Spike Lee wanted to make a movie about James Brown, or even the L.A. riots of the early 1990s. But the success of Inside Man couldn't muster up the support he needed, so he made The Miracle at St. Anna instead. One of these days, he'll get those other movies made, but for now, I'm happy he ended up with the one he made.

The previews for Miracle are gripping: I'm held to my seat (with the remote motionless beside me) by the flashing forward and back to a murder investigation and the interaction of a black regiment with an Italian village during World War II. While the movie itself is based on a novel, the novel takes its historical account from real life and embellishes it to make it more action-friendly.

The preview would have you to believe that the regiment stays behind, abandoning hope beyond enemy lines, by choosing to stay and defend a puny Italian village from the Nazis. I'm hooked! While the world has moved on from this place, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tried unsuccessfully to do so, Nazis still stand out in their evil viciousness as my top villain group... ever. There's a certain maliciousness that comes to mind, and a pervading lack of humanity that permeates, when something historical props up the innocents against oncoming Nazi troops.

But this is Spike Lee we're talking about here, so nothing will be cut-and-dried, or plainly expressed. There's a murder mystery too, one that doesn't come to the light obviously until much later. And the ethics of the defense of the town, and the meaning of war itself, will more than likely find themselves dragged out into the light of day, or at least the darkened theater.

So, I figure that I am bound to be entertained, twisted around, preached at, condemned and delighted, all by one movie, at the hands of Spike Lee. The valor of a black regiment will be made known, villains will rise and fall, relationships will be built and broken, and a mystery will be brought out for us to examine.