Miracle happens on Friday

When director Spike Lee picked a fight earlier this year with Clint Eastwood over the lack of African-American soldiers depicted in Letters from Iwo Jima, Lee ended the verbal sparring by saying that Eastwood has his version of WWI, “and I have mine.” That outburst may have been more marketing than pure angst because here’s Lee’s version of the war with Miracle at St. Anna. The drama follows four soldiers separated from their all-black 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division stationed in Tuscany after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy. Based on the James McBride novel and starring Derek Luke, Kerry Washington and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Miracle is Lee’s first attempt at a sweeping war epic, and will decide whether the auteur who surprised audiences with Inside Man, can push his talents even further. Rated R.