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The Tuskegee Airmen deserve a lot better than this. Their story, one of immense courage in the face of wars both in the skies over Europe and in the ranks of their own racist soldiery, is one of civil rights' greatest cautionary tales. Relegated to limited duty by an officer corps that believed in the inferiority of the African America race, they took their hard fought opportunities and rewrote the rulebook on bravery, duty, and the ludicrousness of such institutionalized segregation. Unfortunately, the George Lucas-backed Red Tails (a lifelong obsession for the Star Wars sage) does little to forward their myth. Instead, it digs down into dying Hollywood cliches to create an experience so corny it could produce enough ethanol to power an entire fighting squadron.
We aren't introduced to characters here so much as types. There's the idealistic Colonel A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard), struggling mightily against the bigots in Washington. Over in Italy, the noble Major Emanuelle Stance (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) watches after the random collection of cinematic sketches with a pipe and permanently cocked eyebrow. There's the drinker, Marty 'Easy' Julian (Nate Parker), the plays-by-his-own-rules firebrand, Joe 'Lightning' Little (David Oyelowo), the cocky kid with a chip on his shoulder, Junior (Tristan Wilds) and the guitar playing, mumble-mouthed comic relief (Ne-Yo), as well as several other staid ethnic caricatures. After a successful support mission for a beach landing, the members of the "Tuskegee Experiment" finally get a shot at providing cover for important bombing runs. Do they disappoint? Does Darth Vader dream of the Dark Side?
Overloaded with unnecessary subplots (there's even an irritating interracial romance thrown in for no good reason) and bereft of any real historical significance, Red Tails feels like a lesson better learned in another manner. In fact, the 1995 TV movie made of the Tuskegee Airmen story has a lot more dramatic heft and weight that this sorry CG excuse for dog fighting. Thanks to Lucas's love of all things digital, the combat moments look about as real as anything else in his oeuvre, not as bad as the stuff shown on SyFy, but clearly not the work of actual stunt pilots in real aircraft zooming through pre-planned and well choreographed action scenes.Not that we would care if there was any real danger. The actors try their best to be believable, but the script from John Ridley and Aaron McGruber (both African Americans) caters to the lamest lowest common denominators. One moment, everyone hates the Airmen. The next, they're welcomed into the "whites only" Officer's Club. Joe, after ditching his buddies to cruise above a small Italian village, falls head over heels for a woman he 's never met. The next, he's speaking broken Italian and getting down on one knee. Since it was "inspired" by true events, a lot of what happens here is made up. But as with other such seminal moments in the cause of equality, the fabrications add absolutely nothing...and take away quite a lot.
This is the main reason Red Tails fails. It's neither uplifting nor interesting. In fact, it's safe to say that it takes the entire legacy left behind by the Tuskegee Airmen and squanders it with bad dialogue, lax direction, and no real feeling for its subject. If this is what Lucas planned all along, then he's clearly lost touch with what makes for solid mainstream entertainment. With a story like this, we want to be swept away on waves of patriotism and witness the birth of a new, heretofore unsung iconography. We don't need the truth, just something that feels very much like it. Instead of a celebration, Red Tails merely crashes and burns.
