Oddzuki

I’m conflicted. There is a lot of controversy over Red Tails. From George Lucas financing this project with his own money to the studios balking at it’s “Marketability”… this has been a troubled production dating back to the late 80′s/early 90′s. With the current political/racial climate that is continuing to brew in this country, a movie like Red Tails really can end up indadvertedly polarizing it’s audience (potential or otherwise). Earlier today, I saw someone mentioning that theaters in different areas have been taking people’s money and printing tickets for different movies (giving those movies the sales) to make it appear that no one was going to see Red Tails. How true this is (as I did a search and came up empty handed) is neither here nor there, but I hope it isn’t true.

The theater that I was in to check out the movie was almost full to capacity. Despite the theater actually playing the wrong preview set (they were all in 3D) in front of the film (and quite possibly the wrong movie to boot) for my 7:25pm showing, I ditched the theater and went to the 7:50 showing instead. Ah… satisfaction. Let’s dig into the actual movie itself.

After the previews, the film starts out with the LucasFilm title card that has been running infront of all of the Star Wars movies as of late. For me, this instantly gets me feeling like I’m going to be treated to something EPIC (perhaps that may be downfall #1). What follows is another title card that sets the tone of the films emotional catalyst that drives the Tuskegee Airmen:

“Blacks are mentally inferior and by nature subservient, and thus are unfit for combat.”  - 1925 Army War College Study

Just reading that made a few people beside me squirm. Good. It did what it was supposed to do. And then as we see scene with bombers undergoing a mission with fighter pilots as escorts. The white pilots end up breaking away from the bombers when a few German pilots distract them, leaving the bombers extremely vulnerable. Unbeknownst to the US pilots, they are chasing decoys as the bombers are now picked off one by one (this is important later). Part of my issue initially with the film was the opening credits that played throughout. What was George THINKING? Dude… you are the father of Star Wars. Though we are still working on forgiving you for Jar Jar, if you approved the titling for this, I hope we get a CG render with the inevitable Special Editions. Moving on.

The Story:

We are introduced to all of our leads in the film. The fighter pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group have been saddled with patrols well behind friendly territory. The “upper brass” don’t feel that these pilots have what it takes to run actual combat missions. The maneuvers, intuition and instinct in this scene proves differently. You do kind of fall prey to stereotypes with the leads though. You have your steady and sure Captain (that has his own hidden shortcoming), the “comedian” that can’t be serious… the “young buck” and with a lot of movies “The hot head”.

There are definite mixes of great action, beautiful scenery (the movie takes place in Italy and Germany) and your fair share of racial tension between the white and black Airmen. I feel that the love story that is mixed in, while not contrived like the mess that was Pearl Harbor, was still less important than the meat of the story.

The flow of the of the story didn’t always falter thankfully. With a movie of this nature, the storytelling could easily be simple stepping stones from dogfight to dogfight. This wasn’t the case. The flow of the story was pretty linear. Something I admired was that there wasn’t a hidden “life message”. This was a simple story about a group of men with incredible talent trying to overcome the odds set against them to do something basic: prove that they were capable. The uphill battle that the Tuskegee Airmen have to fight in order to use those talents for more than simple patrols. The next few scenes featuring Terrance Howard going before his superiors were some of the most compelling. But this is also when I started noticing something that was making me a little upset while watching the movie…

The Cast:

I’ve seen a lot of reviews about Red Tails discussing the dialogue and poor writing throughout the movie. I wouldn’t completely blame the writers though. The delivery from a lot of the principle actors just seemed forced. Perhaps they didn’t know how to deliver some of them. I don’t know what it was but to me, Cuba Gooding Jr and Terrance Howard were a tad underused. They both commanded the screen whenever they made an appearance. Along with Gooding Jr and Howard, Bryan Cranston delivered some of the best lines. But one moment in the movie (aside from Terrance Howard’s rousing speech to the Airmen to “rally the troops”) blew me away. David Oyelowo (recently seen in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Help) plays Joe “Lightning” Little. His character is arrogant, constantly showboating and consistently disobeys direct orders. Throughout the movie, I hate to say it, but it seems like Oyelowo is phoning this one in. But at one point he has an argument with the Captain of his squad. During this scene he literally electrifies the screen and I thought to myself “Where has he been hiding this whole time?!” That seemed to be a high point for me. Oh if only the rest of the actors performed with that much conviction.

All in all, if you go into Red Tails not expecting multiple Oscar worthy performances and enjoy it for the first in what I hope are many explorations into African American history, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I DO recommend that you go see this in theaters if not for anything other than the dogfights. One thing I can say is, George Lucas, while not Director, knows how to approve a dogfight (whether its in a galaxy far far away or over WWII Europe).

Hollywood, I’m looking at you right now. You shouldn’t have denied George Lucas for so long because even though I (along with a ton of other geeks out there) still hold a little Star Wars Special Special Ultra Deluxe With a Twist of Lemon Edition grudge for all of the changes to the Star Wars universe, the man knows what he’s doing. If you look at the box office results, even with 500 less screens, Red Tails came in a pretty close second to Underworld Awakening. Instead of recycling old TV Shows (Jonah Hill? really), pick up some of the hundreds of stories of valiant African American soldiers that fought and died for more than just their country. They fought for the right to just be there. And that is a story all in itself.

P.S. Ne Yo. I had NO idea how much comedic timing you had. And Method Man… what the heck happened to you man? Seriously…

Interested in more Red Tails related media? Check these out: