There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the movie Red Tails but it finally hits theaters today. George Lucas has sunk millions of dollars of his own money to both produce and distribute the film since major studios wouldn’t touch a movie with an “all-black” cast and “no major white roles.” Was it worth it? Not really…the movie is a dud. Inspired by true events of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II, Red Tails follows a subset of fighter pilots as they advance from mopping European floors with planes to succeeding in countless life-saving missions that earn them high praise and medals. From the opening scene, you can tell that something is very wrong with this one.
The movie began being developed back in 1988 but after countless rewrites, it didn’t start shooting until 2009. In 2010, Lucas took over re-shoots as he wasn’t happy with director Anthony Hemingway’s work. Two years later, the film is finally ready to be seen by audiences. Sadly, the script doomed the project from the very beginning – it’s very dialogue-heavy and incredibly flat. There were numerous times where I knew I was supposed to feel some kind of emotion but the film didn’t reach that climax. There were a few scenes where some actors shined, but for the most part, they were just reciting the crappy lines they had to say. With a war movie involving high tension and big action dogfights, you would expect a lot of great one-liners and jump out of your seat moments, none of that happened.
No, it is not A-OK
I can understand that they might have tried to take the spotlight off of the killing and war and onto the strong historic and proud characters that they were honoring, but the characters were so two dimensional that you could only roll your eyes. There’s a great ensemble cast of African American talent but each can be described in a stereotypical manner. Let’s start with the pilots: Nate Parker as Martin “Easy” Julian – the self pitying alcoholic, David Oyelowo as Joe “Lightning” Little – the brash wild one who doesn’t follow orders, Tristan Wilds as Ray “Junior/Ray Gun” Gannon – the kid who wants to grow up too fast, Ne-Yo as Andrew “Smoky” Salem – the guy with the accent, and Marcus T. Paulk as David ‘Deke’ Watkins – the religious one. The two most senior actors who have actually already played Tuskegee Airmen in other movies, Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr. play the leadership roles and thankfully offer up some acting worth watching. Lee Tergesen is the nice white officer while Bryan Cranston is the evil racist white officer and Gerald McRaney is the neutral white officer that just wants help. Then there’s Method Man, Andre Royo, and love interest Daniela Ruah for comedy and love side stories.
It could have been so bad ass...
Red Tails softly touched on the big issue of racism in the typical movie manner. First, they’re not accepted and then they are. That’s about all you’re going to get from this PG-13 movie that’s more about inspiring the younger generation with heroes than telling the real story of the Tuskegee Airmen. The basic history lesson that you’ll learn from Red Tails is that instead of going for the glory like many white fighter pilots did, the Tuskegee Airmen changed the mission and stuck with the big bombers to escort them safely. For that, they were loved by people from the front lines to back home. At first, I thought the beginning of the movie was mundane on purpose to emphasize how boring the missions the airmen were first given, but then the movie didn’t get much more exciting. Having said that, the genuine truth behind these amazing men is so profound, that you can’t help but be pulled into what they went through.
This guy, right here, saved the movie for me
If it wasn’t for the strong and powerful ending that this movie had, I wouldn’t know what to say about it. The story would have better suited for a TV mini-series than a big screen adaptation. I’m not talking about the source material of the fighter pilots, but the screenplay that was developed. They could have done a lot more with the historic group but instead they developed a dry, uninspired, and glazed-over interpretation of actual events. By trying to stick to the authenticates while combining played-out movie plot lines, Red Tails became a boring mix of fact and fiction rather than an exciting imagining of fiction backed by fact. It’s a shame because there is so much potential there.
Tags: Andre Royo, Anthony Hemingway, Bryan Cranston, Cuba Gooding, Daniela Ruah, David Oyelowo, George Lucas, Gerald McRaney, Jr., Lee Tergesen, Marcus T. Paulk, Method Man, Nate Parker, Ne-Yo, Red Tails, Terrence Howard, Tristan Wilds
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
