The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is one of diligence. The inspiring true account of African-American heroes who fought, performed, and persevered, despite rampant racial prejudice that dubbed their segregated squad “inferior” and a failed experiment unfit for actual combat. Today, those men share the distinguished honor of being the first black military pilots in U.S. history, and their decorated service is a noble example of how determination broke barriers and saved lives.
“From the last plane, to the last bullet, to the last minute, to the last man. We fight!” becomes the rousing rallying cry of the Tuskegee Airmen in Red Tails, the 2012 biopic directed by newcomer Anthony Hemingway and preceded by it’s own tale of persistence. The indie movie is the passion project of George Lucas (Star Wars), who funded the production from his own pocket to see the culmination of a dream that has famously been in development for 20 years. But it dates back even further, to comic books from the ’50s that depicted aerial combat, or “dogfighting,” in a way that captivated young Lucas’ absorbent imagination. Star Wars, his magnum opus now and forever, featured a form of dogfighting in space, but here Lucas finally substitutes X-Wing star fighters for those P-51 Mustangs with crimson tails.
So it’s no surprise the dogfights in the movie are spectacular. The action is a visual marvel of propeller planes dipping and diving, spinning and firing. Cockpit views of barrel rolls and other exciting evasive maneuvers. Close-ups of mounted machine guns spitting bullets. Every aspect of aerial combat is beautifully represented, from the elegance of the chase to the chaos of battle to the explosive fates.
It’s a shame about the rest of the movie.
Sadly, the true story of the 332nd Fighter Group and the very real history they made during World War II (1940-1946) is reduced to cheap stereotypes and cliches in a movie that would seem poorly made on basic cable. The token religious character’s only distinguishing trait is praying to “Black Jesus.” There is German villain with a facial scar who barks subtitled lines like “You will die now!” And an alcoholic leader. A rookie pilot. A funny accent.
By rendering the men as one-dimensional, the film marginalizes the real airmen and undermines the pretend ones. This not only disconnects the audience from the important context of WWII and the bloody battles miles below, but it prevents any deeper connection with these caricatures. Even the dazzling aerial acrobatics feel hollow, an artificial, CGI recreation without consequences, like a child zooming his toys around the living room.
There was such potential for greatness, especially from a talent pool that includes Lucas, a crack special effects squad, three former cast members from HBO’s critically-acclaimed “The Wire,” an Oscar winner, and Bryan Cranston of Emmy Award-winning “Breaking Bad” fame. But Cranston is simply that all-important racist, the underused personification of top brass who believed this group was a mistake from the beginning. 
Terrence Howard is the unsteady backbone, delivering a number of soft-spoken speeches that elicited laughter from the audience. Cuba Gooding Jr., who starred in HBO’s superior made-for-cable movie The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), may have another good performance in him yet, but this smirking, winking, pipe-chewing officer is definitely not it.
Much of this stems from the shortcomings of an absolutely atrocious script credited to screenwriter John Ridley (Undercover Brother). The airmen’s unlikely journeys through adversity are diminished to an incomplete section that begins after Tuskegee and sputters any time their boots are on the ground. Chunks of dialogue are nonsensical, like German Von Scarface’s uncanny ability to recognize rookies when they are mere spots in the sky. Other bits are corny, specifically the cockpit chatter that never ceases, even in the most intense moments. Plot lines, like a POW camp, are half-baked, and others are just abandoned, unresolved. Again, the dogfighting feels unearned, imbued with an eagerness to do battle among the clouds, but without the due-diligence of establishing backstories that provide deeper meaning to those planes and pilots.
To illustrate: the primary focus of the film is on Lieutenant Joe “Lightning” Little (the talented David Oyelowo), a hotshot maverick cliche who maneuvers his way into a forced romantic subplot with an Italian beauty (Daniela Ruah) — one that makes the prequels’ love story seem downright enchanting by comparison. What’s worse, “Lightning” is the reckless type, the fictional kind who breaks rank and disobeys direct orders, then essentially, inexplicably becomes a blitzkrieg pilot. This is how Lucas chose to remember American heroes?
Frankly, the dependable, honorable Tuskegee Airmen deserve much better.
