A Terrible Tail

A friend loaned me the copy of the movie Red Tails that he'd purchased on Blu-ray -- possibly out of a need to "amortize" the cost of that purchase, since he himself admitted up front it wasn't very good. But then, George Lucas had stuck his fingers in this particular pie, acting as producer, shepherd of the project, and even the director in some re-shot sequences he'd decided to do.

So what were the chances it could actually be good?

Just as I was about to return the movie to my friend unwatched, I bought something that required about an hour of assembly, and decided to throw the movie on in the background as I worked. On those terms, I was able to get started. But once I'd finished my assembly, there was still too much movie left to go. And boy, it really was bad.

But let me back up a step in case you're not familiar with Red Tails. It's a highly fictionalized account of the real-life Tuskegee Airmen, a group of all African-American Air Force pilots in World War II. Battling racism and shoddy, hand-me-down equipment, the unit nonetheless distinguished themselves in service, and were a shining illustration of equality (and ultimately acceptance from many who actually flew with them), years in advance of the real surge of the civil rights movement.

In short, very worthy material for a movie. In fact, the Tuskegee Airmen have been depicted in films before, including one featuring Red Tails actor Cuba Gooding Jr., and another featuring Red Tails actor Terrence Howard. Both actors should have quite while they were ahead. Well... I assume ahead, because I can't imagine those other films telling the story much worse than this.

The problem that permeates every minute of Red Tails is that it's one endless cliché. The stilted dialogue is every bit of "pilot chatter" you've heard in every aerial combat movie -- good and bad -- ever made. The plot, which should be a unique depiction of the particular struggles of these men, somehow comes off like every cliché movie where underdogs were doubted by authority figures in charge. The subplots play out like every cliché subplot you see in these movies too, from a battle with alcoholism to a battle with rage to an unexpected romance. Even the death scenes are cliché. I suppose I can understand an approach to the Tuskegee Airmen that, rather than focus on their differences, focuses on their similarities to other pilots. But it's as though the writer and director -- and George Lucas pulling the strings behind them all -- knew of no other way to do that than to make the most familiar and hackneyed World War II movie ever.

You'd think you could at least count on the visual effects to be decent, but Red Tails fails on that front too. Absolutely everything is realized through CG, and it isn't good CG. Environments feel obviously green-screened. Planes look almost hand-drawn; their edges don't seem sharp and their movements don't seem to have the correct weight. Nothing seems authentic.

It's unfortunate that such a worthy story resulted in such a lame movie. I can't quite curse it with an F, just because when I ranked it on the almighty Flickchart, a significant number of movies still managed to fall below this one. But Red Tails is certainly no better than a D-.