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| Red Tails (2012) () |
IMDB Rating: 5.9
Released: Jan 20, 2012
Rating: PG-13
Genres:
Action, Adventure, Drama,
Sub Genres:
Running Time: 125 minutes
AKA: Tsiteli kudebi
Country: USA
Language: English
IMDB Link: Red Tails on IMDB
Official Site: Official Site
Views: 1,040
Plot: In 1944, after enduring racism throughout their recruitment and training in the Tuskegee training program, the 332nd Fighter Group of young African American USAAF fighter pilots are finally sent into combat in Italy, although flying worn-out Curtiss P-40 Warhawk aircraft. Chafing at their ground attack missions against trains and enemy ground transport, the Tuskegee Airmen recognize that they may never take on fighter-to-fighter action against the Luftwaffe. The tight-knit group of Joe "Lightning" Little (David Oyelowo), Martin "Easy" Julian (Nate Parker), Ray "Ray Gun" or "Junior" Gannon (Tristan Wilds), and Samuel "Joker" George (Elijah Kelley) under the guidance of Major Emanuel Stance (Cuba Gooding, Jr. ) and Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard), face a military bureaucracy still resistant to accepting black flyers as equals.[N 3]
A constant strife erupts between roommates and best friends, Easy and Lightning, who are battling their inner demons; Lightning is a hotheaded and reckless pilot who takes too many risks, while Easy is an alcoholic prone to self doubt. After returning to base from a mission, Lightning spies a pretty Italian girl named Sofia (Daniela Ruah), becomes instantly infatuated with her, and starts a relationship.
Meanwhile, Stance is able to secure a chance to "light up the board" when the Tuskegee Airmen are chosen to support the Allied landings in Operation Shingle. They battle German fighters led by German ace pilot "Pretty Boy" (Lars van Riesen), scoring their first aerial victories over the enemy, as well as destroying a German airfield. However, Ray Gun is injured during the battle and suffers impaired vision in one of his eyes. Ray Gun begs Easy to keep him on the flight roster, and he ultimately relents.
Bullard is then approached by the USAAF Bomber Command, who are impressed with the Tuskegee Airmen's performance and ask him to use his fighters as bomber escorts due to unacceptably high casualties among bomber crews. Bullard accepts on the condition that his unit be supplied with the new North American P-51 Mustang[N 4]. The Tuskegee Airmen then paint the tails of their fighters red in order to stand out. Bullard identifies the flaw in the tactics of previous escort fighters is that they would recklessly pursue German fighters at the cost of protecting the bombers, so he orders his pilots to stay with the bombers at all costs. Their first escort mission is a success, with the 332nd downing multiple Luftwaffe aircraft without the loss of a single bomber. However, Ray Gun is shot down and forced to bail out while another pilot is forced to crash land and nearly dies.
Easy is shocked at the unit's losses and blames himself, spiraling deeper into his alcoholism. Lightning, worried about his friend, makes a deal with Easy; he will follow orders and fly less recklessly as long as Easy remains sober. Meanwhile, attitudes against the Tuskegee Airmen begin to change as they earn the bomber crews' respect, even being allowed into the "whites only" officer's club. Ray Gun is captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp, where he is recruited by a group of POWs who are planning to escape. The escape attempt is successful but the POWs are spotted by a guard. Ray Gun then draws the Germans' attention while the other POWs escape. One of the POWs manages to reach the 332nd's base and informs them about Ray Gun's sacrifice, assuming him to be dead. Later, Lightning finally proposes to Sofia and she accepts.
The Tuskegee Airmen are then tasked with escorting the first flight of bombers to directly attack Berlin. However, despite their P-51s having more than enough fuel for the trip, the 332nd is only tasked to escort the bombers on the first leg of their journey due to propaganda reasons. However, the fighter squadron meant to relieve the 332nd never arrives, and Easy makes the decision to stay with bombers. They are then attacked by Pretty Boy, now leading a flight of revolutionary Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters. Despite being outclassed by the jet fighters' superior speed, the Tuskegee Airmen are able to shoot down many of the Me 262s. Pretty Boy then gets on Easy's tail and is about to shoot him down. At the last moment, Lightning attacks and kills Pretty Boy in a head on attack, but is mortally wounded and eventually crashes. Easy is then forced to inform Sofia about Lightning's death and consequently overcomes his alcoholism for good. At Lightning's funeral, Ray Gun miraculously returns, having survived his escape from German captivity.
Ultimately, the Tuskegee Airmen are awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in honor of their achievements.
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| Red Tails Movie Review |
Source: Roger Ebert
Article: The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African-American fighter pilots who were trained despite the racism entrenched in the U.S. armed services during World War II. They were deployed in action and achieved fame and many decorations for their skills against German pilots, which included engaging and shooting down Messerschmitt Me 262s, the first jet fighters. So successful were they at escorting American bombers that the white pilots requested them — contradicting a "study" at the time that claimed "Negroes lack the intelligence to operate heavy machinery."
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen has been told before, memorably in a 1995 HBO movie that stuck close to the facts and included much material about the training of the airmen in the racist South of the 1940s.
Now George Lucas has personally financed a big-budget mainstream action movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, in the hope of reaching a larger audience. He has had "Red Tails," directed by Anthony Hemingway, in development for 23 years, and credit is due for his perseverance. The emphasis here is on "action," and this is not so much a social or historical document as a war thriller. A great deal of the film is devoted to aerial dogfights, with POV shots of the pursuit of enemy fighters. The combat dialogue comes down to many closeups of pilots in flight masks, barking brief words of command. The dramatic scenes on the ground in Europe don't have much substance, although there are effective scenes showing bureaucratic infighting at the top of the Air Corps' chain of command.
Lucas is known for his enthusiasm about combat dogfights and is said to have studied William Wellman's Oscar winner "Wings" (1927) and its footage of World War I aerial battles. He used it as a template for creating the dogfights in outer space in the "Star Wars" films. Now substitute 1940s fighters for spaceships, move them closer to Earth, and you have the audience appeal of this movie.
The cast is large and distinguished, a roll call led by Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. (who also starred in the earlier film). Much is made of him in the HBO film, which is more fact-based. The only character of general rank in the cast of "Red Tails" is (the fictional) Gen. Luntz, played by Gerald McRaney, one of the few white actors in the film.
"Red Tails" is entertaining. Audiences are likely to enjoy it. The scenes of aerial combat are skillfully done and exciting. It makes the point that the airmen were skilled and courageous, and played a historic role in the eventual integration of our armed services. "Red Tails" could have done more than that, by more firmly establishing the atmosphere of the Jim Crow South that surrounded most of the airmen in their childhoods. They had a higher mountain to climb than many white pilots and reached higher on its slopes.
At a premiere of his film, and again on "The Daily Show," Lucas has said he financed the movie himself because Hollywood doesn't want to finance expensive movies with all-black casts. "They don't believe there's any foreign market for it, and that's 60 percent of their profit," he told "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart. "I showed it to all of them, and they said, 'No. We don't know how to market a movie like this.' " He also made an oblique reference to the aerial combat footage: "This is as close as you'll get to ["Star Wars"] Episode VII."
True enough, no doubt. But Lucas begs the question: Did this have to be an expensive movie? Was the purpose to make a blockbuster, or to make a statement? I imagined a film that contained more history and drama — and that was angrier.
Years ago, my father had a friend who flew bombers over Germany. He spoke of the immediate reality that each mission could very likely be the last. Here, I didn't feel fear as the pilots took off. They had pride, patriotism and zeal, yes, but their hands must have been sweating and their guts must have been churning. I would have appreciated their thoughtful late-night conversations about the meaning of it all.
In Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" (2008), which has some of that anger, there is a flashback to a scene of black American soldiers in the Deep South being refused service by a restaurant that does accept Nazis from a nearby POW camp.
I'm also not sure Lucas did his movie a favor by speaking so widely about the industry's reluctance to finance all-black casts. If I were a P.R. person, I'd advise him to talk up the selling points ("In a way, this is 'Episode VII!' ") and give the movie a chance to open. |
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