Red Tails: Film Review [Hollywood re-writes history again!]

The Hollywood Reporter ^ | 7:53 PM PST 1/18/2012 | Todd McCarthy

[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.

[Le Chien Rouge]

‘Nowadays the only thing they teach about WWII is Hiroshima, Nagasaki’

Very True.

Whenever a lefty moans about ‘American Barbarianism’ when nuking Hiroshima, I look them directly in the eye and Tell them:

God Bless Harry Truman for saving so many lives,both American and Japanese, who would surely fought to the death had Truman not used the A Bomb.

The lefties get real uncomfortable.

[dfwgator]

God Bless Harry Truman for saving so many lives,both American and Japanese, who would surely fought to the death had Truman not used the A Bomb. The lefties get real uncomfortable.

Of course they also hate the fact that Japan didn't fall to the Soviets.

In fact, I believe one of the things the bombs did was to save Japan from being divided, like Korea, which certainly would have resulted in a Japanese Civil War, between Red Japan and Free Japan.

[Grammy]

We are friends with the son of a Tuskeegee Airman. I will ask him what he thinks of the movie before I go see it.

[IYAS9YAS]

But then again, why quote history... when Hollywood and George Lucas knows best?

Yup. The only real reason I associate them more with the P-51D, is that the P-51D is my absolute favorite aircraft, so when I learned about the Red Tails (on my own, not in any history class), and learned they flew the P-51D, that's what stuck in my head as their main aircraft.

[Tallguy]

I think they started with P47 but ended flying P51s.

They began flying P-40 Warhawks. The P-40 was utilized heavily as a fighter-bomber in the Meditteranean Theater. I don't think P-47's were ever used there.

I also seem to remember they never lost any bomber they were escorting.

A legend fabricated by a newspaper story in Chicago. In fact the day the article came out they lost at least 1 bomber in air-to-air.

Not being critical, just realistic. Besides when you are losing so many bombers each mission to enemy AAA fire, this statistic fades a bit in importance.

Fighter pilots didn't really want to do "close-escort" missions. They'd rather range ahead of the bombers and mix it up with the enemy interceptors. Close-escort was a "sh*t detail". The bomber crews fealt reassured, but Adolf Galland would tell you how helpless you were to diving enemy fighters making a high-angle pass.

The Tuskeegee program also created a couple of bomber groups. But we never seem to hear anything about them. Pity.

[IYAS9YAS]

What? How could not like the constant buzz of cell phones, the migrating light of smart pones, the constant conversations of rude patrons, crying babies, coughing and hacking sick people and the occasional outburst of violence?

Don't forget the $30-worth of two large sodas, a large popcorn, and stale Goobers.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

That movie was the quadfecta of anti war lefty casting. Along with Clooney it stars Sean Penn, John Cusack, and Woody Harrelson.

[cuban leaf]

—What? How could not like the constant buzz of cell phones, the migrating light of smart pones, the constant conversations of rude patrons, crying babies, coughing and hacking sick people and the occasional outburst of violence?—

;)

We bought a 46” led edge lit 1080p set a couple of months ago (we sit about 6’ away from it) and have had a blue ray player for a couple of years. I’ve been a stereo/hi-fi junkie since the early seventies, so you can get a feel for the sound system we use. We saw War Horse last week at a local theater and, other than the fact that it was a lousy movie, I couldn’t help but notice, from the git-go, that it was blurry and the lighting seemed off from beginning to end. Turns out that is just the way it was filmed, but the picture sucked. and yes, it was actual film. You could see the “reel change” black dots on the upper right just before reel changes.

We’re so done with theaters (except for the occasional imax 3D)

[dfwgator]

Along with Clooney it stars Sean Penn, John Cusack, and Woody Harrelson.

But the main role in the movie was played by Jim Caviezel, from "The Passion of the Christ." The other guys played relatively small roles.

[Bender2]

Re: What was the conent of the review? I would be interesting in reading it.

Click on the link above [(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...] and read it.

[moviefan8]

I saw Red Tails recently and came away disappointed. A film about the Tuskgee Airmen should be serious. It seemed like it was a made for television movie and aimed at kids. The CGI and actng seemed bad. The characters seemed cartoonish. The article is correct about the reply of combat footage in the movie and a number of other things.

One promo on Fox Movie Channel I saw had Terrance Howard saying something to the effect that it was like Star Wars. The orginial version of Star Wars that was released in the 1970s is a light years better.

[Army Air Corps]

I was talking about a different review that the poster mentioned (he mentioned some review of Star Wars).

[Bender2]

Re: The Tuskeegee program also created a couple of bomber groups. But we never seem to hear anything about them. Pity

Well, as to the Tuskegee Airmen’s the 477th Bombardment Group from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen :

"Although never seeing combat, The 477th Bombardment Group was activated in 1943, and was not completely manned until March 1945. The 553rd Fighter Replacement Training Squadron was also activated in 1943. Its mission was to provide replacement pilots for the 332nd. Both units began training at Selfridge Field, Michigan, but because of an unhealthy racial atmosphere in the local area the 477th was moved to Godman Field, Kentucky, then to Freeman Field, Indiana, while the 552rd was moved to Walterboro, South Carolina, where it was eventually inactivated. Its members were transferred to form a squadron of the Air Base Group. From its inception, the 477th was plagued with problems. When activated the unit had no established cadre to break-in new pilots and had no navigators/bombardiers to man crews. Within one year the 477th had 38 squadron or unit moves. In June 1945, the 477th was redesignated as the 477th Composite Group.[29][33]"

[rktman]

“Bridges of Toki-Ri” comes to mind. But that was a LOOONNNNGGGGG time ago. Sure impressed me as a kid. Go Mickey Rooney.

[Bender2]

Re: I was talking about a different review that the poster mentioned (he mentioned some review of Star Wars).

Gadzooks! My first mistake... since 3011!

[rktman]

3011?? Make that two mistakes and get back in the “way-back machine”. LOL

[jaydubya2]

Not to belittle the acomplishments of these brave men, but the "no bombers lost" issues appears to be a myth.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-01-tuskegee-airmen_N.htm

[Bender2]

Re: Any movies about the brave men who fought in the Korean War?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_films_and_TV_specials#Korean_War_.281950.E2.80.93present.29 :

Korean War (1950–present)
Air Strike (1955)
The Bamboo Prison (1954)
Batalyon Pilipino sa Korea (1953)
Battle Flame (1959)
Battle Hymn (1957)
Battle Taxi (1955)
Battle Zone (1952)
Battle on Shangganling Mountain (1956)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
Cease Fire (1953) (3-D)
Combat Squad (1953)
Dragonfly Squadron (1954)
Flight Nurse (1953)
Fixed Bayonets (1951)
Hell's Horizon (1955)
A Hill in Korea (1956)
Hold Back the Night (1956)
The Hook (1963)
The Hunters (1958)
I Want You (1951)
Inchon (1982)
The Iron Angel (1964)
Jet Attack (1955)
Korea (1952)
Korea Patrol (1951)
MacArthur (1977)
Marines, Let's Go (1960)
The Marines Who Never Returned (1963)
MASH (1970)
Men in War (1957)
Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
Mr Walkie Talkie (1952)
No Man's Land (1964)
The Nun and the Sergeant (1962)
One Minute to Zero (1952)
Operation Dames (1959)
Pork Chop Hill (1959)
Prisoner of War (1954)
The Rack (1956)
The Reluctant Heroes (1971)
Retreat, Hell! (1952)
Sabre Jet (1953)
Sergeant Ryker (1963)
Sky Commando (1953)
Sniper's Ridge (1961)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Submarine Command (1951)
Take the High Ground (1953)
Tank Battalion (1959)
Target Zero (1955)
This is Korea! (1951)
Time Limit (1957)
Torpedo Alley (1953)
War Hunt (1962)
A Yank in Korea (1951)
The Young and The Brave (1963)
Big Fish (2003)
Taegukgi (2004)
71: Into the Fire (2010)
Legend of the Patriots (2010) (TV Series), remake of Comrades
Road No. 1 (2010) (TV Series)
The Frontline (2011)

Cannot say I saw all of these... but IIRC several stand out as being pretty good: The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Battle Hymn, The Hunters, Men in War, Men of the Fighting Lady, Pork Chop Hill, The Rack, Retreat, Hell! and Sergeant Ryker [Lee Marivin a Commie or not?] and of course, many were not too hot or a disaster such as Inchon where we had Laurence Olivier playing General Douglas MacArthur if old Dug Out Doug was Shylock from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice."

BTW Word on the street... is that old Doug is still spinning in his grave at better than 3,000 RPM over Larry's portrayal in Inchon!

[ClearBlueSky]

Everything Lucas does is aimed at kids-and toys.He can only relate to increasingly younger children-not adults.
Look for a line of ‘Red Tails’ toys and action figures. Lucas isn’t a filmmaker- he’s P.T.Barnum,a marketing man. If he can’t make toys of it, he’s not making it.

[Bender2]

Re: The Korean War? You mean the one where they drank Martinis and chased Nurses named Hot Lips?

There was actually a very good 1953 film made about MASH units that starred Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, Keenan Wynn, Robert Keith and William Campbell all directed by Richard Brooks.

See Battle Circus... at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045544/

Sadly, Netflix has neither the original film... nor my re-cut, re-edited version of it shown in the excepts below:

Hey, Major, where are all the cross-dressing corporals? I feel the need... to kill something--

Look, Ruth, if you sleep with Major Webbe... you are just another round-heeled slut like Hot Lips!

[Pharmboy]

When I saw the trailer, it struck me exactly as you described it. Thanks.

[ConservativeStatement]

That's a comprehensive list. I'll check into some of the titles.

[Blogatron]

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

Roger that. The last thing I want to do is sit in a dark theater for two hours while pants-dragging gangsta types get whipped up into a whitey-beating frenzy by liberal Hollywood racism hype.

[A.A. Cunningham]

The original 99th started with P-40s. The 100th, 301st and 302nd started with P-39s but transitioned to P-47s early in 1944, along with the 99th. All four squadrons which were then part of the 332nd Fighter Group, converted to P-51B/Cs and Ds in June of 1944.

[wbill]

There is smoking, but not enough and the wrong kind of smoking

Well, yeah, it's nitpicky. But I think I get what they were meaning - if they can't get the simple things right (like having an actor stick a cigarette in his mouth) - then how many of the *big* things did they miss.

After chewing on this thread for awhile, I decided that if Lucas spun this movie as "A Bunch of WW II pilots, kicking butt and blowing stuff up", and had it star a handful of big-action-movie actors .... I'd probably have been OK with it.

But, to put it as a historical / biographical piece, when from the appearance of the trailers, it's neither ... well, then, I'm going to miss it.

And, regarding "nitpicky" ... a long, long time ago I watched the 60s barnburner "The Battle of the Bulge" with my Grandfather. ....He "Caught It on It's First Showing", as he blithely put it.... Afterwards, I asked him what he thought. He said that, "It was a fine movie, but no one looked cold enough." It was insight that I'd never even once considered.

Now, I judge most wartime, grunt-type movies, by how cold, wet, dirty, and/or miserable the actors look. Funny, no?

[Antoninus]

Nowadays the only thing they teach about WWII is Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden.

And the Holocaust.

Apparently, nothing else of that world-wide human drama affecting billions of people was interesting.

[moviefan8]

Now, I judge most wartime, grunt-type movies, by how cold, wet, dirty, and/or miserable the actors look. Funny, no?

It seems funny at first, but after thinking about it for a while it does make sense.

Upon thinking of past films I have seen, I have done that. One recent film was In The Land of Blood and Honey.

[dfwgator]

I’ll hand it to the Russians, they know how to do war movies. Plenty of them out there on YouTube.

[moviefan8]

I highly recommend Act of Valor. This was made with active duty Navy Seals. The movie is very emotional.

[freedumb2003]

>>According to the trailer, the only people fighting were the Red Tails. They saved America.<<

You mean like CSI being the real investigators and police detectives just getting in the way? Or CSI just categorizes stuff and Major Case detectives see things like earrings under the bed? Or NCIS doing all the real investigations and the FBI just steps in at the end to get credit? Or EVERY SINGLE person who steps into the Montecido Casino, guest or staff, male or female, is smoking red hot?

You mean none of that is true?

[doorgunner69]

“The Bridges at Toko-Ri” was a pretty good movie when I was a kid...............

[DMZFrank]

The force that carried the brunt of the air war to the Luftwaffe prior to D-Day was the 8th Air Force. It’s fighter component was the 8th Air Force Fighter Command under MG William Kepner. When Gen Jimmy Doolittle took over command of the 8th Air Force, among his first directives was to order Kepner to destroy German fighters whenever and wherever possible by engaging them in the air and destroying them by attacking their airdromes and transportaion targets so as to secure air superiority over Europe before the invasion.

Accordingly, Commanders such as Col Hub Zemke of the 56th Fighter group developed tactics such as the Zemke Fan which called for the fighters to break free of the slow bomber formations and aggressively fan out and break up the German fighter Gruppen and Geschwaders as they were forming up. Tactics such as this were wildly successful and led to the destruction of the German Fighter Arm. Accordingly, air superiority was established over Europe prior to D-Day. It is a hideous reality that the heavy bomber crews were being used as bait to lure the Luftwaffe to battle in a war of attrition that they inevitably lost. The German Landser (infantryman) had a cynical saying; If you see a silver aircraft, it is American. If you see a camoflauge one it is British. If it is invisible it is German.

The 332 Fighter group was assigned to the 15th Air force out of Ramatelli, Italy. Their orders were close escort and protection of the heavy bombers and they did a superb job. The myth at the time wass to say that they were incapable of performing such tasks requiring technological skill and courage. We do not need to calumny the fine reputations of the courageous white fighter pilots of great outfits like the 56th and 4th Fighter groups who did so much to achieve victory on the Western front against the truly formidable German foe by implying a new myth that they did not want to protect the bombers so as to seek personal glory in aerial dogfights.

BTW I am a black man who owns 10 books about the 332nd, who regard them as amongst the greatest of my personal hereoes and I take a back seat in my admiration of their superb accomplishments to no one. I think it wrong to imply disparegment of the white pilots who were obeying their orders to engage the enemy in a specific way so as to extol black pilots. Lets not pit these great Americans against one another now. Their was too much of that in 1944-45.

[DMZFrank]

The force that carried the brunt of the air war to the Luftwaffe prior to D-Day was the 8th Air Force. It’s fighter component was the 8th Air Force Fighter Command under MG William Kepner. When Gen Jimmy Doolittle took over command of the 8th Air Force, among his first directives was to order Kepner to destroy German fighters whenever and wherever possible by engaging them in the air and destroying them by attacking their airdromes and transportaion targets so as to secure air superiority over Europe before the invasion.

Accordingly, Commanders such as Col Hub Zemke of the 56th Fighter group developed tactics such as the Zemke Fan which called for the fighters to break free of the slow bomber formations and aggressively fan out and break up the German fighter Gruppen and Geschwaders as they were forming up. Tactics such as this were wildly successful and led to the destruction of the German Fighter Arm. Accordingly, air superiority was established over Europe prior to D-Day. It is a hideous reality that the heavy bomber crews were being used as bait to lure the Luftwaffe to battle in a war of attrition that they inevitably lost. The German Landser (infantryman) had a cynical saying; If you see a silver aircraft, it is American. If you see a camoflauge one it is British. If it is invisible it is German.

The 332 Fighter group was assigned to the 15th Air force out of Ramatelli, Italy. Their orders were close escort and protection of the heavy bombers and they did a superb job. The myth at the time wass to say that they were incapable of performing such tasks requiring technological skill and courage. We do not need to calumny the fine reputations of the courageous white fighter pilots of great outfits like the 56th and 4th Fighter groups who did so much to achieve victory on the Western front against the truly formidable German foe by implying a new myth that they did not want to protect the bombers so as to seek personal glory in aerial dogfights.

BTW I am a black man who owns 10 books about the 332nd, who regard them as amongst the greatest of my personal hereoes and I take a back seat in my admiration of their superb accomplishments to no one. I think it wrong to imply disparegment of the white pilots who were obeying their orders to engage the enemy in a specific way so as to extol black pilots. Lets not pit these great Americans against one another now. Their was too much of that in 1944-45.

[Tallguy]

We do not need to calumny the fine reputations of the courageous white fighter pilots of great outfits like the 56th and 4th Fighter groups who did so much to achieve victory on the Western front against the truly formidable German foe by implying a new myth that they did not want to protect the bombers so as to seek personal glory in aerial dogfights.

Point taken.

[Thunderballer]

I don't see that. The war against Hitler and The Holocaust are the two things that seem to me to be focused on. D-Day seems to be the single event that gets the most attention.

[dfwgator]

Wonder when they'll make a movie about these guys?

[Rummyfan]

He "Caught It on It's First Showing", as he blithely put it.... Afterwards, I asked him what he thought. He said that, "It was a fine movie, but no one looked cold enough." It was insight that I'd never even once considered.

And strange how in that movie, Belgium looked just like the California high desert ... like around Ft Irwin.

[Jay Santos CP]

I always suspected that the Tuskegee airmen were the decisive factor in the defeat of the Reich.



/s

[Little Ray]

GOOD.
I’m going to Redtails for the P-51s, Me-262s and FW-190s (Who’s afraid of the new Focke-Wulf? I AM!).

[wbill]

LOL, I made this same comment on another thread. One posters' reply was that "It was a fine movie" was the nicest thing he'd ever heard said about that flop of a picture.

Grandpa was the kind of guy who wouldn't say anything bad about anything. :-) Geez, I miss him sometimes.

[Bender2]

Re: And strange how in that movie, Belgium looked just like the California high desert ... like around Ft Irwin.

Gadzooks! Not sure what Battle of the Bulge film y'all are talking about... but the 1965 one with Hank Fonda, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Robert 'We will be as hard as the steel of our tanks' Shaw, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, George Montgomery, Ty Hardin and James MacArthur was shot the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, Spain, with the indoors shooting done in Madrid as per http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058947/

[LouAvul]

Take your little racism theme I’m supposed to feel guilty about and shove it

Exactly. I never owned a slave or shot an Indian and could care less about ancient history. I used to be all socially conscious and all, but they've cried "wolf" about a million times too many.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Bender2. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Tallguy]

Check out a movie called “Dark Blue World” about Czech pilots flying for the RAF.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244479/

[PghBaldy]

There is something unhistorical and unhealthy about the amount of attention given to minorities during the war (and during American history in general).

[Yorlik803]

Only a handful of movies about the Korean war come to mind. Most were good.
Korea was a forgotten war. I knew a Korean war vet who was pissed when the Vietnam Vets got their memorial before they did.
The more I read about that war the more I came to realize how bloody it was. And how America was caught flat-footed and struggled to come back only to be sucked into the UN morass.

[ConservativeStatement]

Someone posted a long list earlier in this thread but few movie releases in recent times. My father fought in that war and rarely revealed stories. My guess is that it is not PC to Hollywood. Yesterday, I put on TV for a few minutes, and saw two trailers for movies where women are kicking the crap out of men. Boring.

[PLMerite]

“...smart pones...”

First this, next the iPone. :)

[Baynative]

Went back to my typo. I’m ‘LOL’ing out loud. Thanks for the morning chuckle.

[pfflier]

Their first airplanes were P-40's not P-47s.

The "not lost a bomber" is a legend recently torn up on the History channel. Another source:

Alan Gropman interviewed General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., years after World War II, and specifically asked him if the “never lost a bomber” statement were true. General Davis replied that he questioned the statement, but that it had been repeated so many times people were coming to believe it"

http://www.tuskegee.edu/sites/www/Uploads/files/About%20US/Airmen/Nine_Myths_About_the_Tuskegee_Airmen.pdf