Spike Lee Promotes Miracle at St. Anna in Italy

Spike Lee is gearing up for “Miracle at St. Anna”, a $45 million dollar World War II movie about black Americans fighting in Italy. But that’s not the interesting part, it’s this article at Variety, which claims the bold title, “Spike Lee attacks Hollywood films”. Before reading the article, I expected your trademark Spike Lee vicious rant against “Whitey”, but instead it was, well, kind of weak. Here’s what Lee said: “If you look at the history of Hollywood, the black soldiers who fought World War II are totally invisible… This is the paradox: black people who were fighting for democracy but at the same time were second class citizens at home.” Apparently to Variety that’s called “attacking”. Hmm…

Anyways, more from Lee’s Italy trip:

Also on hand at the presser were 82-year-old WWII vet William Perry, a member of a Buffalo Soldiers unit made up of black Americans who fought the Nazis in Italy, and Moreno Costa, an Italian anti-Fascist partisan who fought alongside Italy’s American liberators.

Perry said his 15,000-strong Buffalo Soldiers battalion suffered 3,000 casualties in Italy.

Lee was in Rome en route to scouting Tuscan locations for the $45 million drama, which producers Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini are still in talks to secure financing for. Neither Italian nor international distributors are yet in place.

I hope the film gets made. Despite his sometimes loudmouthy ways, I’m anxious to see what the guy who did “Do the Right Thing” can do with a big budget and World War II action.