‘Red Tails’ Delivers All Action, No History

“Red Tails” will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. Well, only for the action scenes.

Hollywood gave “Red Tails” a whopping two-star rating. I would say it deserves two and a half stars.

“Red Tails” was more entertainment than a heartfelt story. The story line was decent, but nothing special. The emphasis of the movie was mainly on the fighting scenes rather than the characters. It honors those exceptional fliers but denies viewers a challenging portrait of our own history.

A crew of African-American pilots in the Tuskegee training program is faced with segregation. Because of the racism, the airmen were kept on the ground during World War II instead of fighting in the air. That was until Colonel A.J. Bullard, Terrence Howard, finally get them an opportunity to show case their talents.

The movie was a hit and miss, with editing mistakes throughout the film. Colonel Bullard was giving a speech, but in a wide shot of him his lips weren’t moving. Then, after a long pause his lips were moving out of sync with the words being heard.

The movie didn’t fully detail accounts of the hardships the Airmen faced, such as racism from the men they were protecting. The dialect was poorly written. During one of Colonel Bullard’s speeches, it seemed as if the speech was cut off before it was meant to end.

I hate to say it but the movie was very predictable.

Even though everyone knew what the movie was about, the film failed to deliver the historical context of the men portrayed. The writer, John Ridley, didn’t set the tone for the movie very well. There were parts of the movie the audience could have done without. The confusing love interest of Joe ‘lighting’ Little, played by David Oyelowo, took away from other situations that could have been highlighted.

However, the all-star cast was exciting to watch. Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) played Major Emanuelle Stance his performance was outstanding. He kept the squad on mission Colonel Bullard was fighting for the “Red Tails” to receive more missions.

The action scenes were the best part of the move. The planes, the fighting and the actors really made the movie what it is, ok.

Scenes of fighter pilots flying through the sky, shooting down planes, trains and ships were shot wide and intense, bringing the audience directly into the action.

Even scenes on the ground were shot low but angled high, giving the illusion of a much larger scene. The focus was powerful in each scene of the action.

The easy on the eyes cast were a tight-knit group of pilots, including Marty “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker), Joe “Lightning” Little (David Oyelowo), Ray “Junior” Gannon (Tristan Wilds) and Samuel “Joker” George (Elijah Kelley) and Method Man (Sticks as Cliff Smith) Ne-Yo (Andrew ‘Smoky Salem), and Marcus T. Paulk (David ‘Deke’ Watkins). The men of the Tuskegee Airmen, “Red Tails”, deserve an Oscar winning piece not a MTV moonman.