Movie review: Red Tails

Thrilling air-to-air combat action counterbalanced by storytelling mediocrity on the ground.

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Source: Cinema Source

With George Lucas peering over his shoulder as a heavily-involved developer/executive producer, Anthony Hemingway (The Wire) directs Red Tails, a WWII air combat actioner based on the inspirational and thrilling true story of the Tuskegee Airmen.

[Click here for our coverage of a 2007 documentary event with real-life Tuskegee Airmen in attendance.]

Red Tails' high points all come during the marvelously-produced and moderately thrilling air combat sequences, engineered and rendered with impressive realism by Industrial Light and Magic (and a few other effects houses). The backhand to this compliment stems from the fact that the movie displays a startling lack of character-based sophistication for a contemporary cinematic entertainment. Which is to say, it's loaded with melodrama and sappy sentimentality, and telegraphs its dramatic punches from faraway climes.

In this regard, the film plays like a throwback to the simple-minded, patriotic, gung ho! war movies of the 12 O'Clock High and Flying Leathernecks ilk, when men were men, duty called, and there were some things a man just couldn't fly around. Those were the days, eh? What lends this movie added complexity (and interest) is a sub-plot involving the struggle of its characters on a second front: the racial prejudice one.

Red Tails catapults us into the thick of the action from the get-go, as we find ourselves droning along with a flight of B-17 bombers on a mission into Nazi-held territory. Fortunately, they've got a fighter escort to help ward off rampaging ME-109s; unfortunately, the hot dog pilots of their P-51 escorts are easily distracted by German decoys — they've been trained to engage enemy fighters whenever they appear, thereby leaving the bombers high and dry and vulnerable to attack. Carnage results, with American bombers dropping like gargantuan flaming flies.

What's needed, the Army Air Corps decides, is a new breed of fighter pilots, ones whose mandate is to protect the "heavies" at all costs and to Hell with the enemy fighter kill count.

Meanwhile, back in Italy, pilots of the all-African American 332nd Fighter Group are carrying out air-to-ground strafing missions in their decrepit P-40 Warhawks while waiting for orders that will take them into the thick of the plane-against-plane dogfighting action. The holdup: Military brass of the time believed "coloreds" to be inferior pilots, simply by dint of their ethnicity.

But the 332nd has allies in the Pentagon along with nay-sayers. (Bryan Cranston has the unenviable task of portraying one of the latter, and turns in a suitably hissable cameo performance.) Eventually, the plucky bunch are given a chance to show their stuff by providing air cover for an ambitious Allied amphibious assault (Operation Shingle). They acquit themselves with distinction, and the cracks in the color ceiling begin to spread.

The engaging ensemble cast is led by Nate Parker as flight leader Marty "Easy" Julian, a straight arrow in the air who nurses a drinking problem on the ground; and David Oyelowo as the impetuous, foolhardy, risk-taking top gun of the squadron, Joe "Lightning" Little. Getting top billing for their more or less supporting roles are Cuba Gooding Jr. as base commander Major Stance; and the always fabulous Terrence Howard, who classes up the proceedings as usual with his stirring performance as Colonel A.J. Bullard, leader of the 332nd.

First-time feature director Hemingway pulled together a quartet of acting veterans from his Wire days for some of the other cast members: Andre Royo plays irascible crew chief Coffee Coleman, who has the monotonous task of patching together the punctured airframes and shredded fuel lines of the shot-up aircraft nursed back to base by his impetuous flyboy cohorts; Michael B. Jordan shows up as wide-eyed rookie pilot Maurice Wilson; Tristan Wilds portrays Ray "Junior" Gannon, who goes to great lengths to get his fellow fliers to drop the Junior moniker and refer to him instead as "Raygun"; while Clifford Smith (aka Method Man) turns up as Sticks.

Ne-Yo, as the smooth-talking, clutch-flying "Smoky" Salem, steals the supporting cast show — he's just too cool to let those nasty Nazi bastards shake his confidence. Kevin Phillips is memorable as Leon "Neon" Edwards, whose prayers to a cardboard Black Jesus appear to be rendering him bulletproof. Until they don't ...

It's Lightning Joe Little (Oyelowo) who gets the girl, though, and what a girl she is (hubba! hubba!, as they used to say): He first spies the gorgeous Sofia (Daniela Ruah) while flying home from one of his high-risk missions, as she's hanging laundry out to dry on the roof of her mother's villa. Lightning's approach to courtship proves as successful as his assaults on German airfields and destroyers. He goes in guns blazing, and has a habit of emerging unscathed after devastating his target.

"Mein Gott!"

Lightning, Easy, and the rest of the fighter group engage in an ongoing seesaw vendetta against a ruthless German ace they know only as Pretty Boy (Lars van Riesen, snarling and sneering for all he's worth), whom they meet in a climactic air battle as he's piloting one of those newfangled ME-262 jet interceptors in the skies over Berlin. Jets, smets — this dogfighting stuff is more about courage and commitment than speed and airframes.

At least, in the movies.

On The Daily Show a few nights ago, guest George Lucas proclaimed his interest in producing both a prequel and a sequel to this movie — to no one's surprise, I'm relatively certain.

YEAH, BUT THEY SHOT YOUR NAZI ASS DOWN: "Mein Gott. The pilots are African!" - Pretty Boy, unraveling his parachute

To find movie showtimes for Red Tails, click here.

Sarah Blaskovich, staff:

In a cool way to bring this story home, Fort Worth ISD official just let us know that two Fort Worth ISD graduates were Tuskegee Airmen.

From a press release:

Two Fort Worth ISD graduates, Claude Platte (I.M. Terrell, 1937) and Robert McDaniel (I.M. Terrell, 1940), lived the story.

The Tuskegee Airmen, although well-trained, were not allowed to fly in the early part of the war. The military did not believe African Americans had the “right stuff” to be fighter pilots. When finally called to duty, the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 1,500 combat missions and never lost an escorted bomber to enemy fire. The film’s title comes from the distinctive red tails on their planes. Although war heroes, the men still were not regarded as equals in the country they helped defend.

Captain Platte was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. He served as a flight instructor during the war. While he did not fly combat missions, he trained plenty of others do so brilliantly. Platte became the first black officer at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio. In 2007, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bush.

McDaniel learned to fly the B-25 bomber at the Tuskegee Army Air Base known as Moton Field. He was a member of the 447th Bombardment Group, the first all-black bomber unit, and rose to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. While continuing training at Indiana’s Freeman Field, he tried to visit the officers’ club and was turned away. He and at least 100 other black officers defied a direct order and repeatedly tried to enter the club. They were arrested and threatened with court martial, which could have carried the death penalty during wartime. The men eventually were exonerated, and the Freeman Field incident helped lead to the integration of the military. McDaniel also was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. After leaving the military, he enjoyed success as a Fort Worth ISD elementary school principal.

4 months ago
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