committed: miracle on st. anna.

GT recognizes that it’s very easy to criticize. Too easy in fact.  In today’s mosquito gnat attention span culture snap judgements have become the go to replacement for the all too important skill of critical thinking.

With that being said; contemporary black film is in a sad state of affairs yall. Not only have they been exclusively reduced to the reigns of comedy, sanging and dancing, but absolutely no one wants to take a risk on distributing our stories; especially in today’s sensitive RETURN ON INVESTMENT culture.  Miracle made 3.5 million dollars this weekend and the price tag to make it was $45 mil.

*Ouch* 

For Mr. Lee there seems to be a consistently laborious and perpetually draining uphill power struggle to get films made that document the range of who black folks are. The film based on a novel and screen play written by James McBride was an answer to the headcase of “omission amnesia” that mainstream Hollywood seems to catch whenever documenting African American contributions to American culture. 

GT wanted so bad for Spike to do well; but dude gaffed on this one. Miracle was poorly executed son. It had a great plot but was highly flawed in which what could’ve been said in an hour and a half was melodramatically stretched out into 2.4 hours. The acting was flat, over-the-top, downright hammy and glazed with contemporary ad-libs; all with the exception of lead newbie actor Laz Alonso who came across at the very least the most natural of the cast.

But don’t take GT’s review for face value. Miracle wasn’t the greatest war film made but it does accomplish documenting the fact that yes…we were there…in full effect. And under very shitty second-class citizen circumstances to boot. You’re not obligated to support anyone; but if anyone deserves your top ramen dollars it should be Spike. A man committed to delivering the range of who we are.

Posted by gt on September 30, 2008

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