I went into the movie theater ready to enjoy Red Tails, I really did. This dramatic historical event had the potential to be an epic movie, but the potential was far from reached in George Lucas’ telling of the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group.

            The movie is a true story about a group of African American pilots who face racial discrimination and segregation since enlisting in the Air Force. These men are finally given a chance to show their skill and courage when the Pentagon, limited in their options, must ask the men to take the skies and fight in World War II.

            High caliber African American actors, like Terrance Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr., were a necessity in a movie about such a historic mark in black history, but the true skill of these men was not properly highlighted. The men spend most of their time giving corny, clichéd speeches to the young pilots. Howard is in Washington D.C. for a large portion of the movie, arguing for his men rather than being a part of any action.

            You would hope that a movie about Air Force pilots would have astonishing special effects, but the film was reminiscent of a low-budget video game rather than a Hollywood production. Some of the scenes seemed to defy the very laws of physics, as the pilots did unreal spins and flips through the air.

            Factual accuracy clearly was not a goal of the writers, as there were many errors. Historically, these pilots were a group of highly educated and proper men, but the movie conveyed the main characters much differently. The men are portrayed as alcoholic hot shots who would rather spend their time telling jokes than doing much else. Perhaps they did this to further enhance the theme of unlikely people doing the unexpected, but sticking to the history would have made for a better story.

            The actors were not given much of a chance with the idiotic lines that they were assigned. The combat scenes were filled with corny little sayings like “Look out, they see us!” or “Oh no, we’re doomed!” While this is not word for word, I think my point is made.

            The film gets the basic points that makes this story memorable including overcoming the adversity of racism in the military and the integration of American Society, but that is about it. With such a great story you would hope that George Lucas, with all his past success in cinema, could have better displayed the passion of these great men and what they did for all African Americans that followed them.

Pipeline Props: 2/5