Posted on 01/19/2012 6:23:52 AM PST by Bender2
Red Tails: Film Review
7:53 PM PST 1/18/2012 by Todd McCarthy
The Bottom Line: Action-and-effects version of the Tuskegee airmen's story flies only when it's off the ground.
The George Lucas-produced labor of love stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard as Tuskegee airmen in World War II.
The experience of black American aviators in World War II gets a whitewash in Red Tails. The story of the 996 pilots (and some 15,000 ground personnel) who distinguished themselves in the air in the face of institutional racism is a great one and, at least, will come to the attention of more people due to this long-gestating project from Lucasfilm. But every character here is so squeaky clean, and the prejudice as depicted is so toothless and easily overcome, that the film feels like a gingerly fantasy version of what, in real life, was an exceptional example of resilient trail-blazing. The tale's considerable built-in inspirational value will move and impress black audiences of all ages and would do the same to a wider public if sufficiently promoted, but the determinedly simplistic approach will curtail interest among any viewers hungry for some real history. The anticipated low interest level for this material overseas is cited as a major reason the project took so long to get off the ground.
A key signal of how much you can trust any contemporary movie about either of the 20th century's world wars is how, and even if, it depicts smoking; if, like this one, it buckles to current fashion and scarcely depicts soldiers smoking at all in a period when cigarettes were part of ration kits, then it's frankly not to be trusted in any other respect either.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
If I may paraphrase the reviewer... this film gives 'whitewash' a totally new meaning!
I’m not trying to diminish the contribution of these brave men, but they’ve already made a movie about the Tuskeegee Airmen. I believe it came out in 1995 which is fairly recent.
I heard Lucas in an interview about this film and he was quite honest: (summary) “this is for the 10-year-old in me: it is about fast planes and cool dogfights. Yes, the racism story is interesting but I just use it as a platform for the fun stuff.”
Remember folks, Han shot first...
What? I thought every country loved watching movies about how racist white people are!
Any movies about the brave men who fought in the Korean War?
I think I'll miss this one. Unless the reviews change my opinion, it appears to me that the only thing that this movie has in common with history is the actors were black.
Honestly, I think that it looks pretty disrespectful to the *real* Tuskeegee Airmen.
I think all Lucas' films are made for ten-year-olds.
Another movie about evil white racists....
I gotta say, I just don’t care anymore. Seriously. I’m burned out on it. Take your little racism theme I’m supposed to feel guilty about and shove it.
And after watching the RedLetterMedia reviews of Star Wars, I won’t ever knowingly step within a block of any movie theater screening a Lucas project. The man’s an epic moron.
Very successful....but amazingly stupid.
Yeah, and from the teasers on TV those planes don’t look like P-47’s either.
“Yes, the racism story is interesting..”
####
Yes, whites just adore being beaten over the head daily with the “racism” sledgehammer.
Its a gas.
I agree with you on both movies. Thin Red Line was terrible.
—Im not trying to diminish the contribution of these brave men, but theyve already made a movie about the Tuskeegee Airmen.—
I own it. It’s pretty good but comes off a little like a TV movie. I saw the previews to this one and I really want to see it, but just for the flying scenes. I’ve been a huge WWII air war buff since the late 1960’s and have spent thousands of hours on internet WWII simulators, flying pretty much everything every used in the war from every country.
I’ve learned to not expect Hollywood to get it right. I mean, in Gone With the Wind, the women of the civil war had 1930’s hairstyles..
I saw a poster for this movie a couple weeks ago and saw the mustang with a red tail and said to my wife, “must be about the Tuskegee Airmen.”
I’ll wait for it to come out on Blue Ray at redbox before I watch it though. I’ve discovered the movies are actually BETTER at home now then at the theater.
The promos for the movie are insulting enough.The movie looks like a video game.
I think they started with P47 but ended flying P51s.
I also seem to remember they never lost any bomber they were escorting.
There is a reference to “squeak clean”, personally I don’t think any fly boys in WWII were squeaky clean.
I am surprised Hollywood did not put them in jets.
Sounds to me like if you treat this like you would watching your typical 80’s action film with Arnold or Bruce Willis in it, you’ll like it.
I've never regretted sitting through an entire movie more than I did when I watched The Thin Red Line. It was like watching war through the eyes of a high school art fag.
They flew those, but were more closely associated with the P-51. The planes in the trailers appear to be the P-51D variant, which I what I've always associated with the Red Tails.
Gadzooks, wbill! How can... you say that???
When the heroic left handed lefty George Clooney... appeared in the last reel to save the day and now that we mention it, pick up a very healthy paycheck?
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