/10
Picture: 8/10
Sound: 8/10

Review System

Source
Panasonic DMP-BD55

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 Amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics