Red Tails

A well known film critic once ended a review with the words "the kind of film that comes out in January". I don't recall for what movie it was, but I was in total agreement. January released films are often the most formuelic, lazily produced, one-dimensional genre pics that (nevertheless?) often clean up at the box office. I am not including holdover films from the end of the previous year, which are usually Oscar contenders. Sometimes, a film that opens in January was already released in N.Y. or L.A. in December and is now just making its way to your town;I'm not talking about those. I'm speaking of movies like THE AIR UP THERE, CONTRABAND, and, appropriately enough, THE JANUARY MAN. Unfortunately, I'm also speaking of RED TAILS.

It is really a shame, because the subject of this film deserves a rich, deep, thoughtful analysis rather than the cornball, relentlessly cliched, rah rah treatment it gets. This movie is as hokey as any of the WWII films to come out of Hollywood in the 1940s. I went to see RED TAILS with a friend who almost never goes to the movies, but his interest was piqued as his maternal grandfather was a mechanic for the planes flown by the Tuskegee Airmen during said World War. Those African-American fighter pilots were no less brave than their Caucasian counterparts, but consistently denied permission to fly against German aircraft due to reports of their race being "inferior in battle". In the early scenes of RED TAILS, the men are relagated to firing upon the enemy on the ground only. Trains and such carrying weaponry.

Back in D.C., Colonel A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) faces the endless bureaucracy and not-so-veiled racism from the brass. Even getting his Airmen newer aircraft is a monumental struggle. Perhaps it is Bullard's tenacity, perhaps it is the Airmen's performace during the landing at Normandy (they also ignite a German airfield), or maybe it's simply the Colonel's endless speecifying (Howard's performance is alarmingly one note) that allows the Tuskegee Airmen a chance to escort bomber planes during a mission against the Luftwaffe pilots. The mission is a success. Not a single bomber is lost.

But the Airmen suffer also suffer a downed, captured pilot and another who nearly perishes when he loses control of his P-51 Mustang (new planes were part of Bullard's deal)when trying to land. Meanwhile, pilots "Easy" (Nate Parker), a straight arrow and "Lightning" (David Oyelowo), a reckless, hot dogging ace, continue to butt heads, their behavior threatening each mission in varying ways. Every movie about fighter pilots seems to have a character like "Lightning", the guy who bucks superiors, gets chewed out by them, gets into fistfights, flies his own risky manuevers, etc. etc.

It doesn't stop there. In fact, RED TAILS seems to have in John Ridley and Aaron McGruder's screenplay a laundry list of cliches and tired dialogue that would make even Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay wince. Main character struggling with alcoholism? Yes. A big scene where the same character finally dumps the whisky bottle? Yes. A gratuitous romance (which begins when "Lightning" waves from his jet to an Italian girl hanging clothes down below, mmm hmm)with zero chemistry between the actors? Yep. A scene where the Airmens' Major (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) gives a rousing speech? Sure. A key character who "lived by the sword" also dies the same way? Affirmative. A hissable German ace pilot nicknamed "Pretty Boy" who spouts hackneyed one-liners in subtitles? Uh huh. A scene where "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" is playing in a bar? It's true. Weren't any other songs played during that era?! I hope the songwriter's estate is reaping some hefty residuals, 'cos every damned WW II pic plays it.

And the credibility factor? L o w. This is not good for a film depicting real life events and trying doggedly, ernestly to be factual. For example, I never believed the way the main characters behaved in the cockpits during the film's numerous dogfight sequences. Everyone wisecracks and treats the attacks like a video game. I was unfavorably reminded of Will Smith's flying antics in INDEPENDENCE DAY! I imagine there would've been more fear and trembling in the pilots' demeanors. Spielberg had a nice moment in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, when Tom Hanks' character's hand is shown shaking uncontrollably just before the beach landing. Perhaps George Lucas, exec. producer and financeer of this pet project (long in development) should've screened his compadre's movie a bit more (though RYAN has problems of its own I'll possibly address in a future review) thoroughly. STALAG 17 would've also been a good homework assignment for RED TAILS' filmmakers (note the latter film's POW subplot, also quite unbelievable).

Also, I did not buy the scene where the Tuskegee Airmen walk through a plaza filled with their white fellow pilots who, instead of chastizing them as earlier in the picture, now buy them drinks and bond after they all man a successful joint mission. No more epithets; they're brothers now! If only. This sort of wishful thinking and pat resolution belongs in maybe a Hallmark Channel movie, not a major motion picture trying to crisply and realistically retell a piece of forgotten history. And why does almost every scene fade out before there is a chance for more character (and plot) development. Who do I blame, the screenwriters for being lazy or the editor for being hasty? Director Anthony Hemingway for orchestrating it all?

I'm in the minority on RED TAILS. During the screening, the audience hooted and cheered and buzzed in the lobby afterward. I heard a few "Best I've ever seen!" comments. It made everyone feel good. Like, yes, TOP GUN twenty-five years earlier. Unavoidable (and entirely justified) comparison. This movie is slickly designed to stir your heart and ignore your mind. The jet fighter scenes were mostly well-done and occasionally exciting; I'll admit that. But otherwise, I have to say it: this is the sort of film that opens in January.