I wanted to like “Red Tails.” There’s a good story in there about how the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American fighter pilots during World War II, overcame adversity in the skies over Germany and at home to write themselves into our history books. But man - what a clunky movie.
“Red Tails” was directed by Anthony Hemingway, who has a long history of directing episodic television but had never helmed a movie until executive producer George Lucas gave him the job of putting his 23-year pet project in the can. As such, “Red Tails” lacks the cinematic power this story deserves. Every time the special effects stop and the actors open their mouths, it has the feel of a television movie.
Let me be more specific: “Red Tails” has the feel of an awkwardly directed, clumsily acted television movie. The actors are clearly spouting lines, not performing in a major motion picture, and appear to be acutely aware of the presence of the camera. Their presentation seems more like an audition reel than something that should have made final cut.
There are two exceptions: Cuba Gooding, Jr., who plays the major who oversees the airmen, and Terrance Howard, who plays a colonel who goes to bat for the men in Washington DC, and bears the brunt of the racist attitudes of people who considered blacks inferior to whites. Both actors did the best they could with what they had.
Gooding’s performance boils down to chomping down on his pipe and grimacing, like he’s channeling General George MacArthur, and Howard recites schmaltzy speeches that are meant to project his outrage at the stubborn attitudes of the government bureaucrats and convey the heroic ideals of racial equality and patriotism, but just sound corny.
Worse, the screenplay, ostensibly by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder but covered with Lucas’ fingerprints, is packed with the kind of goofy one-liners that weighed down the “Star Wars” prequels. In one scene, a Tuskegee airman takes out a German ammunition train, and as the locomotive leaps off the track and then explodes, he shouts, “Take that, Mr. Hitler!”
Also bad is the ham-fisted way Ridley and McGruder crammed plot details into the dialogue. In another scene, a bomber pilot makes a snide remark about “colored” airmen escorting him on his mission, but then changes his tune when the airmen fend off a German fighter pilot attack and the mission is a success. “I hope we run into those Red Tails the next time we make a bombing run!” he says, like it’s a line in a school play.
Perhaps the biggest blunder of “Red Tails,” which is based on human beings who lived, and fought for their country, and accomplished great things in battle, are the stock characters Lucas developed. There’s “Lightning,” a hotshot pilot who refuses to follow orders and loves the ladies; “Easy,” the alcoholic leader of the squadron; “Junior,” the inexperienced newbie; and “Joker,” who’s always got something funny to say. With the exception of the way in which the war tests the friendship of Lightning and Easy, no attempt is made to develop characters that look thicker than a piece of cardboard.
You might be wondering if I liked anything about “Red Tails.” Absolutely; the dogfights are breathtaking. Industrial Light and Magic has been providing the special effects for Lucas’ movies since “Star Wars,” and the people who make up that company are among the best in the business.
Also, the subplot about a romance that develops between Lightning and an Italian woman is touching, and even moving. Those scenes are so effective, it’s as though Hemingway cut them out of a different movie and spliced them into “Red Tails.”
Lucas spent two decades trying to get “Red Tails” made. While I appreciate his desire to tell this story, and I hope the movie gives the young people who see it an understanding of what those men did, I wish he’d gone for a more somber tone. Perhaps Lucas believed he’d be able to reach more people if he turned the story of the Tuskegee airmen into popcorn entertainment. I also wish “Red Tails” was more cinematic in scope and quality. Perhaps it will play better on the small screen when it’s released for rental.
Rated PG-13 for scenes of war violence and language. Two stars out of four. Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.