Red Tails (2012)

Red Tails is a dramatised account of Tuskegee Airmen, African-American pilots, whom were given a chance to prove themselves in the sky as they are called in to defend Allied Bombers operating over Italy in 1944.

Overall Review Score

7.5 out of 10

Review

Red Tails is a dramatised tale of Tuskegee Airmen operating in World War 2 that has been in development since 1988. While the film was scheduled for release in 1992, the film was abandoned and a new cast / new script was adopted with the film released in 2012 instead. Despite the films production problems, the aerial combat scenes are beautifully done and capture the tension and energy of the moment in a skilful manner. However, some of the characters feel undeveloped; the film contains some historical factual errors and fails to fully explain the obstacles faced by the Tuskegee airmen. Additionally, the films hollywoodisation of the Tuskegee airmen means those hoping for a faithful enactment will ultimately go away disappointed. Overall, Red Tails is a film that tells the story of the role of Tuskegee airmen in World War Two, has strong cinematography and a realistic plot but suffers in places from some major errors and character development problems. While this film is worth watching caution has to be issued because it is essentially an undeveloped film that portrays glittery aerobatics in a World War Two setting.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Score: 7 out of 10

Comments:

Red Tails introduces the audience to the 332nd fighter group, which was the first all African-American squadron in World War II and illustrates the institutional racism, and struggles within the Air Force that these pilots had to endure before they were given the chance to prove themselves. Though the film can be slow at times, and sometime darn right laughable, such as one part where Joe “Lightning” Little asking an Italian girl to marry him without her being able to speak a word of English. Furthermore, while the film has been criticised for having some minor historical and factual errors, such as, one of the Tuskegee men surviving a shot from a 30mm shell fired from an ME-262, which should have killed him instantly or the propeller P-51 Mustangs being able to keep up with the ME-262’s. I still enjoyed Red Tails and would recommend it.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Score: 8 out of 10

Comments:

Red Tails is a film of two parts. On one hand, the storyline; dog-fighting / plane scenes and historical grounding of the film coupled with the acting prowess of Cuba Gooding JR is good. However, on the other hand, some of the characters are not fully developed – leading me to consider whether the director deliberately made them one-dimensional and the film suffers from many clichés including the typical World War 2 the Germans are bad, the Americans are amazing cliché. Overall, while it was a good film and worth watching, I could not help but watch it and see parallels between Red Tails and another well-known flying film that has a rather catchy soundtrack.

#cubagoodingjr #action #drama