We watched Red Tails yesterday.  A fictional story about the flyboys from Tuskegee, the all black fighter pilots that served in WW2 and won the respect of many bomber teams with their courageous abilities to escort them to their destinations.  I remembered the HBO movie from years ago, The Tuskegee Airmen, which I loved.  It wasn’t a documentary but stayed closer to the facts than this movie did.  Cuba Gooding Jr. starred in the first movie as one of the young pilots but was promoted to a pipe smoking leader in the new film produced by George Lucas.

We had read reviews that panned the movie and it certainly didn’t last long in the theaters but that seems to happen a lot with good movies starring an all-black cast.  Think of Waiting to Exhale, The Wiz, Barbershop.  So we waited for the movie to make it to Redbox and even then let it sit there a few more weeks before pulling it out.

My husband and I immediately noticed the cheap looking font giving us a 1925 quote from the War College about how black soldiers would never be of any help in battle followed by all the names of the people who made the movie.  It looked like something from 1975.  I can’t understand why the moviemakers would choose it.  The acting and script were stiff.  You wanted to get to know the pilots, feel their excitement, fear, personal demons but the story never allowed for that.  The visuals were pretty good but you expect that from George Lucas.

I love to learn about contributions to this great country made by people often left out of the history books which is why I love the story of the Tuskegee airmen.  Who cares if the movie takes some fictional license for dramatic effect but there’s really no excuse for a George Lucas film to be this half-baked.  Even Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard felt uncomfortable and we’ve all watched them portray any number of characters with smooth as glass precision so was it the script, the editing.  I’m just not sure but it never comes together the way it should.

So Is It A Good Story?  Yes, in a Mighty Ducks sort of way.  You can’t help but pull for the underdogs, and black pilots in 1944 were certainly going to work extra hard for the respect they deserved.  Don’t spend more than $2 for the privilege though.  You’ll be disappointed if you do.