One of the forgotten few of WWII were the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American pilots, crew and commanders of the 332nd Airborne Division that fought so bravely, both in the air, at home, and in a military at a time when people were segregated by their color and few believed that those who were not “white” could even fly a plane. History had practically written their bravery right out of the books, which was a real shame as they had fought as hard as any men against Nazi Germany. But George Lucas plans to change all that and give these men the recognition they so rightly deserve.
One can say a lot about Lucas, but one thing that has always impressed is that he puts characters first, but with action to keep it from drifting into boredom, and he does this in “Red Tails” as he did in Star Wars. The film is not about a history lesson of the unit, but it gets into the personalities of the men, tracing their individual stories, their pain and triumphs against not only Hitler, but the bigotry they faced from the country they fought for. It puts the viewer into the cockpit for some amazing dogfight scenes. But all in all, the period piece is meant to be a celebration of their lives and an inspiration to the younger generation that they can be all that they can be despite the adversity that they may feel around them.
According to Lucas, it has taken 23 years to get the project from the idea to the screen, which debuts this Friday by the way, because producers wondered whether anyone would even bother seeing it or would it have a limited appeal. Finally George got tired of arguing with those folks and decided to finance the film himself, over $50 million. With the success of films like The Help, he may have some of those guys wishing they had taken him up on the offer at the time. Of course, George isn’t a stranger to arguing whether a film would be worthy of an audience. After all, Star Wars wasn’t exactly an easy sell back in the 70’s when he pitched it.
The film stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Method Man, Tristan Wilde, Michael B. Jordan, Ne-Yo, Nate Parker, and Elijah Kelley as the members of the 332nd, many of which will surely be considered for an Academy Award, as well as Best Picture for the film itself and for director Anthony Hemingway and writer John Ridley.
“Red Tails” hits theaters this Friday across the country and is well worth seeing…
