Red Tails

There have been many films based on World War II experiences in our past. "Patton", "Saving Private Ryan", "Windtalker", "Flags of Our Fathers", "Letters From Iwo Jima", "Pearl Harbor", "Tora! Tora! Tora", "A Bridge Too Far", "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" to mention just a handful. Now we can add yet another film to that arena in the form of "Red Tails".

A crew of African American pilots consisting of 'Easy' (Nate Parker), 'Lightning' (David Oyelowo), 'Deke' (Marcus T. Paulk), 'Junior' (Tristan Wilds), 'Joker' (Elijah Kelley), 'Winky'  (Leslie Odom Jr.) and 'Neon' (Kevin Phillips),in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during WWII, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Ballard (Terrence Howard) and Maj. Emanuelle Stance (Cuba Gooding Jr.). This didn't happen overnight, because if it wasn't for Bullard and Col. Jack Tomilson (Lee Terensen) and some kind of fancy flying by the pilots that received good press, Col. William Mortanus (Bryan Cranston) would've kept them on the ground permanently.

Others to round out the cast are Cliff 'Method Man' Smith as Sticks, Daniela Ruah as Sofia, Lightning's girlfriend, Andre Royo as 'Coffee', the head mechanic, Gerald McRaney as Maj. Gen. Luntz, and Paul Fox as Miller.

This was directed with delineation and great pacing by Anthony Hemingway, whose only other credits to his resume is a lot of TV. This guy is definitely going places if this is his first feature film. It was written by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder based on a story by Ridley which is based on John B. Holway's book. The script jumped around a bit, but it was still a riveting story.

If the historical factors of this film don't get your attention, the visual effects by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) will. This was a Lucasfilm Production, so it was an obvious choice to use ILM since Lucas owns it. The flying sequences especially where some of the planes are hit are absolutely seamless. You'd swear these fights were happening right before your very eyes.

I'd heard about these Tuskegee fighter pilots before, but this film really gives one a heads up of what they experienced and endured in and out of the fighting skies.

Out of 4 stars: 3                   Rated: PG-13                       125min.