Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Not sure what is the point of the story. It is strange and complex. Germans are the top bad but few characters are all bad or all good. There are resistants, italian town with a lovely one, boy rescued, and plenty of murders, and one massacre. Some of it rings true but a lot of the story seems off, like a strange dream.

It's Christmas 1983 New York. Postal worker Hector Negron shoots a customer. Police finds the missing Primavera from Santa Trinita, a statute head from a bridge. Reporter Tim Boyle proclaims him the Marble Head Murderer. Flashback to Tuscany 1944. The 92nd Infantry Division Buffalo Soldiers are advancing across a river. The racist Captain Nokes dismisses his own troops' transmission and shells them. Sam Train carries the marble head for good luck. He and Bishop Cummings makes it across the river. They rescue an Italian boy. Later, they are joined by Hector and Aubrey Stamps. The four men and boy reach the town of St. Anna. Meanwhile, Germans are gathering threatening a counter offensive.The James McBride material may have too many elements and too many twists to be filmed. Somebody else should have adapted it. This needs a lot of simplifying and to get rid some of the clunkier stuff. I hate that the black troops are talking loudly as they try to sneak across an open field. I hate that two black guys find a way to fight over a woman no matter where they are. I hate that nobody throws a grenade in the final battle. The first half is fine but I couldn't understand why they move away from their own lines. The geography needs to be clarified for the audience. Initially, the partisans are as confusing as hell. There are some odd moments. The action is done well but too many times, people jump out into the open to die in the old war action ways. I can't figure out how much of the problems are Spike Lee's fault. The movie looks good. It's the sprawling, complicated script that is mostly to blame.

I love good movies and this one is at the very top of my best ones. I can't believe how it is ranked so low. I read some reviews that criticized the director about racism but i believe that the people that say that they actually be the ones that may be "guilty" in some part... The fact that someone show a reminder about bad things doesn't mean that they can possible be bad themselves, the same thing goes on the other way around..., by the way, it isn't for this that good movies are made for?Very beautiful history, excellent actors and acting, movie picture, movie direction with backwards. Amazing. All stars, for this one.

When in 1984 a seemingly ordinary black postal clerk kills a client with a German Luger, a severed head sculpture, which was part of the Ponte Santa Trinita, a Florentine bridge destroyed by the Nazis during the II World War is found in his apartment. Soon a young journalist Tim Boyle (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempts to find the nitty gritty details behind this peculiar murder, organising a meeting with the culprit - one Hector Negrón (Laz Alonso), recipient of the Purple Heart for valour shown during the war. From their the story moves back to a long flashback to 1944 and the segregated Buffalo Soldiers 92nd Infantry Division. During an offensive cut short four soldiers, Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke), Sergeant Bishop Cummings (Michael Early), Corporal Hector Negrón and Private Samuel Train (Omar Benson Miller) found themselves cut off deep in enemy territory forced to search haven in a nearby Italian village. Meanwhile the seemingly beaten Italian forces are preparing for an offensive...Currently watching Spike Lee's body of work I feel inexplicably roller-coasting between movies on the verge of brilliance and those characterised by sloppiness. Somehow after the pivotal Spike Lee productions like "Jungle Fever" or "Do the Right Thing" the director has seemingly said his share on race relations with each following venture into this territory laden with oversimplification, pretence and miscued dramaturgy. Nowadays Lee's best movies seem to be aside from the racial context, like the brilliant "The Perfect Job" or "The 25th Hour", seeming to suggest that he has moved from being simply first and foremost an Afroamerican director.Spike Lee's attempt at a war epic, much in the vein of "Saving Private Ryan", deals strongly with non-race based issue, the Buffalo Soldiers feature widely with several clumsy flashbacks within the flashback attempting to instill the under-appreciated rogue status of the infantry. Moreover racial quips are rampant throughout, mostly however unsuccessful and shallow, rarely working up any true insight. These racial overtones, mostly miscued and scripted with strong conviction, but little subtlety, actually take away from the dramatical impact, while frustratingly expanding the runtime. And it must be stressed that at almost three hours duration Spike Lee delivers a cumbersome piece rife with soapish elements not well attuned to the dark subject matter. Not only racial contexts drag the movie, but countless other everyday life sequences in the village, which could well be edited out with pure benefit for watching pleasure.The biggest issue however is the total misdirection of clunky flashbacks and some significant script issues, which make certain elements of the movie totally illogical (like the infantry commander driving into the village, which is supposedly surrounded by enemy forces). Spike Lee also seems cumbrous with his pathos, as if copy-pasted from a Spielberg template, but with little to no conviction. Additionally albeit actors are generally strong the gentle giant Omar Benson Miller at times seems achingly unsuited for the role, coming off like someone more akin to Typer Perry comedies, than a poignant World War II drama.The saving grace does however come with the closing act, when the story slowly starts falling into place and delivers an attack on the village by German forces. Characters are essentially well presented, so when the drama finally starts clicking the viewer feels emotionally engulfed by the action, admittedly sobbing at several junctions. And that's despite the glaring script inconsistencies and poorly dealt with continuity. Somewhere behind this fictional war movie was material for a classic, but only after heavy rewrites and a strong refocusing of the story.