Red Tails Review

Written by Derek.

 I wanted to enjoy “Red Tails.” I really did. But George Lucas churned out yet another clichéd, corny, and painfully scripted movie - a movie that does not give the real story of the Tuskegee Airmen justice.

George Lucas wanted to tell the story of the Tuskegee Airmen for decades. The Airmen were African-American fighter pilots who endured the Army’s racism and indifference during World War II and ultimately overcame discrimination by proving to be some of the military’s most effective and courageous pilots.

Despite this inspiring story, movie studios cited the film’s lack of marketability and turned down Lucas. After becoming a billionaire and establishing a large film company, Lucas realized that - hey! - maybe he could finance the movie. And he certainly did – to the tune of $58 million. With a large budget, a rousing story, and literally decades to plan for the movie, “Red Tails,” by all considerations, should be a good film.

It is not.

Instead, the film is a cornball of a movie, complete with clichéd characters, eye-roll inducing dialogue and speeches, and an unbelievable romantic subplot. 

Oh, George. You’ve done it again.

Anyway, “Red Tails” primarily focuses on five pilots – Easy, Lightning, Joker, Smoky, and Junior – and their habitual pipe smoking commander, Major Emmanuel Stance (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.). The characters are fairly likeable, but they’re also shallow. I’m convinced George Lucas and his screenwriters met once, assigned one (yes, just one) distinctive characteristic to each character, and then called it a day. So allow me to analyze these characters for you. Don't worry, it won’t take long.

Easy is an alcoholic who takes himself too seriously.

Lightning is ballsy pilot with an apparent death wish.

Joker... I forgot who he was. I think he was the one good with cards, but I may just be thinking of an extra.

Smoky has a speech impediment. (“Ha Ha! That's comedic gold!” I imagine Lucas saying.)

And Junior… Well, you can guess what he’s like.

The villain of the story is even more clichéd than the protagonists. A German Luftwaffe pilot, nicknamed “Pretty Boy” by the Tuskegee Airmen, reminds me of the diabolical, mustache-twirling villains of old. His scarred face makes his corny lines (“Show them no mercy!”) even more ridiculous. I couldn’t help but pity this man because he was so laughable.

Scars on villains isn't cliché... Okay, maybe a little bit.

It’s also clear the screenwriters put in as much effort into the dialogue as they did writing the characters. Some of the expository dialogue in the film was so conspicuous and poorly executed that I honestly wonder if these scenes were outtakes, but the editor accidentally forgot to remove them from the final cut. That’s the only reasonable explanation I can imagine. Here is one example of such a gem:

There are countless more examples of dialogue like this, but I simply don’t have the heart  to do it. So we will move on.

Another baffling part of “Red Tails” is its extraneous and worthless subplots. While flying over an Italian village, Lightning spots a beautiful woman on a rooftop and vows to meet her. He finds the woman, and despite the fact that neither speaks the other’s language, they fall in love. Their dates where they speak slowly and make awkward gestures to communicate made me feel so uncomfortable that I found myself wanting to be in German-occupied France rather than sitting in that theater. Anyway, this subplot (and another, but I won’t spoil it for you) does not affect the main plot in any significant way. I... I just don’t know why they’re in there. Perhaps the movie was too short and they needed more time to fill.

The only good aspect of this film is the aerial action. Admittedly, the dogfights are solid and exciting in “Red Tails.” But then again, I can’t help but wonder if I enjoyed these action sequences because they were so well done, or if I dreaded the moment when they would land and the corny dialogue would begin.

“Red Tails” is a mess of a movie, and the story of the Tuskegee Airman deserves to be told in a better film.

Did you enjoy this review? Click here for more reviews from Derek.

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