"Red Tails" is George Lucas' film based on the true story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American servicemen during World War II. The men make up the 332nd Fighter Group and face segregation within the Air Force as they fly outdated planes and are not given a chance at assignments that involve combat. Col Bullard (Terrance Howard) fights for opportunities for equality for African American pilots while Major Stance (Cuba Gooding Jr) guides a group of pilots who just want a chance to prove themselves. The group is made up of Easy (Nate Parker), Lightening (David Oyelowo), Junior/Ray Gun (Tristan Wilds), Smokey (Ne-Yo) and Joker (Elijah Kelley).
The reviews I've seen on this film have been pretty mixed if not skewed toward negative but I think there's some good in this film. I think the story the movie is based on is an important one and there's a lot of food for thought about segregation and equal rights within the film. The film doesn't shy away from the racism the characters faced outside of the military and also within. The flying/fighting sequences were overall well done. I think the problems center on the script because some of it was stilted and awkward and it seemed like there were too many characters resulting in many of them being underdeveloped. The addition of the love story for Lightening with an Italian local woman just seemed unnecessary. I think that the script really took what could've been a great movie and made it almost unbearable. This movie could've been so much better and really should've been given the subject matter. It begs the question: is it better for a story that needs to be told to be done poorly or not be done at all?
Important issues and good fighting sequences but so many issues in the script - C
Liked this movie a lot.
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