African American history is a valuable resource that remains
largely untapped by Hollywood. When one
of these stories actually makes its way to the big screen, it does so in an antiseptic
and often emasculated state. This is
sometimes the result of political correctness on the part of white filmmakers, (in
the rare instances that they don’t marginalize black characters in their own
story). Handing the material over to
black filmmakers might seem like an obvious solution, but that to can have its
drawbacks. So many of the old guard are solely
concerned with presenting positive black images, to the point where they forget
to allow the story to simply tell itself.
Its seems that great stories of the black experience in America may
never get the ideal treatment. Well, the
upcoming Red Tails aims to be the antidote
for all that ails black historical dramas.
Red Tails tells
the tale of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black World War II
fighter pilots. Originally prohibited
from actually fighting in the war, the US military finally decides to partake
of their skills when all else fails.
They are called upon to provide daylight escorts for bombers after the
allied forces have sustained crippling causalities. While that conflict rages on foreign soil,
the Airmen fight for equal treatment in the very country that they serve. They find themselves between a rock and a
hard place, fighting for a country that denies them the basic human rights they
willfully and dutifully lay down their lives for.
George Lucas, now perhaps the most despised man in all of
fandom, has been developing Red Tails
for about 23 years. In 1995, HBO produced
a television movie titled The Tuskegee
Airmen that had no connection to Lucas’s pet project. The idea continued to gestate. At one point, Sam Jackson was to star in and
direct the film. Finally, with both the Star Wars prequels and the fourth Indiana Jones film out of the way, Lucasfilm
put Red Tails into production. Anthony
Hemingway, a veteran of quality television series such as The Wire and Treme, was
hired on to direct. Comedian and writer
John Ridley was commissioned to develop the screenplay. The eclectic cast
includes a varied list of actors and recognizable personalities such as Cuba Gooding
Jr., Terrence Howard, Method Man, Ne-Yo, and Bryan Cranston.
Considerable effort obviously went into the planning stages
of this film, but is any of that evident in the trailer? The dramatic elements seem typical of this
kind of film. The black characters all
have an air of stoic righteousness, and speak in terms of testimonials. Yet, there is one element of the trailer that
shines oh so brightly. The aerial
dogfights boast state of the art CGI that isn’t at all obvious. In just the scant few seconds that are shown,
the scenes of fighter planes in combat are eye catching. Audiences have become so used to seeing white
characters in the cockpits of such aircraft, that the sight of black characters
at the controls is both jarring and exhilarating.
I really do hope that Red
Tails offers more than the stoic posturing evident in this trailer. The Tuskegee Airmen were real guys who lead
real lives. They chose to fight for a
country that didn’t truly value them or their service. That kind of story deserves a real film that
will stand the test of time, and not simply a glorified history lesson. Those inspired moments of aerial combat give
me hope that Lucas, Hemingway, and Ridley have allowed elements of mythmaking
into the mix. This story deserves to be
something truly special. Let’s hope that
the long gestation period serves Red
Tails better than it did The Phantom
Menace.
we goin to the movies to see this. and that says A LOT coming from me.
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