Good Evening, Good People,
I’ve just come back from seeing Red Tails. For those of you living under rocks and such, Red Tails is a new film depicting the honorable legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen by Mr. Skywalker himself – George Lucas. Well, I should say it attempts to depict their legacy. The film is little more than a glorified documentary that at times feels like sitting in a showing of The Return of the Jedi. It broadly scans and generalizes the lives of some of the men of the 332nd Fighter Group. It also generalizes African American soldiers. I suppose this is in attempt to dichotomize the characterization of them versus bigoted white soldiers in the film.
Anywho, the story suffers from several things – unrealistic plot, bland, cliche dialogue, poor cinematography. I suppose you can’t ask for too much when you’ve got writers from Undercover Brother and The Boondocks on the script. In some regards, the film would’ve done better by narrating the experience of one character, rather than panning over several. In doing the latter, the only thing Lucas accomplishes is establishing flat archetypal characters. These are a brigade of black soldiers who value experience over education (channeling Booker T. Washington), are antsy to prove themselves to the oppressing white American society (and army), and are head-over-heels for white women who don’t speak English. I’ll love reading what pro-black scholars have to say about this weak characterization from Lucas. Either he ran out of juice, or he’s leaving all of his creativity to beefing up characters for the next animated Jar-Jar Binks. Come on, George.
You have one, Capt. Easy Martin (Nate Parker of The Great Debaters), who serves as the team leader. Of course, he is the most level headed of the black pilots, but is a light-skinned drunk. We don’t know much about him other than the fact that he’s a college graduate trying to prove himself to his father. We see him as the self-reflective “suck-up” to the bosses, whose internal struggles seem to outweigh those of any character. But they’re never fully fleshed out in the film. There’s a lot of potential in his character that we just don’t see fulfilled. His contrasting relationships with Joe and Junior are points of interest.
Then you have Lt. Joe Little (David Oyelowo), a hot-headed, dark-skinned, white-women lover. Spike Lee would’ve had a field day with this one. Of course, Joe spots the fair and lovely Sophia (played by Portugese actress Daniela Ruah) atop a roof from is plane and it’s instantly love at first sight. And of course, she doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t speak Italian – deaf love. What it says is that Italian women love dark black men, and American soldiers and black men love white women. It even goes so far as to say that the don’t need to communicate to love each other, they just need to fall in love with the appearance of love. What struck me is that there’s no racial struggle for the interracial whirlwind. Yes, Europe is more accepting of blacks, but there is absolutely no struggle for racial acceptance with the two of them in this film. Their only two obstacles are language barrier and the fact that Joe is a solider. His inevitable death strikes out the option for them to live happily ever after, as does the conundrum of having to eventually return to and be accepted by American society. Hot shot Joe has to die, and in valiant fashion. But we all know that’s going to happen from the first ten minutes of the film.
Then there are all of the characteristic sidekicks – other fighter pilots in the 332nd (including Smokey, played by singer Ne-Yo) – who rudely display the entire spectrum of black male ignorance and chitlin’ circuit dialogue, all seeking to either follow orders or “go for the glory.” Save the young “Junior,” who spent two years at Howard U, with big dreams of fighting for is country in the air. His emasculation, or excommunication from the Airmen is derived from his inexperience, frailty, and capture by German forces midway through the film, leaving room for the awaited glory of Joe Little. He get’s no funeral or memorial. He’s not yet a man, so Junior is forgotten. It isn’t until Joe’s death (for which there is a memorial) at the film’s closing that Junior returns from exile (or assumed death). There are absolutely no surprises in the film. We all know what’s going to happen from the opening scene. I’m about to get a little academic, so let me switch gears.
The one character who holds firm throughout is Terrance Howard’s Colonel AJ Bullard. His short, powerful dialogue comes in at precisely the right moments of the film – those moments when you’re about to get up and walk out of the movie. Just as Howard’s lines carried the audience, his character carried the Airmen from point A to C in about two hours. Furthermore, it’s obvious that he makes up for a lackluster Cuba Gooding Jr, who only contributes a series of hi signature smiles and a Popeye smoke pipe to the film. Apart from that, he only serves as publicity for the film to get white viewers, accustomed to his formalities, in theater seats. If being consistent with his contribution to the film, his name shouldn’t even be on the headline. Howard’s presence as the “man-in-charge” is as pervasive as it is compelling. He is downright vicious and strikes fear into all the other characters. No one, not even the white General of the US Army can supplant him. However, his presence is only made more overbearing by the lack of supporting characters. Thus the entire movie is carried on his back. We feel your pain, Terrance.
So here’s a note George. We all don’t care about white women and proving ourselves to whites, neither did people in that time period. Second, stick to films about people and lands far, far away. Depicting real events is not your strong suit – your brain and vision is entirely too extraterrestrial. Cheap cinematography tricks are dated, like your films, and only work in movies about aliens on Tatooine. Maybe you should call up James Cameron next time. Next time you want to go out and make movies about historical events and people who look like you, do like you did with Indiana Jones, and get someone else to direct. Maybe Tyler Perry could make it a nice melodrama, you know, add some gospel, suspense, and wife-beating. Wouldn’t that be the ‘authentic black male’ stereotype you were aiming for? Or maybe Spike Lee could add some authentic racial drama to the mix. Think of it as Jungle Fever in WWII fighter jets. Then again, his Miracle at St. Anna wasn’t much to remember. If I ever had the balls to buy both films, they would sit side by side in on my shelf, collecting dust.
Until that day, I’ll settle for HBO’s The Tuskegee Airmen (starring Cuba) and Hart’s War (with Howard). Certainly, the real Tuskegee Airmen would be a little more pleased with those.
