How much I hate Red Tails the movie

Ugh. George Lucas... put up 65 million of his own money... and he paid writers John Ridley and Aaron McGruder for a plot driven story... and hoped Anthony Hemingway, a TV director, could save it.

This topic is not just about my opinion, but also for freewriting to jog me so that I might gain more to say for my student review. There will be spelling errors, and etcetera, and separated into smaller paragraphs.

And there i/ whi/ will be spoilers because this movie is garbage. Actually, it is competent for par for movies but still horrible. You would think that it could be Glory with airplanes, but it is more like ice planet hoth with power ranger pilots.

Okay, so there is / are big problems with this movie that is based on the story of the Tuskagee Airmen. The messages are wrong, wrong, WRONG. Lightning ( David Oyelowo ) walks into a bar full of white only pilots. One of them tells him to leave with the N slur. Lightning had the opportunity to leave without making things worse but he changes his mind and lunges at the pilot so that it is all of them against him.

Next, he is in the brig unhurt and Col. AJ Bullard ( Terrence Howard ) wags his finger at him. The moral of this story, if someone is a bigot against your skin then you should attack him so that he now has confirmation of his attitude that you are violent and wild.

Nothing bad will happen to you and it won't stir up a larger problem. Here's why: These white pilots may be racists, but all it takes to reverse the opinions of the entire white US air force is to fly one escort mission with them.

Golly! We were wrong about you. You are welcome here at this same bar from earlier before.

Tens of decades of resentment solved. Thank you Red Tails. By the way I paid 9.50 for this at AMC, but it would have been more fulfilling had they played SyFy's Thor: Hammer of the Gods or even SyFy's Titanic 2.

Now for a wrong messages / message about movies: If you make a movie where racism is central theme then be sure to waste every opportunity to explore the hrt hurtful lasting effects and inner conflict it causes / inflicts / drives. Even if Lightning sees a woman ( Daniela Ruah ) on a building from his cockpit and asks her to marry him in the next segment.

"Bonjourno!" "Will you marry me?" "Affirmative!" ( she said something in Italian but I like to believe that it translatesd to Affirmative ).

They don't even sspeak / speak the same language. Opportunity was violently kicking and scrathing the door for some white racist pilots to threaten Lighting with 'someone like her is too good to be with someone of yer kind. idn't that right, billie bob? Waat Paawr!'

No, Lightning and whatshername's terrible romance is never challenged in terms of racism. The plot driven story either ignores it or solves it a problem quickly so that it can move on to the next device.

Each segment of the movie proceeds like this:

1. Col. Bullard ( Terrence Howard ) and Major Stance ( Cuba Gooding Jr. ) demand better provisions and better missions from top air force brass, sometimes from Col. Mortamur ( Bryan Cranston, obvious racist guy ). Major Stance takes the stance that they will perservere even though the air force does not give them a fair chance.

2. Easy ( Nate Parker, he drinks from a flask even before a mission ) and Lightning argue. Lightning blames Easy for drinking. The Tuskagee mechanics complain about Lightning's plane damage. The crew goes into town, they are stationed in Italty / Italy and goof off. Lightning and what'shername tralala as best they can for people who don't speak each other's language. High school locker room hijinx between the crew and Junior ( Tristan Wilds, the new recruit who sports a ray gun and wishes they would take him seriously. Later he morphs into his new call sign: Ray Gun ). Easy and Lightning make amends.

3. Terrence Howard's character, Col. Bullard makes his magic speech that never fails to wash away the pain of racism that is hardly illustrated/ handled properly. Cuba Gooding Jr. , Major Stance chomps on his wooden popeye pipe. The patriotic score rouses up. Easy drinks from his flask.

4. Into the danger zone. Nazi pilot from the first scene appears and says something like 'die you foolish African' and Lightning shoos him away. Each of the Tuskagee pilots says something in accordance with their call signs. Combat begins and dialogue is summarized, no / hardly embelleshment "Lightning, take out that guy on your six!" "Yeah, I will, Easy!" "You got him, Lighting!" "How you like THAT, Hitler?" "Yeah!" "You sure showed him your thunder, Lightning!" "All right!" And just for flavor there is a mishap where one of the Tuskagee pilots goes down from some difficulty and stay out of action.

This paragraph above is why Geaorge Lucas brought the money. So that the writers can set everything up for star wars in 1944. So that Lightning can be Anakin and what's her name ( Daniela Ruah ) is Padme, Col. Mortamur is the Emperor, Nazi ace pilot is darth mall, Terrence Howard is Yoda, and Cuba Gooding Jr. is Obi.

And that's why I think this movie is terrible, awful, eyeroll, corny, insulting, disappointing, unworthy, etc. Instead of moving us with articulate storytelling and inner conflict and triumph it wants to move us to tears by throwing the US flag at us and playing patriotic overture. I was crying the whole time.

Thank you for reading my rant and putting up with my amateurity. I hope you go see the film so that you can gag on it as much as I did. Ex vs Sever, Aeon Flux, still better movies. Because they don't try to dupe you on their intent.

Originally Posted by ArmoredSergeant

Okay, so there is / are big problems with this movie that is based on the story of the Tuskagee Airmen. The messages are wrong, wrong, WRONG. Lightning ( David Oyelowo ) walks into a bar full of white only pilots. One of them tells him to leave with the N slur. Lightning had the opportunity to leave without making things worse but he changes his mind and lunges at the pilot so that it is all of them against him.

Next, he is in the brig unhurt and Col. AJ Bullard ( Terrence Howard ) wags his finger at him. The moral of this story, if someone is a bigot against your skin then you should attack him so that he now has confirmation of his attitude that you are violent and wild.

Nothing bad will happen to you and it won't stir up a larger problem. Here's why: These white pilots may be racists, but all it takes to reverse the opinions of the entire white US air force is to fly one escort mission with them.

Golly! We were wrong about you. You are welcome here at this same bar from earlier before.

Tens of decades of resentment solved. Thank you Red Tails. By the way I paid 9.50 for this at AMC, but it would have been more fulfilling had they played SyFy's Thor: Hammer of the Gods or even SyFy's Titanic 2.

I really hope that you are not American due to how little contextual understanding you seem capable of applying to this situation (based on the Tuskegee officer club incident which was a huge ing deal that is just as important in Tuskegee history as their heroics).

Look, these men were war heroes, and they came home and were not allowed into the officer's club. After the incident, they put them on lock down with armed guards and barbwire. Oh and not to mention that while they refused to leave, he never actually used violence in real life, but was accused of it and while he was cleared many years later, by that time he had already lived with the tarnished reputation and what is basically a very serious criminal record.

War heroes, and even they were not afforded equal status to any white man. It was demonstrative of the extreme injustice and hypocrisy occurring America at the time. I can understand you not having an iota of appreciation for the history of America, but for those of us who do it was a big ing deal and helped change this country for the better.


btw the movie was terrible, but if you thought it was bad because its message on how to address racism you totally missed the boat.

No, I didn't miss the boat. You are not hearing the tone of sarcasm, the situation was handled terribly in the context of any storytelling or morality. In the movie Joe "Lightning" Little attacked that officer playing pool who slurred him not because that is what might have had to be done to make a larger statement against racial injustice. Not even to say "I want to lash out because I am trapped for how you treat me!" The writers had him do it because he is Lightning, and lightning strikes out without discipline. Lightning doesn't listen to the orders of his flight leader, makes his own agenda without clearance so that he can strike at will, and punches groups of racist men out of his way. Gratifying? Yes. So that it is a feelgood movie. A good instruction manual and accurate, moral message summarizing action, reason and consequence? *pulls lever*

Later, the white pilots welcome many of the Tuskagee flight crew into their trailor den to have drinks. Did this demonstrate hypocrisy, that the officers were putting up an act? The movie does not illustrate this or follow through. Instead, the movie leaves it open to clearly interpret that the Tuskagee Airmen were accepted. Admittedly, I didn't pay much attention later in the movie because I have add and was scribbling notes. But I didn't hear one single officer say 'we sure pulled the wool over their eyes, idn't that right billie bob? Waat Pawr!' The way the movie handled situations of racism, only to be resolved quickly in the next scene or by Terrence Howard - All wrong and lazy. That's my opinion.

If I am wrong then enlighten me and I'll listen. But I'm going to bed now.

I actually haven't seen the movie, but the officer's club incident happened after the war in Europe (so maybe this is just supposed to elude to it, and not depict it?). I

Also yes many white airmen were very appreciative of the Red Tails, some still harbored racist leanings, but by large their performance led many to call for the eventual integration of the armed forces (it was segregated at the time of the movie obviously).

It actually isn't that absurd that people can overcome racism through contact in such circumstances.

The movie probably was garbage, but the officers' club incident was a monumental milestone in US history. So in retrospect it's a pretty good thing they didn't just "leave and not make things worse".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Field_Mutiny

I believe everything you hated about the movie and more is summed up oh so well in this review by Half in the Bag (from the same guys who do the RedLetterMedia Plinkett Reviews.

Pretty much they say the movie is horrible, absolutely horrible. They said even black people were laughing at its absurdity. And Half in the Bag said the way the movie dealt with racism was retarded.

there were two different trailers for the film that i watched on TV. one of them played dubstep throughout the whole thing. this is when i lost all interest for it.

this thread allayed my fears that i had missed out on something good.

I managed to watch the commercials like four times before I realized the pilots were all black...

All I saw was a bad movie ad that looked worse than Pearl Harbor.

All this overcoming racism stuff is stupid reactionism. People have cultural preconceptions based on media stereotyping, but there isn't endemic racism. Like even a southern "racist" person would say there's a difference between being black and being a . Like Barack Obama isn't hated because he's black, he's hated because he's an intellectual elitist liberal who comes across like an arrogant jerk who doesn't really care about American values and is trying to make America more like Europe.

Most of that is true, so there's a good basis for it. The whole Kenyan thing was just people desperately hoping to impeach him for something.

It's not historically correct either, the Tuskagee airmen lost bombers and it wasn't an all black unit either in fact I think that most of the senior officers were white and that they didn't have any black colonels. It's one of those things that annoys me so much about Holywood, that they don't make historically correct movies when they would be just as interesting if not more than the exaggerated garbage that they make, furthermore George Lucas should stay the hell away from film making.

Im not a really pc guy so I dont care if I say this

It feels like George Lucas looked around said what hasnt been done yet then said... A Black WW2 movie...

And we got red tails

Originally Posted by Kreiglord

Im not a really pc guy so I dont care if I say this

It feels like George Lucas looked around said what hasnt been done yet then said... A Black WW2 movie...

And we got red tails

Ahem...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046997/

This is the first time I hear about this movie.
Meaning that you have now efficiently promoted it to me @ArmouredSergeant.
When it premiers in my part of the world I might go watch it just to find out what all the fuzz is about...

Originally Posted by Kreiglord

Im not a really pc guy so I dont care if I say this

It feels like George Lucas looked around said what hasnt been done yet then said... A Black WW2 movie...

And we got red tails

Pardon? Me thinks you forgot about Spike Lee's 'Miracle at Santa Anna' ?

Wait you guys were expecting something accurate from George Lucas? HAH.

Rule #1: When George Lucas makes a movie, it will be of a crazy style for the usual movie of that type. To wit, his intention was the feel of a ww2 propaganda film that someone dug up from a basement that was made 70 years ago. You don't make a movie with that intent and shoot for accuracy.

That's one thing that Half in the Bag brought up, how the movie on one hand is a sort of throw back to the old propaganda-filled movies about WWII but then there's the added story of racism...and having both of those in one movie doesn't make any sense.

Originally Posted by Lord Rahl

That's one thing that Half in the Bag brought up, how the movie on one hand is a sort of throw back to the old propaganda-filled movies about WWII but then there's the added story of racism...and having both of those in one movie doesn't make any sense.

True. But Lucas would hardly be the first person to take what I'll 'established form' for lack of a better term, and toy with it.

I was scrolling the IMDB forums (lord knows why) and some guy gave a reasonable explanation for why he liked it (it was cheesy, but it would be a good TV movie, etc) and then ended it by accusing everyone who disliked it of being a closet racist.

All I did was see the Lucas name on it and knew it would be . Glad I was right.

Also that dubstep trailer did not help. The only people that enjoy that music are kids with rusting early 90s hellaflush honda civics with 14 inch subs in them.

Can I sue George Lucas for being racist against Germans?

Originally Posted by Mangalore

Can I sue George Lucas for being racist against Germans?

Yes. If you can find a judge that won't laugh you out.

Originally Posted by Gaidin

Yes. If you can find a judge that won't laugh you out.

You Americans are all racists when it comes to WW2!

It's just weird having a ww2 movie making a statement against racism but copying propaganda war movies where Germans are portrayed like Cartoon villians. Propaganda war movies at that time are _not_ a good framework for a message against racism.