About the Soundtrack: Again reuniting with Spike Lee, composer Terence Blanchard continues his ongoing collaboration with the director for "Miracle at St. Anna," a film set in World War 2 depicting the hardships of four african-american soldiers trapped behind enemy lines. The soundtrack is comprised of 24 tracks (75 minutes!), all of which is bona fide score material, and is arranged primarily as various theme sets. Regarding its length -- there is a great wealth of music on this release, including some tracks that are over 10 minutes long, thus the running time is above average.
What You Need to Know: Pre-conceptions can, at times, lead to disappointment. That is the case here as it relates to my expectations from this score. Given that the storyline of the film brimmed with promise, I was hoping the score would be a soaring, dramatic body of work that would move me. What I ended up with was a score that didn't really hit it's stride until the final act, which by then, was too late.
The soundtrack begins deliberately, with a slow moving pace that is geared toward a build up of some sort that finally arrives in track 5. That some of these initial tracks were dubbed as "themes" was a little confusing since I couldn't really detect a significant enough a motif that can categorize them as so. And speaking of which -- many of the tracks laid out on this score are indeed represented as "themes" in their titles, such as the "War is Hell" theme that appears three times in all on the soundtrack. While I love the promise of a score that categorizes segments of is music as related themes, I think it is even more important to deliver on these titles with material that is significant enough to be categorized as such.
Focusing on the most effective of the themes, the aforementioned "War is Hell" is the best of the lot. It's in these tracks that Blanchard hits dramatic crescendos that I felt was necessary for a film such as this. The three cues from the 'War is Hell' segment are broken apart at different points on the album but are connected thematically in their structure and vary in tone when needed. Paced intermittently by military style drum rolls and percussion, I really enjoyed these pockets of music, including the cue that spans over 10 minutes in length (which very well felt like a suite).
The Main Theme that begins so weakly at the outset of the soundtrack later resurfaces near the album's conclusion to a far better fate. As I mentioned earlier, Blanchard hits his stride late in the game on this one and a lot of that has to do with how well the Main Theme is presented in it's final rendition. Likewise, the end credits, where the music offered a bit of a better, dramatic flow to it.
I suppose my key issue with "Miracle at St. Anna" is that the score never quite seemed to present itself in a unified manner . There is a sour palette that is often heard through the notes and felt as if the instruments never quite seemed to synchronize. Granted, I am certain it was Blanchard's intention to force the music to be at odds with itself, specifically when dealing with the Nazis, but I was hoping for a bit more poignancy from the work. At no time was I taken aback with emotion nor did I ever feel a strong connection with the style of music.
Final Score: A bit of a misfire, "Miracle at St. Anna" isn't all too bad but it simply doesn't offer enough consistency or emotion throughout. Granted, the soundtrack produces a nice send off with it's final 5 tracks, but there are too many lukewarm moments to get through to truly enjoy the payoff. I'd take a pass on this one.
