Red Tails

Dir: Anthony Hemingway and George Lucas

There is no way to polish this turd so I might as well get it out in the first sentence; this was a terrible film!

I was looking forward to seeing something spectacular, though not in the acting or directorial department. I was expecting really well made, seat-of-the-pants, cgi dogfighting with great soundscapes and plenty of good composition and art direction, the sort of stuff Lucasfilm are supposed to be good at. I was expecting to feel the vibration of the Merlin engines and smell of the cordite from six .50 machine guns. Instead I got glaring historical gaffs (The Red Tails placed on the Ploesti raid) and reason defing story telling (protagonist being hit by multiple 30mm rounds to the upper torso and still being able to speak).

I understood that with George Lucas attached, the acting, plot, etc would be bad, but I wasn't ready for just how bad it was. I don't think I've ever seen a contemporary war film with so many two dimensional characters, stiff as a plank dialgoue and such a monorail plot.

George Lucas should be ashamed of himself. Here is a story that demands respect. A story where you really have story tellers gold just waiting for you to pick it up. A squadron of black American pilots, battling domestic attitudes whilst fighting to the death against the most evil racists in history, and all the while flying the most iconic American fighter aircraft of all time. How could you possibly take that and mess it up?

And thats not even touching on the historical inaccuracies and unrealistic potrayal of air combat, the ineptitude of which reminded me of the cheap rubbish they made in the 1950's. If you want to know the story behnd the Tuskagee pilots, then The Tuskagee Airmen is the film that you should watch. It had a smaller budget, but it tells the story as it deserves to be told.