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Freakalicious
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 0
This film is a mixed blessing. It does give us much needed Black heroes who prevail in an action/war movie, but there is a cost for the way their story is told. The whole idea around the struggle just to get those pilots in the air is completely ignored and the film rarely addresses the institutional racism within the United States military that prevented African Americans from realizing their true potential in combat. What is shown in the film makes the Tuskegee Airmen look more concerned about the number of enemy kills they obtain rather than the constant fight to better their, and other Black soldiers and sailors, acceptance in the military. With this element largely absent, much of the story of the Airmen loses its heart and “soul.” It is apparent that George Lucas’s assessment of Hollywood’s reluctance to tell Black stories is correct, even when it comes from a powerful insider like himself and when it is pushed as an action, shoot ‘em up war epic. I read today that the film was aimed at teenage boys, so flashy Star Wars-like flight scenes trump historical accuracy. I really do get that, but something is lost in translation and I believe a balance between the two could have been achieved and a spectacular action movie still could have resulted. I also think the writers could have done a much better job. Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. is such a waste in the film as he mainly just sticks a pipe in his mouth the whole movie. But “Red Tails” is what it is—a film truly wanting to give African Americans credit for contributing to winning World War II while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the sacrifice that came with that effort. I guess the Lucas documentary makes up for a lot of this, but I missed it and i am sure many others did too. Still, some of the patriotism exhibited by the undervalued and perceived “racially inferior” Black flyers comes through and that gives viewers something to cheer about. I would say that given the difficulty of getting race-based movies made by Hollywood moguls today, that kind of reaction is always welcome at any time at the cinema. But the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen deserves better and their story needs to be explored more fully. In fact, there are many other stories of Black heroism in times of war that need some visual attention. I do take this personally as my cousin was a Tuskegee Airman. I am old enough to have known him and to have listened to him talk about his experiences. I can assure you, episodes of racism were always part of our conversations. By the way, there is no connection between the Tuskegee Airmen and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment except a shared area in Alabama and racial discrimination. The Airmen came home to an America little changed by the victory of democracy over fascism, not to unethical medical procedures. For them, Jim Crow was a force they could not shoot down from a plane.
