“Red Tails” (2012) is a Hollywood film about the Tuskegee airmen, Black American fighter pilots who fought against Hitler in the Second World War.
Credits: George Lucas of Star Wars fame was the executive producer. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr and Terrence Howard. Method Man and Ne-Yo also appear. It was written by Aaron McGruder (“The Boondocks”) and John Ridley (“Three Kings”, “Undercover Brother”). It is the first film by television director Anthony Hemingway (“The Wire”).
Bottom line: The dogfights were good – what you would expect from Lucas – but the plot was weak, slow and whitewashed.
A shame since Lucas has been working on this film on and off since 1988. He wanted it to come out in 1992 but the big money in Hollywood would not touch it: it was an all-black film, which meant a limited audience. Lucas had to put his own millions into it.
The true story is just loaded in irony and conflict – fighting racist Nazis while fighting against American racism – but the writers threw it away. The racism was too weak and the proving themselves bit came too easily.
Only a few whites in the film were racist, cartoon racists at that, and none of them serious characters. Most whites were well-meaning, fair-minded and readily admitted blacks were good pilots once they were given the chance to prove it. Not only that, they even dropped their segregationist ways by letting them into the whites officers’s club and were laughing and drinking and telling corny jokes in no time! Wow. Even 70 years later America does not work like that.
I assume they were going for at least part of the white market, but that is a knife in the heart of any story about the Tuskegee airmen. They were more than just some black men who flew planes and shot down Nazis.
Some stuff they left out:
- The race riots that were going on back home as they were fighting overseas for “democracy”.
- The racism they faced when they returned home.
- How they affected the desegregation of the military
- The true story about the officers’s clubs.
- Their arrival in Morocco
- How blacks had to fight tooth and nail just to get pilots and mechanics admitted into the air force.
- Black women
The only time you see a black woman in any form it is as a painting on one of the planes, and you never get a good look at her – she is always edging out of the frame or gets cut off. I was not sure if she was a black mermaid or what. Talk about marginalization!
The only time you see a picture of any of their wives or girlfriends it is a picture of a white woman. Like black women do not matter or something.
To its credit the black characters were not stereotyped, though they were still pretty thin.
I like how they showed the mechanics because that is what I would have been.
See also:
That’s really disappointing. George Lucas was on the Daily Show last week or so, plugging the film, and said how it was really a longer movie and he had to break it into this one, and hope to be able to make the prequel and the sequel later. But even so, that’s a lot to leave out of this part of the story.
I haven’t seen it yet, and had hoped to get to see it this week. I may still, just so I can speak more intelligently about it, but I don’t have as high hopes as I had before I started seeing reviews this weekend.
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Thanks for giving your review on the movie, Abagond.
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I do admit I had issues with the lack of black women in this movie, as if they don’t exist when black men do anything important. It seems to forget that in that time, it wasn’t white women standing by those men when all of white America was against them.
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Thanks for saving me the time and money Abagond. I had a feeling this one wasn’t going to be worth it. Hummmm. One day we are going to have better, true to life depictions. One day.
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I haven’t seen this one yet but did not they make one about the same subject earlier? Sometimes back in 90’s or early 2000’s?? I’ve seen one before. It was called Tuskogee if I’m not totally wrong and starred Laurence Fishburne and others. Or does my mind play tricks on me??? That was ok.
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There are a few things that I think are worth mentioning that the comments so far have overlooked.
First, I think this movie was watered down because it was meant for 13 and 14 year old boys to go and see and have fun. If they had gone too heavy with the racism aspect or any of the other things mentioned so far, it could have caught an R rating which would have changed everything and narrowed the revenue margins considerably. This was not meant to be at a “Schindler’s List” level of seriousness. Certainly a move of that caliber is warranted and hopefully will be made eventually but that’s not what this was meant to be.
Second, the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees” come to mind when I see the film dissected the way it has been so far. It’s an action movie for kids “based” on a real story, not a documentary. Maybe now people will want to see a documentary and learn more. Think survey level Physics course. It was just meant to wet the appetite.
Third, I thought George Lucas did us a big favor by letting us know how things work in Hollywood, about how and why studios said no. He doesn’t need to cajole anyone into seeing his movies. He didn’t even have to make it. Why not support it, even if it is cheesy? How many cheesy movies have we seen just for the heck of it? Why not send a signal, that there is a market for this kind of movie and maybe the next one will be better. At a minimum, it provides a platform for Black actors to showcase their talent and get discovered like Derek Luke in Antoine Fisher.
I saw it. Theater was crowded. Some screens sold out. Mostly support by Blacks sprinkled with a few Whites. Had a descent time seeing an action movie with all Black cast. Please don’t discourage people from seeing it. At a minimum, you support the actors who were in it and today a heck of a lot more people know about the Tuskegee airmen than on Friday. Why not see the glass half full on this one?
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“Red Tails” was not a great movie. It had some script issues and bad pacing decisions. It felt too much like a TV show. I would have included a flashback of a girlfriend or wife. But Oyelowo did a pretty good job in his role. And honestly given they are overseas the depiction of a BM/WF relationship didn’t bother me. They way some critics are going on you would think things like that never ever ever happened. It’s amazing that EVERY movie has to be deconstructed around IR gender issues.
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Has everyone forgotten this was a PG 13 movie? What if it was a G rated cartoon, would you still expect the content of a R rated movie?
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-It’s an action movie for kids “based” on a real story, not a documentary-
That sums it up for me. Making it a graphic novel would have improved the pace and the “dated” styling. I observed a lot of false allied easiness. The truth about the times were filled with action, drama, and violence. Plenty to keep young people titillated. The lies and omissions were glaring and so disrespectful.
I can’t imagine little black girls flocking to this film, with all the “fudging” they could have written in a Bessie Coleman character.
There is something about George Lucas being married to a black woman that is bothering me about the lack of substance in MOVIE.
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Thank you “LookingForAnswers” for your response.
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We will eventually see this movie. My children are a bit young for it now. I do agree that the rating of the movie does play a role into content. A PG-13 rating will get more money than a R rating. We will continue to educate our boys about the real history of the Tuskegee Airmen (as well as other aspects of AA history in US). I don’t expect any film to ever give it justice like the real men during that time giving their personal accounts.
It was #2 at the box office making 19.1 million, just after Underworld. So hopefully that will make Hollywood see that there is a market out there (and not just TP movies *rolling eyes*)
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The movie, good or bad, created conversation about some awesome men. Now you can do your own research. No movie ever does justice to the real story but at least it’s a start. It was half-full and not a half-empty movie. Thanks for a start point. My 16 year old son and his friend loved it and it gave them something positive to see, a movie about 19-22 year old men fighting in a war and making a difference.
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Vince,
I think you hit it right on the head. George Lucas knew exactly how he had to make this movie in order for it to even get this far. It’s not perfect but people shouldn’t believe all the negative feedback around this movie by the elite is unbiased. They want it to fail in order to prove their point about Black movies, which should mean we should want it to pass. We don’t have to be Siskel and Ebert on this one and call it straight down the middle. We can just go support it even if its the worse move ever made just to make the point.
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How sad that in 2012 we still have this issue in Hollywood.
I’m so done with this.
I knew when he wanted to make this movie, it was going to become this spectacle.
I also knew it had to be whitewashed.
Whites would never see a movie about blacks depicting realism.
It would make them ” uneasy”.
Remember, folks, that movies are supposed to sell, sell, sell.
The era of storytelling, no matter how uncomfortable, is O-V-E-R!
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Lucas has given a lot of interviews lately. Says some interesting things. I he trying to use his privilege for good, or just becoming another ‘white savior’? Thoughts?
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Sometimes it’s about moving the ball forward and not scoring a touchdown on every throw. This movie was not a touchdown but it definately moved the chains. Much more so than Training Day, Monsters Ball, The Help and all the other nonsense where people enjoy seeing Blacks depicted in a certain way.
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The US is nowhere close to 70 years beyond the end of Jim Crow. Official Jim Crow laws remained on the books of many states until the end of the 1960’s, and de facto Jim Crow continued at least through the ’70’s, arguable even later than that depending on the economic sector (for example, trade unions continued to be bastions of segregation well into the 1990’s). At best, the US is about 30 years post-Jim Crow. In some areas, Jim Crow still exists at a dilute level.
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@ Blanc2
Sorry, that sentence was ambiguous. I corrected it. Thanks.
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“Lucas has given a lot of interviews lately. Says some interesting things. I he trying to use his privilege for good, or just becoming another ‘white savior’? Thoughts?”
I didn’t get the White savior, “follow me” vibe from the interviews he gave. I do get the sense though that he was being very deliberate in saying the things he said. I got the sense that he was trying to send a signal to us (perhaps at tremendous cost to himself financially and otherwise because I doubt the studios liked him showing the inside game like he did). I also get the feeling that being with a Black women may have sensitized him to using his privilege to push something like this forward. For crying out loud the man put $100 million of his own money up!! He deserves some credit instead of complaining about everything it could have been. Why didn’t Oprah do it? She got doe.
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@lookingForAnswers Yeah, I feel you. I think in general he’s done a good job. It would have been nice if he encouraged some other faces to appear in these interviews. Certainly the actors have good name recognition and Anthony Hemingway could certainly use the airtime as a budding director making his feature film debut. Best of all would be to hear from the actual airmen that this movie is about! After all, they won’t be with us for much longer.
It could be that Lucas did indeed ask that these things happen, but was denied. And it’s not his fault that the media is the way it is. So yeah, it could have been better, but I think he did all right. (some text modified from http://tiny.cc/ih5yq)
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@ LookingForAnswers
I can grant that it “was meant for 13 and 14 year old boys” but not that it was aimed mainly at blacks. If it were, the main and ONLY romance would not have been interracial nor would the racism and how the airmen overcame it be played down. A black female character of some sort would have been added. It was a film with a black cast that was made for white people. You can tell from the whitewashing.
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Lucas was not making a film for black people but a film for white people that puts blacks in a positive light. From that point of view, the interracial romance makes sense as does the whitewashing.
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@ StngeFruit
CNN did several pieces over the weekend interviewing some of the Airmen, Hemingway and the actors:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2012/01/23/nr-lemon-red-tails.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2012/01/22/natpkg-red-tails.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2012/01/21/nr-whitfield-tuskegee-airmen.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2012/01/20/nr-red-tails-tuskegee-airmen.cnn
Foxnews even got in on it:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1390702385001/terrence-howard-honors-tuskegee-airmen
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1402355671001/toughest-role-ever-for-red-tails-stars
The actual Airmen said they were honored by the film. Honored. Yet, so many here can’t find a thing to like about it. Something feels wrong about that. Are some of us being too negative and missing the big picture here?
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@abagond
Why does it have to be an either or proposition? Why couldn’t it have been made for Blacks and Whites? In fact, this is probably what you get when you do. I thought dichotomous thinking was something you didn’t like in the White culture? So I’m a little surprised that you are taking this approach.
I agree the movie could have used some Black women representation. It probably was an unfortunate oversight.
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@LookingForAnswers Thanks for sharing those links. Better late than never!
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I still think that the 1995 version, had a better dogfight
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@ LookingForAnswers
How would you make an honest film about the Airmen that would appeal to whites? It is the racism in the story and the different relationship blacks and whites have to it that makes it almost an either/or thing. What most white filmmakers do is to put in a white saviour figure, but that has issues too.
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In theory quite simple, the Tuskegee Airmen fight the good fight WW II Allied Side, don’t waste too much film on whiteys, (they are mainly there to be fought) and don’t highlight the racism (which is not the same as not showing it). White folks will miss it, black folks will see it.
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@ LookingforAnswers
When white filmmakers do a feature casting an all black cast, they know that:
Most whites will have no interest in seeing it
They will lose money with the studios
It will become a dreaded, ” Black movie.”
Most black filmmakers, Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua, Hughes Bros, etc want to make films for their people depicting them in a realistic light, good or bad.
The problem that obstructs is : MONEY.
Films have to sell.
1. If racism gets too realistic, white studios and audiences will become uncomfortable.
2. If black women are in the film, a white woman MUST be cast so white audiences can ” relate.”
In the end, it gets played down, whitewashed or omitted so white audiences won’t feel bad / guilty about America’s past.
Please note that studios have NO issues showing blacks that are downtrodden. An example of this is Precious, the Help, The Blindside, the Color Purple and too many others to count.
Black filmmakers shouldn’t HAVE to appeal to both audiences. White audiences have been the target audience since film was invented.
It is not an either / or situation.
It’s wanting to represent your own people.
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@ Teddy,
Then it would not be an ” honest” film.
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@ Everyone
When American Gangster was still in the works, Antoine Fuqua fought tooth and nail to be the director.
He would have been the second director in American history next to Spike Lee to:
1. Direct a black biopic
2. Have a black lead star
3. Be a shoo-in for an Oscar
Instead it was given to Ridley Scott.
Figure that one out!
This is nothing new.
It’s been going on since Hollywood was created.
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@abagond
Now I understand exactly where you are coming from and what you are driving at. Here is where I believe we disagree. I do not believe this movie was meant to be an “honest” (as you put it) account of what the airmen had to overcome specifically in terms of racism. That I do not believe was the point or purpose of this film. This was just meant to be a story of excellence overcoming adversity with a backdrop of true to life Black men that a lot of people (including Black kids) will hopefully now want to learn more about. There have been many movies with a similar theme of overcoming through excellence but none without a “White Savior” or with an all Black cast of characters, which we are fortunate enough to be rooted in real history that Black kids can be interested in, benefit from and use as inspiration to overcome their adversity through excellence. Seeing people that look like you overcome adversity through excellence can be a powerful thing for a kid (particularly for a Black male). Knowing that it’s cool to be excellent is a powerful message to send in a very accessible way to teenage minorities. From that perspective, I thought the movie was indeed for Black kids and was an A. If you were looking for a blow by blow account of how hard things were for these airmen from a racial perspective, then of course this movie would have failed you.
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@abagond
Furthermore, the actual airmen were consulted, involved and felt honored with the end product. That should say something.
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“Then it would not be an ” honest” film.”
@ Truthbetold
I think what you are looking for is called a documentary. To impose that standard on a PG-13 flick I think is a bit unreasonable.
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@ LookingforAnswers
Depends on who’s telling the story and the target audience of that story.
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I was frustrated that Red Tails had the female romantic lead be white. But gave them a bit of a pass since it took place in Italy.
But then I got to thinking, it wouldn’t have been that hard to have a romantic interplay with a black female love interest back home via love letters and flashbacks.
Now Ryan sends this article that could have totally made for a great black female role: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/us/tuskegee-airmen-first-couple/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
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@Truthbetold, it depends, there is a lot of time compression in a movie, so highlighting the airmen they were, rather than the racism they had to overcome, is not necessarily dishonest… Just told from another angle.
I mean it is as with Carl Clark, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/black-wwii-vet-gets-medal-from-navy-66-years-later/
One just wonders about what the Airmen would have said to that, if a fortune teller had predicted that to them at the time, I guess that it would not have seemed weird to them at all.
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“Black filmmakers shouldn’t HAVE to appeal to both audiences. White audiences have been the target audience since film was invented.
It is not an either / or situation. It’s wanting to represent your own people.”
@ Truthbetold
You do realize that we represent 13% of the country right? That’s every Black man, women and child in this country.
I’m not saying appealing to that audience is preferred but I certainly understand it from a dollars perspective. This movie cost $100 million to make and distribute. That’s no loose change and not a lot of producers would be willing to eat that for the sake of unadulterated and explicit “honesty”. They know their people and that’s why I thought Lucas was brilliant the way he played this from beginning to end (especially with the interviews he gave. This man is no fool). That’s also why I thought you were too quick to dismiss Teddy’s comment. The statement “White folks will miss it, black folks will see it” might have some wisdom in it as an approach if we would like to see more big budget films like this made in the world we live in today. (I also happen to think this is Obama’s approach.)
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If you want to see movies with Black actors portrayed as human beings, look to Nollywood and forget Hollywood. American cinema will never change regarding Black folks. Maybe the Mexicans will get lucky in the next 50 years, but i doubt it.
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I haven’t seen this film yet, and honestly don’t care too much. I only got excited about the fact that in the trailer commercial they played the kind of music I enjoy: http://youtu.be/sxHqPD-grhM
They could’ve played hip-hop or they could’ve stuck with the cheesy theatrical music they had in the original trailer, but thankfully they didn’t.
I’m not surprised they didn’t have any Black women in this film; the music I just stated that I enjoy rarely has Black women in its videos, its always White, Asian, and Latina…but they always have a handful of Black men…
“Dead Presidents” with Larenz Tate… though it was too dark an ending, dealt well with the struggle of coming back home from war only to get treated like society’s burden. But in real life some people don’t really turn to crime, they just struggle through life or end up in the system.
“Cadillac Records”…R.I.P. to Etta James, they faked the relationship between her and Adrian Brody’s character. Leonard Chess. I remember reading that in real life, she was married the whole time, and to a Black man.
“The Pursuit of Happyness,” though it showed some struggle wasn’t too realistic about how easily White employers took on Chris Gardner.
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@ proudchocolategirl
If anyone threatened people it was Tyler Perry. He made it a make or break moment using words like “EXTINCT”
As far as Lucas saying what other Blacks have already said, the difference was that he had a much larger megaphone so everybody heard him. For him to do that I believe was a grand gesture because he knew it would be picked up everywhere and now I have seen more news pieces on that topic alone over the last week than I have ever seen in total. Even FOX NEWS covered the issue of green lighting movies with Black casts (see my link above) and that’s saying A LOT!
Personally this made me reconsider actively supporting Black centric films if for no other reason than it casts Blacks in a positive light regardless of the topic. I just played it down the middle but I’m realizing support makes a difference and this is the least I can do. I saw two movies this weekend. I saw another movie I planned on seeing and I saw Red Tails just to show some support.
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I also wanted to add this: Cuba Gooding Jr. gets on my damn nerves. He just brings any movie down to the level of pure horse nuggets. He is the quintessential Hollywood Oreo. I was not surprised when I Googled him and found out his wife is a blond haired White woman. STOP PUTTING SELF-HATING NEGROES IN BLACK FILMS!!!!
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I wonder how many of the people who didn’t like how Red Tails handled race paid to see the film.
Because, you know, there is nothing better than financial support for bad cinema to make Hollywood see the error of its ways.
I’ll just leave this here:
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=redtails.htm
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=iwillfollow.htm
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@ LookingforAnswers
Why is it that only when a white director / actor / producer has something to say about black lives and stories in Hollywood, it’s taken seriously?
Another example of this whitewashing? Remember the Titans.
I understood Teddy’s comment but we shouldn’t have to take an underhanded, sly approach to film. There’s an honesty that is lacking regardless of the rating.
We are see as black first, filmmakers / storytellers second.
But I do appreciate your comment and explaination.
And, yes, Obama MUST do this as well.
@Everyone
This would NOT have been the outcome if John Singleton had been the director.
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@ Teddy
Yes, time compression in cinema is important. If you drone on, your audience will lose interest.
Why tackle such an important part of black American history and not just tell your story, damn all the discomfort?
Because of the color…green.
I’d rather not see it. Because of the whitewashing.
Perhaps a documentary is the way to go.
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I does not suprise me that there were no black women in the film more than half of the guys in the film are married to black women so you will never see that crew fighting for black women. Heidi Klum and Seal are breaking up because of his anger problems. So much for the angry black woman. I know a lot of black men who are probably depressed and suicidal over that breakup.
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Oops! I meant that most of the wives in real life are white or other…
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Great Review. I think it was an accurate description of the faults a and the good stuff the movie had. It was weird watching it because almost immediately before my family decided to get tickets for that night I had literally just finished reading proudchocolategirl’s review of the movie( also awesome and accurate). So I was really not in the mood to see it,but I did . It wasn’t the worst thing I ever saw but it sure as hell wasn’t the best. If you look at it as another throwaway action movie it was pretty good. The characters where likable even i they fell a bit flat. The dialogue seemed kinda forced in parts but it moved the plot along and got the point across so can’t really complain. I was surprised at the lack of racism in the movie. (SLIGHT SPOILER One drunk officer said the n-word, and one Nazi was surprised to be fighting “Africans”) . On the subject of Black Women not being present I am ignorant enough about women in the military during WWII that I am not entirely sure whether or not BW were stationed in Italy. I guess this is what Lucas and Co where counting on. Ironically the black pin-up on the plane belonged to the pilot who was romancing the white woman if I remember correctly. I felt The romance plot was not needed beyond letting the audience see a more likeable/softer side of that pilot. So it served a purpose..it was cute. It”s important enough to the emotional mood of the movie that that you cant simply ignore it ,but not annoying enough that you would necessarily want to.Honestly my first thoughts were to wonder whether he was infatuated with all white women or just her. Then I took a deep breath counted to ten and willed the thoughts to go away. They didn’t but I tried not to let the historical,social subtext color my opinions about the validity of the relationship. Trying not to let my normal cynical personality ruin family night. It was an Okay action flick. I think if it had more of that Inglorious Bastards style writing to the story line it would have been easier to forgive the corny parts. Just my opinion.
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Kara:
You mean more than half of the black actors in the film are not married to black women and therefore will not stick up for them?
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Truthbetold, how would you summarize the story?
Stella Mari, black soldiers in Europe in and after the World Wars were in another universe when it concerns dating and so on of white girls, compared with living in the USA… I’m not so sure about black airmen, but I suppose the same held true for them.
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It turns out the black female love interest was edited out of the final version:
http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/waod/2012/1/18/confirmed-jazmine-sullivan-edited-out-of-red-tails-toldja-so.html
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@ Cece D
heh. Isn’t she always….
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Thanks for the review.
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Kara & Abagond: I heard there’s a Red Tails interview with Terrance Howard and David Oyelowo saying something like “marrying or having sex with a White woman symbolizes “freedom” and progress.” I haven’t listened to the interview myself because it would make me have even less respect for Terrance than I do now. It’s sickening how these Black men would make such statements excusing the absence of Black women (or praising the inclusion of non-Black women) in this film. Equally sickening is the number of posters on this site who are doing the same thing.
I don’t do many war movies, but I have not seen one where the White heroes are not pining for a White wife or girlfriend (or even a distraught mother) who’ve they left at home to go to war. Some of them do feature the soldiers involved with the women of the foreign country that they are stationed in, but they are not the sole or main romantic/sexual relationship in the film. Even in the theater this past weekend I saw a preview for a war movie based in the Middle East. The lone female shown in the previews was of the White wife of one of the soldiers. A film made for Whites would never NOT feature the White woman as the “anchor” for one or more the film’s heroes. Of course Black people don’t get the same treatment. Unfortunately some Blacks even like it that way.
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Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. At the same time I do understand it is easier for me to say as a male.
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@ Teddy
I don’t ever intend to see it like many other films that get whitewashed.
But if I have to summarize?
Black men are portrayed as heroes, ( for once), racism gets played down for the benefit of white comfort and money making and Lucas (hopefully) get his millions back with DVD sales and video-on-demand cable viewings.
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@ Cece D
Thanks. Now we know we were not just imagining things.
@ saadiyah:
I agree.
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Black films that made over $100m (unadjusted for inflation):
288.8 Coming to America (1988)
272.9 Bad Boys II (2003)
173.6 Big Momma’s House (2000)
155.0 Dreamgirls (2006)
141.2 Bad Boys (1995)
137.0 Big Momma’s House 2 (2006)
131.1 Boomerang (1992)
125.3 Ray (2004)
101.6 Little Man (2006)
Only two black films were ever made for more than $100m:
– Bad Boys II (2003) was made for $130m and brought in $273m
– Ali (2001) was made for $109m and brought ib $88m
Source:
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/AfricanAmerican.php
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From Autumn Jones, February 25th 2009:
Source:
http://autumnjones.blogspot.com/2009/02/jazmine-will-star-alongside-ne-yo-in.html
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Lucas:
Source:
http://autumnjones.blogspot.com/2012/01/watch-7-minutes-of-red-tails.html
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I liked the movie with Laurence Fishburne and Co. but it doesn’t sound like this one is worth seeing.
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When it comes to Black women, the fact of the matter is those men, during those times, weren’t being supported by a bunch of White women. White women were more likely to have men like them lynched than marry them sadly. They were supported by Black women. Why is it that, for it to be inspirational, it can only be to Black men? What about the Black women who are being told, yet again, even in a story about BLACK PEOPLE, they aren’t worth the risk of including? Why is it that they’d much rather throw in a White woman as a liberating force, as if being with Black women was some sort of drudgery that represents some sort of “repression”?
However I do agree that ranting over this movie isn’t going to help. All it’s doing is proving that “Black people can’t make good movies”, which means that all of those elite critics who wouldn’t be caught dead at a Black play or film screening get to sit on their high horse and pan it and prove their point. Support the effort put into it, and stop with the “Lucas is a white-savior wanna-be” stuff, right? It’s sad that it took his money and voice to get a story like that to be told, but he tried, and so did those actors. America, like usual, saw anything positive involving Black people and ran for the hills.
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Well that’s depressing. It’s sad when Black men associate loving a Black woman as something negative, when White women were willing to have teenage boys lynched just on her assumption that they wanted them.
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“I know a lot of black men who are probably depressed and suicidal over that breakup.”
…
LOL! I’m sorry but that did get a laugh out of me. I remember a lot of black guys seemed to think they were approaching godhood when those two got married. Also, I recall quite a few making the statement that when Obama took office, the remaining white female holdouts (which, in actuality, would be the overwhelming majority of white women) might be more open to giving black men “a chance”….
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I spent 24 years in the military and I have met 12 of the Tuskeegee Airmen personally. I loved the movie. It is about time that blacks can have an equally Hollywood-esque, WWII stereotypical, hero-type movie, without all of the hand-wringing social commentaryon racism included to heavy-heart all the life out of it. Yes we were discriminated against. I certainly was.
If you want to know about the TA’s from an historical point of view, you can certainly look one of them up and ask. There are aplethora of books written all about it and I’m sure those guys would appreciate the royalties from your purchase. You are free to make your own film – or quit touting the spending power of “the Black economy.” You could do some research at a library… But what you don’t need to do is be dissapointed that Lucas and others don’t tell your story just the way you would do it. As a black man I am sick of hearing black people complain about every damed thing that doesn’t go their way 100%. Write a book! Make a film! Invest in a film and have it done your own way!
I, for one was glad to see some black John Waynes for a change. Oh yeah, being equal means you get to be in equally frivolous movies just for the sheer entertainment of it.
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DAWGsoldier,
Thank you for your service, by the way. I come from a military family, father served 22 years.
I agree with you for the most part! Although I dislike that the narrative of Black women wasn’t seem as valuable enough to include in such an inspirational story (why is it that the Help is the only time Black women in those eras are shown as any kind of important catalyst, and even then its through the eyes of White people), the fact that this movie was done at all at least means that it can be done again. I don’t think Black people get the same recognition as White people do when it comes to the entertainment industry, so I highly doubt they even can write those books, films, or invest in them and have people actually take them seriously sadly.
It doesn’t help that so many Black people are attacking the film when they should at least support the story. I’m sure if it were a White film with the same plot and characters, critics wouldn’t have been as harsh with it (Twilight is a horrible film, and yet gets a higher rating than Red Tails?)
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114745/
Theres the one I have seen. It was pretty ok for a smaller budget movie.
As for Lucas and Hollywood, it is Hollywood. Show me a single Hollywood war movie that is realistic and I’ll show you the moon is made out of cheese. Saving private Ryan? Well, the first moments were but then it was something else set in the war. Platoon. Well, sargeant Elias as a jesus figure etc.?
Big bidget movies are always compromisses. They try to appeal to the main stream as much as possible because they are vehicles to make money. It is a high risk business but potential income is great too. That is always good to remember when watching Hollywood movies.
A good thing about this movie is that it is a big Hollywood show that has black heroes. A bad thing is that there is still racism in the System. Just look at the Wind talkers, a movie about navajo soldiers fighting in Pacific. Yeah, the lead is a white guy with problems which would in real life gotten him out of service. That being said, it told for the first time how important the navajos were for the whole war over there.
So remember, Hollywood is Hollywood. It is a fairy tale land, Tinsel Town, a place which brings out fantasy and stories, not realism or reality. And as long as there is racism in the american System, it will be there too.
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Ace, the support they got from black women is taken as a given. But having the native European women “throw themselves” at you, that was a major historical event for them.
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This wasn’t a Black film anymore than The Help was a Black film. This was White people re-writing history to make it seem that racism wasn’t systematic but something only perpetrated by a few White outliers.
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@ commentarybyvalentina
Co-sign.
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– David Oyelowo, who played Lightning, the one with the white girlfriend
Source:
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/01/23/red-tails-george-lucas-100-million-dollar-gamble/
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I’ve been hearing from others as well that this movie was a disappointment. That’s too bad, I was hoping for something epic.
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Abagond:
Black folk are not obligated to see “Red Tails” because it’s a majority-black film. If the creators of the film don’t keep it 100 with respect to the authenticity of the story, don’t waste your money. What jumped out at me was the slap in the face to blackwomen in the film and outside of the film. Casting Terrence Howard in the movie was a big mistake on the part of George Lucas. The days of blackwomen supporting blackmen who don’t support them are over, zero, zilch, nada. Sistas can’t do that crap anymore, it doesn’t make any sense. If blackmen in hollywood wanna be white, let whitewomen spend their money on them. George Lucas spent 93 million dollars of his own money to make this film, and the best it could do was 19 million in the first week…Epic Fail!!!
Tyrone
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@Tyrone
Casting Terrence Howard in the movie was a big mistake on the part of George Lucas
? I admit to not always being ‘with the times’ so to speak, but why do you feel this was an error?
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ah jeez that movie was pretty cool i dont care what you say
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Thank you all for your reviews and opinions. I was debating whether or not I would see this film but after reading several bloggers’ input I have decided to pass. I believe I would rather view a documentary. Like many others have stated I have to wonder at the lack of a Black female presence in the movie. I’m sure at that time in our country’s history most of those men would have been romantically involved with Black women. At the very least Lucas could have shown a Black mother pacing the floor at night as she prayed for her son overseas. I am truly puzzled at the disdain and the ANTI-BLACK WOMAN (where’s La Romana when you need her?!) racism that our country has. I’m also disappointed that apparently none of the Black actors supported the idea of including a Black female presence in the film. I understand that a lot of them don’t have clout needed to do this but still. If it is true that George Lucas is married to a Black woman, then he should be ashamed of himself for not including at least one Black female.
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@ Peanut
You hit the nail on the head. I’ve often thought this about him and Cuba Gooding Jr. as well. It must be very hard to be (or at least come off as) so whitewashed and only be cast as “Black” men. I lost all respect for Cuba Gooding Jr. when he showed his a** at the Academy award show some years ago. He acted a straight clown when he won! It was disgusting to say the least.
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By the way Abagond I like the new header. The Black women pictured are very pretty indeed!
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Is it so hard to believe that at that time those men were not involved with a black woman? Some of the Tuskegee airmen are still alive? Why don’t you ask them since they were there?
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the tom joyner morning show played audio from the documentary that had the REAL wives of the airmen. it was SOOO SWEET and touching. the wives spoke about their husbands and what was going on with them while their husbands were away in the war. THANKS TOM J0YNER !!
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@Demerera
Blackmen like Terrence Howard are nothing new in hollywood. I could name others like him, but, i’m not gonna bore you with that. Red Tails had the potential to be a great movie, if all the parts fit together. Director, producer, story, cast, actors, etc. The problem with some blackmen in hollywood is that they sabotage their success and the success of other black male and female actors. Their racial insecurity makes it hard to persuade black folk to run to theaters to support their projects. Seeing black male actors on the red-carpet with women who are not black is a problem that a lot of blackmen in hollywood don’t wanna acknowledge. It sucks the soul out of black people, especially blackwomen. I can remember watching “Entertainment Tonight” back in the day hoping to see newly arrived brothas with a fine sista on their arms, only to be deflated when it was all said and done. It hurts blackmen like me as well, not just sistas. It hurts because we know that strong blackmen are not liked by others outside of our race, because, they’re an example to other blackmen. This harsh reality has been in place since slavery. Blackmen are lions, not tigers. We copy other blackmen, instead of being the captain of our own ship. It’s a character flaw that a lot of us don’t wanna admit to. This is why i have a problem with blackmen like Terrence Howard, Demerera! I’m an open book on this subject, i’ve been very transparent since i became a member of this blog a few years ago. Self-hating blackmen are a negative force in our race, and they “must” be called out when necessary. Loyalty to our race and blackwomen are the building blocks of “Black Manhood.” If that love for our women is not present, we end up with a bunch of black males running around killing their own…Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Congo, South Central, South Chicago, Brooklyn, etc. It’s not about what’s best for us as blackmen, It’s about what’s best for blackwomen and our race as a whole. We have to love us first, and deal with every other woman on the planet down the line…Sistas First!!!
Tyrone
Black Eros
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Hi Tyrone
Initially I thought you were questioning his ability as an actor – like many actors, some movies can enhance their skills or totally overshadow them and not having seen this particular film I couldnt say either way. I thought he played the part in ‘Crash’ well though I do feel that Thandie Newtons performance blew his away whenever they were together in scenes.
After I read your comment I did a brief search on Terrence Howard and must confess, was disappointed in what I read. In particular, his comments relating to the situation between Rhianna and Chris. Maybe the comments were taken out of context – lets face it, this wouldnt be the first time and neither would it be the last but, as a stand alone comment it was very damning nevertheless.
It seems that Red Tails is definately the kind of film deemed ‘made for Hollywood’ . Shame, it seems that it had all the makings of a good film.
Different film but I enjoyed the film ‘A Soldiers Story’ which I thought had a great cast and told its story in a more realistic and honest way. I can see though that if Red Tails was made this way, it certainly wouldnt ‘translate’ to a wider audience who have trouble getting to grips with the day to day nuances of negativity/prejudice/racism. People just arent prepared to understand this yet….
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Gosh Abagond, sorry offtopic but I just wanted to say that the young princesses on your header are so beautiful ! Their big egyptian-looking eyes, their bone structure, their neck line (I can’t imagine their body…). Where did you find their picture ?
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@ Grace
The masthead picture comes from photographer Mambu Bayoh, whose work I like:
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Or just watch this movie. The German. Made with the same camera as Red Tails and on a low-bud. http://vimeo.com/31202906 Not about black people, but for a short film held my interest more than Red Tails
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