In the beginning, the 332
Ram Review: Red Tails joe little tuskee airman,The movie directorial debut of Anthony Hemingway (Changing Ways), Red Tails is the long overdue project by George Lucas about the Tuskegee airmen and their battle with racial adversity. Unlike the 1995 HBO productionThe Tuskegee Airmen, this big-budget film, set at $65 million, opens in the midst of 1944, when the pilots are trained, itching for a taste of real aerial ware.
Added to this mix is the Italian love interest of Joe Little, Sofia (Daniela, NCIS: Los Angeles). Their love story, with Joe not speaking Italian and Sofia not speaking English, is endearing, but nevertheless convolutes the overall storyline.
Fighter Group starts off doing missions involving shooting up trains and trucks in its hand-me-downP-40 Warhawk aircrafts. While stationed in, Italy, the military powers remain skeptical regarding the Tuskegee project, doubting the soldiers intelligence and fortitude in battle. The two black officers in charge think otherwise. Colonel A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard,Iron Man) and Major Emmanuel Stance (CubaJr.,Snow Dogs) see that their men can Ram Review: Red Tails joe little tuskee airmanstand the heat of battle, so Bullard pushes for his men to be assigned a mission to prove their worth, rather than having the military shut down the project. They are then assigned to provide air cover for giant Boeing B-17 Bombers due to the ct that the other fighters keep leaving them defenseless after they engage in combat with Jerry fighters.
Every now and then I hear the phrase but it was based on a true story used to argue a movies worth. Although I find this irrelevant to good storytelling, whether on screen or on pages, it strikes an interesting chord that movies based on true stories resonate more with an audience. However, this is not necessarily the case withRed Tails, a movie that lls short from any substantial impression on its audience.
Even a mjoe little tuskee airmanajority of the computer generated dogfight scenes seemed inept. Although it seems that the quirkyaerial scenes were what the directorial team was going for, they served to filled in the gaps for more cockpit scenes in which the squadron banters onejoke after the next.
With screenwriters like John Ridley (Undercover Brother) and Aaron(The Boondocks), I expected more than what was given. Trying to capture theZeitgeist isnt easy, especially with the likes ofThe Thin Red LineandSaving Private Ryanused for bases of comparison. Going into the theater having read no reviews of this movie, however, I was expecting the best with the names on board, possibly a mix betweenDo the Right ThingandFlyboys. What I got was nothing of the sort. The characters should have been further explored, but every time a glimmer of character development opened up, it seemed to de into the background. There is a lot of telling, but not enough showing, as if the movie staff has no ith in its audience. Simply put, the movie was unfinished and rushed, especially on the editing side.
A majority of the dramatic sequences incorporate the squadron leader Marty Easy Julian (Nate Parker,The Great Debaters), who is intelligent and level-headed despite an ongoing fight with apparent alcoholism, and Joe Lightning Little (David,Rise of the Planet of the Apes), the unruly hotshot pilot and arguably the best fighter in the division. Their banter becomes stale after a while, a veritable broken record of stop drinking and start listening to my orders.
All things considered, I would not suggest watching this movie. While George Lucas has been planning his own Tuskegee project for close to 25 years, the result seems like it was only given a couple months of thought. Save your money or memory space.
