It’s been a while since George Lucas (Star Wars & Indiana Jones franchises) has stepped behind the camera, and it’s also been a while since we’ve seen some badly handled, ‘factual’, true stories revolving around American army, but Red Tails manages to bring both together, and while both do interest me, I’m more interested in the handling of the results of the Tuskegee airmen experiment in a story that’s never been really touched upon before.
During the last years of World War Two, a squadron of black African American air force pilots are wasted doing minor, less important, missions; not really fighting the Nazi threat. Their superiors (Jerry Maguire’s Cuba Gooding Jr. and Iron Man’s Terrence Howard) push for the top brass to give them an opportunity, and despite racist resentment, the squad is given a chance to impress (and to show how the Tuskegee airmen experiment is not a failure) by escorting important bombings runs, leading squadron leader Easy (Nate Parker, The Secret Life Of Bees) to lead his men on real missions, and encounter the true horrors of war.
One of the quieter activities the U.S. army got up to during the war was the Tuskegee airmen initiative. This was where segregated black African American soldiers were trained to become air force pilots. They were the first black airmen, so their importance on black military history is paramount; facing racial discrimination all over, they actually turned out to be some of the best pilots the army has ever seen; and Red Tails not only portrays this aspect very well, but looks to be a worthy tribute to these airmen (coming from someone not familiar with the total history). Whilst the film gets facts wrong (some American bombers were destroyed when film claims none at all, and the Tuskegee airmen going up against German jet fighters), the admittedly dramatic portrayal still captures the spirit of these unofficial Top-Gun pilots being fantastic, and the horrible racism they must have come up against, even from their own country and fellow white airmen.
The cast is actually pretty good considering there’s a lot of black actors I’m not familiar with. The two “leads” (Gooding Jr. and Howard) are relegated to background, air force superior, roles, and instead Parker emerges to take up the lead as the captain of the group of fighter pilots we follow; he’s a great young actor and this will be his breakout role; his portrayal as a leader clashing with his rampant alcoholism (used to get him through the war) is captivating. Coming up against his friend and maverick pilot Lightening (David Oyelowo, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes), the two fight over Easy’s leadership and Lightening’s cavalier attitude. Along with other memorable performances, it’s the best showing of companionship and camaraderie I’ve seen in a war film, mainly due to the cast’s interactions.
Action sequences featuring the old bi-planes and bombers are incredibly well done; the CG varies but there is top notch details gone into the aeroplanes themselves. With there being only a handful of these previously modern marvels of technology left, it’s the only way forward. There are plenty of action scenes that stick in the mind; the will they/won’t they massacring of a suspicious supply train, the bombing of a Nazi airbase, and the aerial dogfights themselves, all give a wide variety of enjoyable fights.
That said, there are some problems with this film; hearing that the film was delayed by a year so George Lucas could take over from original director Anthony Hemingway (Treme) for reshoots is not a good sign, and I’d like to have a word whoever did the sound and music mixing on Tails; It’s bad; so many places where it’s over-loud bombastic orchestral bunk, distracting from the on-screen action a lot. As much as I like the cast and the enjoyable acting, the American characters are basic, and come to the screen with clear stereotyping; you can tell there’s a rookie, the ace, a joker and a young educated man trying to impress his dad among others; their dialogue ain’t the best either, and there are some particularly bland lines.
At two whole hours runtime Red Tails is clearly bloated; plenty could have been cut out to make it a lot more poignant and punchier with it’s views; there’s a scene where Lightening does a reckless solo attack on a German ship, and it’s about the fifth establishment we’ve had (reinforcing his maverick attitude) which is far too much, and actually turns him into a boring character, and wastes the audience’s time, in a film with too many action scenes as it is. There’s a stupidly long “squadron blows up a German airbase” scene and it just goes on, and on, and on. I swear they just keep coming back and blowing up the airbase some more because they can. Only sensical reason I can think of.
The representations of good and evil are a bit too, excuse the phrase, black and white. In the same overlong airbase bombing scene, it’s just overkill seeing the (admittedly morally wrong) Nazi soldiers getting blown away. But hang on, surely not all of them are just Yiddish hatin’ murdering machines? The head ace Nazi pilot is just programmed to be as stereotyped (“achtung, achtung”) as they come, with no other real characteristics. It’s a case of “they’re evil because they are nazi’s”; which is wrong, when we’ve had numerous films with some dilemma or idiosyncrasies with German Nazis giving them y’know character, and interesting ones at that; say “I’m doing it to keep my family safe”? I realise it’s not that sort of film but it’s just way too one-dimensional for me.
I can’t say Red Tails is a must see film. The music stinks, it’s too long, and the characters are pretty basic, but the subject matter is certainly engaging, the cast are very likeable and overall it’s a feel good movie (even with the downbeat ending). An enjoyable failure.
