Before I settle into reviewing Red Tails, I must point out that I am not much of a war movie buff, and I really don’t like blood-and-guts flicks at all. So it was with some apprehension that I settled into the theatre seats this evening, on the opening night of this movie.
So what led a non-war-movie, non-blood-and-guts type gal to check out a movie about World War II fighter pilots? Well, the answer requires a little personal history.
In 2001 and 2002, I worked for the private pilots union that, at that time, represented the pilots who fly for FedEx Express. And while I worked there, I met a few of the former Tuskegee Airmen. And I was profoundly impressed by them. They were wonderful men. We had a few brief conversations about their planes and their experiences as I worked on some press releases for their upcoming demonstrations at a Memphis airshow. And I always wished I’d had more time to talk, to get to know them, to hear more at first-hand. So I was excited when I heard about this movie, and I’ve been looking forward to its release.
I was not disappointed. While the battle scenes were realistic and there were some gory moments, there was nothing excessive. The love scenes were handled with discretion. Even the language — and there is some because this is, after all, a film about soldiers in the middle of a war — is relatively mild. While there is some good-natured teasing of the most religious member of the squadron, it’s clearly not intended as slur against Christians.
The situation of the Tuskegee Airmen must, I think, have been far more difficult than it comes across in the movie. Racism was rampant, as black people were considered as having subhuman intelligence and as being fit only for the servant classes. The quote shown at the movie’s opening is a mild example of the sort of thing that passed for scientific opinion in that era.
But the movie’s strength is that it clearly shows the fighting spirit of these brave men, who rebelled against the bigotry that did not want to give them a chance and who risked their lives to prove that the black man was just as good as the white man. Red Tails shows the Tuskegee pilots earning the respect, first of their fellow American pilots, and then of the military brass. It’s not an easy fight or a bloodless one. But the easy, bloodless battles do not bring lasting victories. And the Tuskegee Airmen won lasting victories — first over the “jerries,” and then over bigotry in the land that they called home.
Red Tails, the movie, captures the strength, the spirit, and the determination of these American heroes who led the way for their brothers to be accepted as equals in a world that wanted to see them as inferiors.