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Red Tails Trailer: Real World Heroes Getting Their Due

By TK | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (17)

redtails.jpg

It’s rather shameful that more attention isn’t paid to the Tuskegee Airmen and their trials, tribulations and triumphs during World War II. It’s a remarkable story, and one that seems ripe for Hollywood adaptation, yet other than the HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen, which starred Laurence Fishburne and was painfully trite and cliched, there has been next to nothing in terms of cinematic adaptations. I mean hell, they make a damn war movie out of almost everything else, right?

Anyway, Red Tails is the new film about them. It looks very triumph-of-the-human-spirit-y, but it also looks like it takes the time to address some of the stark realities and harsh conditions that they faced. Also? The aerial combat scenes look absolutely amazing.

The film is directed by Anthony Hemingway, who is most well known for directing episodes of “The Wire,” “CSI:NY,” and “Treme.” It’s produced by George Lucas, who thankfully didn’t direct, but it certainly shows touches of his influence. As for the cast, well, it’s… interesting. It includes Terrance Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. (who, oddly, was also in the HBO production), Bryan Cranston, Method Man (!), Michael B. Jordan, and David Oyelowo.

Watch the trailer. It’s pretty impressive.









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Comments

This has potential, and looks decent, but I dunno ... the cheese factor looks fairly high as well. There appear to be a few too many stock characters: the handsome, noble leader of the squadron who makes thrilling speeches to the high command (Howard), the tough old pipe-chomping major (Gooding, Jr.) who trains the eager young warriors, the sour white bigot (Cranston, possibly, although in a film like this, there'll be more than a few of this sort). And for some reason, I keep thinking that Vondie Curtis-Hall would have been a better choice than Cuba Gooding, Jr. to play the tough old pipe-chomping major. Gooding is still a little too young and un-craggy for such a role.

On the plus side, the film has David Oyelowo, who was terrific in MI-5, and Andre Royo, who was pretty good in The Wire. And hey -- Ne-yo!

Posted by: PDamian at August 1, 2011 12:29 AM

The effects look great, like an extreme upgrade of History Channel's Dogfights series.

Posted by: Walter Choi at August 1, 2011 6:25 AM

My next door neighbor growing up was a retired policeman, and before that, he was a Tuskegee Airman. He was pretty boss, and had the coolest stories -- when he was a cop, he took Dr. Martin Luther King Jr on a tour of the town. I still send him and his wife Christmas cards every year.

You the man, Charlie Price. You the man.

Posted by: linny at August 1, 2011 9:27 AM

i just watched Top Gun again the other day on CMT and i'm amazed at how boring that last dogfight sequence was.

i need a modern day dogfight movie. make a sequel to Top Gun! with F-35s!

Posted by: haplo at August 1, 2011 9:32 AM

I'm in. It looks good and I don't just mean all the hot men in the trailer.

Posted by: jM at August 1, 2011 9:40 AM

I saw the HBO feature, and yes it was a little trite, but this is a pretty impressive story. It actually is about triumph over some amazingly stupid attitudes and it helps refute a lot of people who think all racism in America stopped by magic around 1866. One of my complaints about "The Greatest Generation" is that they get a pretty big pass for being racist bastards. Is that entirely fair? No, but neither is the Thomas Kincaide picture that gets painted by Tom Brokaw et. al.

Posted by: Mrcreosote at August 1, 2011 10:09 AM

This looks really good, with the exception of Terrence Howard, who never fails to creep me out. I'll definitely see it and just try not to gag when the music swells over Howard's speeches.

@Mrcreosote - Agree, agree, agree. My grandfather was in the Navy in WWII and he used to regale us with stories of throwing 'faggots' overboard in the night while their commanding officers looked the other way. Anyone deemed to have a 'limp wrist' was fair game. I yelled at him to stop in the middle of the story when I was about 17 and ran out of the room crying. I was blamed for ruining Christmas with my 'pet causes' and my 'dramatics'. He was also racist as hell - an equal opportunity asshole.

Posted by: Nicole at August 1, 2011 10:52 AM

Agree with Nicole. Something about Terrence Howard is creepy. I just can't put my finger on it.

One of the stories I'd like to see be told is that of the colonial Black men who joined the RAF with promises of fighting for "their empire" who were then given the toilet cleaning jobs and after war abandoned with virtually no benefits.

Posted by: PaddyDog at August 1, 2011 11:29 AM

Isn't Terence Howard white?

Posted by: Pfft at August 1, 2011 11:51 AM

Right off the bat, the presence of Lucas's fat neck is a major red flag. Cuba Gooding ? Are you fucking kidding me? They actually managed to sober his sorry ass up for this? And Method Man, where's Redman?

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at August 1, 2011 11:58 AM

I saw the HBO movie and at least they attempted to tell the story. The casting on this is weird to say the least.
Speaking of stories that deserve to be told, there was an all black tank unit in WWII, attached to Patton's Third Army. The 761st tank batallion, they called themselves " The Black Panthers."
It was a PBS special a few years ago and I read the book it was based on. The thing that really got to me was their describing all the people they liberated, including those in concentration camps. Of course they did all of this while dealing with racism in their own army as well as what they faced after coming home.

Posted by: TheBlackMenace at August 1, 2011 4:25 PM

I knew Luther Smith (#93) - by some odd circumstance I escorted him as a student to both hall of fame ceremonies for my middle school and high school. Incredible man. He simply believed his military career was only doing what had to be done. He was far more proud of his post-war engineering career and patents.

Posted by: idiosynchronic at August 1, 2011 5:38 PM

Amazing???

Sweet Jumping Jesus on a teeny-tiny pogostick, those effects were HILARIPUS.

Seriously, not only doesn't that CGI even look as good as a random flight sim from the 90's, the flight dynamics look like something ripped off from Pearl Harbor.

That trailer was laughable.

The Tuskegee Airmen were an amazing story, they deserve far, far better than this pile of half-baked bullshit.

Posted by: Soylent Green is Sheeple at August 1, 2011 11:24 PM

I'm wondering if they really went up against ME-262. I mean it's not impossible (only highly unlikely), and it's pretty improbable they shot one down.

Posted by: FabMax at August 2, 2011 4:02 PM

And yeah, it looks pretty wonky.

Posted by: FabMax at August 2, 2011 4:03 PM

FabMax check your history book they did and did, and not once, but three times during a raid on March 24, 1945. Three confirmed and five damaged.

Posted by: clancys_daddy at August 2, 2011 8:50 PM

That's okay. Could have been an elaboration for the movie.

Posted by: FabMax at August 4, 2011 2:37 PM