Red Tails

Directed by Anthony Hemingway

Reviews breadcrumbsplit Film breadcrumbsplit Jan 19 2012

Red Tails - Directed by Anthony Hemingway
By Robert BellSince mid-'90s HBO drama The Tuskegee Airmen (which also featured Cuba Gooding Jr.) already covered the subject of the Tuskegee-trained African-American pilots that proved heroic and invaluable during WWII with grace and dignity, this clumsily written visual effects extravaganza is somewhat redundant. It also bears more than a little resemblance to the works of its Executive Producer, George Lucas, sporting the same creaky narrative structure and contrivances, exacerbated by dreadfully corny dialogue and tropes.

Although here, rather than serving thinly veiled political dogma, the mealy-mouthed, heavy-handed discussion is that of dissidence, racial barriers and the familiar moral platitude of overcoming obstacles through strength of character. When not doting on the issue of prejudice ― noting with a nod and a wink, "We prefer Negro," when confronted with the term "coloured" ― the plot focuses on the Italian Campaign of 1944, generating narrative tension from the possibility that the Tuskegee Airmen might be disbanded, having inferior aircrafts and unsuccessful missions.

True, the observation of exaggerated pressures through harsher judgment and oppressive stigma ― a 1925 Army War College study concluded that blacks were mentally inferior to whites ― gives this ho-hum plot, wherein we already know the outcome, a bit of heft, but does it have to be so gallingly twee?

Since every moment of Washington politics with Terrence Howard and fighter pilot exchange with Cuba Gooding Jr. and half the cast of The Wire fizzles with out-dated, borderline propaganda rah-rah spirit, there's an overall sense of watching a black & white movie sans irony. And while there could be some fun in playing off a kitschy, out-dated cinematic format, thwarting the modern morally conscious war film by cartoonishly vilifying Nazis with gleeful aplomb and giving each character a "Gee Willikers!" approach to life, the fully animated air battle sequences modernize things in a pseudo-anachronistic sense.

Indeed, the aerial combat scenes are impressive to behold on the big screen, serving the visceral with maximum ease, but it never gels with the ground sequences, where everyone seems like a caricature from Hairspray.
(Fox)
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Why don't you go back and stick your head in the sand....
Through all the $25.00 adjectives you choose to use, it still does not conceal the "fact" that you are one stupid man.....You do not have a clue as to what this movie contributes to history.....none at all,so sad
Not only that, your praise of Tuskegee Airmen misses a lot of things wrong with that movie that were pointed out in reviews at IMDB: the overuse of war footage, the inability to show the battles as they happened due to a low budget (hence the overuse of said footage) and the just as stilted dialogue in Tuskegee Airmen compared to Red Tails (it's a movie about pilots in a war, it's not going to have the kind of dialogue found in all of the films that you usually review to begin with!)

As for 'twee', half of the shit you all give four stars to is probably just as twee as you believe Red Tails to be. Most of it (all of the Sundance festival crap) probably isn't going to be as half as stirring as this tale of members of a racial minority showing that they are just as capable and competent as anybody else (I'm sorry, but the story of (2011_film)">a young Afro-American lesbian's coming out is not more important or better than Red Tails.) This story is finally being told that way it should have been years ago, and all that 'reviewers' like you can come up with crap like this?

With reviews like this, it's no wonder mainstream Hollywood flicks will make more money and succeed better than 'independent' ones.
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