More turbulent than flying on a red tail is the movie the aircraft is named after. Red Tails is the inspired by true events story of African American pilots in the midst of World War II. Set in 1944 Italy as part of the Tuskegee training program, Red Tails follows these Tuskegee Airmen—as they came to be called—played a large role in safely escorting U.S. fighter aircrafts across Europe.
Facing racial segregation from their enemies and their American counterparts, the airmen, with a cast led by Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) as Major Emanuelle Stance and Terrence Howard (Crash) as a singularly-toned Colonel A.J. Bullard, overcome the immense adversity to be respected in times of war and Jim Crow Laws.
This is an inspiring story; one that certainly deserves being told on the big screen. But pacing problems hamper the film’s ability to become anything more than a dose of entertainment. Scene changes seem to occur in the most conspicuously inopportune times, as the movie cuts harshly from action adventure to stern drama to playful comedy.
What’s more is the sensationalizing of war to the point of where the five red tail flyers with most screen time (portrayed by Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds, Ne-Yo and Kevin Phillips) fly recklessly without caring to acknowledge the risks they’re taking. We do grow to care about these characters because they are likeable and brave enough to face all kinds of adversity. They share plenty of genuinely funny banter that will go over well with the audience, but to no thanks of director Anthony Hemingway, this playfulness is never quite balanced out with the seriousness of war. So when the heavy-handed force and consequences of combat begins to show its ugly colors, the level of emotion Red Tails expects us to experience feels a bit unearned.
The film’s final shot in which we are given information on the successes the Tuskegee Airmen had in the war, immediately followed by the statistic of their death total (66 men), was a microcosm of the film as a whole. What was the audience supposed to come away with here? Thus in the end, we are left to wonder what the filmmakers really wanted to get across with this picture. The racial segregation and impact of war, while present, were never developed enough to stand on their own. And while full of entertainment, the depth that a true story like this merits is lacking.
Critic’s Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Daniel Feingold can be reached at dfeingold91@gmail.com.