George Lucas basically tells Hollywood he will fund "Red Tails" a movie about elite African American WWII pilots (scenes, Redbox)

[JAQ]

I really enjoyed this movie

[auntbee]

I liked this movie a lot. Perhaps some of you should see it before you criticize. It's an important part of history that gets overlooked.

[SVTRay]

I saw Red tails Friday and highly recommend it

[loves2read]

We went to see it--
while I agree the Tuskegee airmen deserve a movie both for their courage in the air and their courage fighting racism...this movie is just not that good...on ITS merits--no matter what story line it is telling...
much better movie would be Memphis Belle--but I know that not the same sub-text

Just think the acting is pretty poor and the script stereotypical...
there is little in-depth characterization and most of the personal story line is spent with one of the weakest actors IMO--David Oyelowo who has lot of experience working in the UK but just seemed to be overacting anytime he was on screen...

I think there were probably families that would not have been happy for their daughters to date AA--mainly because they were not Catholic...and as my dad served in Italy during WWII (he was an Army medic) I know from what he said there was TREMENDOUS amount of poverty and the Italians were starving--
the scene where Lightening and his girlfriend are at a farm and nice, fat chickens are walking around loose is ludicrous--those chickens would have had to be guarded (likely kept INSIDE the house) or they would have been gone...

the comment made about Lightening's relationship with Sofia --that he was spending his money buying her lingerie--believe me, she and her family would have been happy to take the scraps from his mess kit...and she much would have preferred that he bring her food vs stockings...
and he never managed to learn any Italian??? Really???
Just lame story line playing for humor

so I think the historical accuracy is off because the writers learned what they knew about WWII from watching other movies or tv shows--not from any in-depth research...
from looking at their bios--I think this is the first movie script for either one--
The director is making his first picture vs tv shows
so think there was just inexperience in some important functions...

and I think that any pilot who flew like "Lightening"--who disobeyed orders and risked his plane and himself almost every time he took it up would have had his commanding officer police his behavior...not his mechanic...

apparently from this movie--the exec officer's role was only to walk around with his hat cocked and a pipe in his mouth...

The best acting came from the three guys from "The Wire" -- Michael B. Jordan who played Wallace on the Wire, Tristan Wilde (Ray-Gun) played the Wire's iconic Michael. Andre Royo (Bubbles from The Wire) played the head mechanic but would have been much better either as "Easy" or in Cuba Goodings role

The argument that the "Red Tails" were really sub-par pilots who had their stats massaged by liberals needs to be placed in context
The US Army Air Corps is the one who decided when/where/how those pilots went into action--
there WAS no unit to fight for the first part of the war -- their assignment began in secondary theaters because of the brass's decision and that was based mainly on their racist opinions...

Wikipedia has some insight (most about the bomber AA unit that really never saw action)
Tuskegee Airmen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and this site
Tuskegee Airmen - Facts about the First Black Pilots in WW2

Standards for who became pilots were different for blacks and whites--
although the ground/mechnical classes were not segregated because it was thought too difficult to run two classes side by side just for racial purposes...

Benjamine Davis Jr was one of only two black AA line officers serving at the start of WWII--TWO black line officers---The other one was his FATHER-lots of reasons for that but the main one was just rampant racism...he was the only Black cadet at West Point during his terms there--and he became the first black general in the USAF--
Would love to see movie about his life--certainly deserving of honor and recognition and would be an object lesson to all about overcoming difficulties in life...

so yes--it was time the story was told and there is reason to honor their valor--
don't forget the Japanese Americans also had a valient WWII record for their service and sacrifice...it was awarded more Medals of Honor than any other regiment in US history
the 442 Infantry regiment put their lives on the line over and over to try to wipe away the stigma racism held over Japanese Americans--and many Japanese Americans in the US (vs Hawaii) spent most of the war in Internment camps after having their homes and business stolen by the citizens of the US after President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066--which dealt with US based JA...

the 442 battalion has Anglo officers vs Japanese Americans--the Red Tails by the time they were fighting in Italy were allowed to have AA officers at least...
and because so many JA were dishearted and angry about the Interment camps the US had to draft replacements to fill the 442 ranks once it went into combat and suffered such high losses...
that was not necessary for the Red Tails--from what I understand

The Navajo Code Talkers of WWII fame finally got their recognition with the movie "WindTalkers" a few years ago -- the original project was declassified only in the late 60s--but it still took until the 80s for President Regan to give a Certificate of Recognition and a National Code Talkers Day
President Clinton signed the Congressional Gold Medal Award into law and President Bush presented the Medal to 4 living Code Talkers and 24 families received one for their relatives...
there was even an award by the Texas Legislature to Choctaw Code Talkers from WWI in 2007 and award to any codetalker from any tribe...

so there are other films and other ethnic groups who gave special service while at the same time seeing the dark side of racism in the US...

Red Tails is notable because Lucas financed the movie himself when no studio would back it--
but maybe that is because it lacked a good script and a name star for a lead...

[BU191433]

The writing in this movie is about as bad as it gets. So many important issues were just glossed over - I felt insulted by this movie. Sad

[Icy Tea]

"Windtalkers" had Nicholas Cage so that was a deal breaker for me. "Glory" had Matthew Broderick which was a deal breaker. I did watch it on cable and it was good. I liked the acting overall but Morgan Freeman was the only guy I hated seeing die. " Pearl Harbor" had Ben Affleck and Cuba Gooding, not to mention Ben Affleck, a triple deal breaker. That stunk.
The movie looked weakly cast and poorly characterized but the action scenes looked good. Any kind of modern urban score would kill it, though. The last good WW 2 film I saw was with Bruce Willis as a POW that had Tuskegee airmen in it.
I think they could do a WW 2 movie on the bomb dropping of Hiroshima but that would be too politically incorrect and touchy.

[loves2read]

the score for Red Tails had little well-known WWII music (that I remember) but the score was not as jarring/inconsistent as the one for "Ladyhawk" was---

having a basically all-black cast can be good or bad--depending on who you hire--
the leads in this movie are bad actors IMO--even if they have been in film/tv

The movie "The Help" had significant number of black female actors most of whom were excellent--
Viola Davis is one of the best actors working period--black or white...
see her in Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close--small part but big impact...
Octavia Spencer won for the showy role of Minnie and she is well-skilled and has history of good performances
those two are heads/shoulders above any of the cast of Red Tails except probably Terence Howard--he can be a really good actor giving the right part--and Andre Royo who I think was probably the strongest actor on the set period...but because he is little older and not "matinee idol" with his looks got relegated to supporting mechanic's part...
think Lucas tried to get Morgan Freeman interested in this film early on and he would not bite--Freeman usually has very good instincts about films that will be viable

[Aquaboy]

We enjoyed Red Tails. Its a story that deserved a movie. George Lucas added his own Star Wars flavor with a Darth Vader-like German pilot.
Im glad someone had the courage and resources to tell this tale even if the movie wasnt perfect. Thumbs-up!

[Icy Tea]

Actually it wasn't too long ago that Lucas was decried as being a closet racist or at least racially insensitive. Remember his Star Wars film with the now infamous Jar Jar Binks and the asian sounding aliens that spoke in a heavy pidgin accent. As if his last Star Wars movies needed another reason to bash them, LOL.
Maybe he's just trying to compensate. Maybe he's another Mel Gibson bubbling under the service ready to blow. Probably not, but Hollywood attracts the type.

[Tourian]

He may be a closet racist, don't know, don't care. Like you said, the alien sterotypes in Phantom Menace were all over the place. The "old Jew" sounding guy that sold the speeder parts to Annakin, the Chinese bartering aliens like you said and who could forget Jar Jar.

Maybe he's just trying to race-bait to stir up controversy for his film as publicity. Because as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

But at the root of it, the problem is - why won't Hollywood fund a movie with an all black cast? Why won't white people pay to go see a movie that stars mainly black people?

Originally Posted by Deezus

Also, one thing I've learned from cop shows and movies is that all police commisioners are tough-as-nails black people who've got the mayor on their ass...

Close, but not comissioners - those guys are almost always white as are the captains. The black sergeant is the one who is always screaming, smoking and yelling at our hero cops for blowing up a whole city block to aprehend the perp who dies before they can question him.