Working from James McBride’s adaptation of his novel about the travails of four “Buffalo soldiers” — members of the all–“colored” 92nd Infantry Regiment — in WWII Tuscany, Spike Lee mounts his very own war epic with mixed but often exciting results. That said, the hokum gets piled on several inches thick at times — if not for the pigmentation of the heroes, Miracle at St. Anna could almost be a blustery ’40s war flick. Even at nearly three hours long, the overloaded narrative has to swell to make room for impressive battle set pieces, examples of vintage bigotry, heated arguments over racial politics, business with a cute kid, squabbles among Italian partisans, a few awkward framing devices, some heaving Italian bosoms and a last-minute detour into magic realism. It’s bound to exhaust even some of Lee’s own partisans but the best scenes have plenty of brio and the director’s air of righteous indignation has rarely been put to better use. 

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