American Comparative study: Miracle at St. Anna & Inglorious Bastards

Both Inglorious Bastards and Miracle at St. Anna are WW2 films and follow a group of soldiers, not often represented in today’s film industry. The WW2 action film Genre is an oversaturated market but Inglorious Bastards and Miracle at St. Anna differ from the norm due to their perspective. Miracle at St. Anna is told from the perspective of a platoon of black soldiers, this an uncommon perspective for WW2 films, though it follows the conventions of the director Spike lee whose films are often told from a black perspective. Inglorious Bastards is told from the perspective of a group of Jewish soldiers in Germany who use fear and intimidation to fight fire with fire.

Both groups within the films are an oppressed minority, in Miracle at St. Anna the black soldiers are thought of as very little by their white commander who has no problems shelling their position, not believing that they are capable of getting across the river which for all intents and purposes was a suicide mission which is why the black soldiers were sent first.

The story telling of both films is different in the sense that neither has a conventional way of telling their narrative. Miracle at St. Anna uses many flashbacks, and the main course of the film is set during one of these flashbacks. Inglorious Bastards tells two stories concurrently, it also used flashbacks and flash forwards, although to a lesser degree. The films differ in their presentation; one could argue that Inglorious Bastards uses a large amount of Black humour in order to tell the story, whereas the only comedic relief in Miracle at St. Anna is the slightly slow soldier who looks after the boy.

In conclusion Miracle at St. Anna share many similarities with Inglorious bastards in its themes of an oppressed minority refusing to be victims despite their often desperate situation.