Review of Red Tails (2012) by Jeromy A — 27 May 2012

Red Tails is a film with very good intentions and is well made, but suffers from such bad dialogue, boring actors, and clichés that make it all just feel a bit small compared to other war films. The film's best thing it has going for it is the plane warfare, which I found very fun and keeps the audience intrigued. But sadly the planes are more interesting than the characters. These men don't seem to be too distraught over the racism, so we don't really feel much sympathy for them. I mean there is one scene where a white man calls one of the black men the N-word, and the black guy punches him, but that is about all they do to stand up for themselves. The rest of the film is all of them complaining and having self-pity about the war or their personal lives. This war film gets so caught up in the usual inspirational clichés, that it loses touch with trying to just be a good film overall.

The story follows a group of black pilots in World War II. They wish to see some real action but due to racism they are never given the chance. While dealing with prejudice, they must also learn to deal with their own personal lives and friendships so that they can help in the war. But when they are given the chance to fight, will they be up for it?

The plot of the film is trying to be a mix of Saving Private Ryan and American History X, just a war movie that is dealing with racism. Like I said before, the characters are dull and not at all memorable. As for the actual story, they never really do anything revolutionary with it, in fact the entire story stays the same for 2 hours until about the last 10 minutes where we are finally given that supposed emotional and happy ending. Yes it was a good ending, but it wouldn't be an inspiring movie if it wasn't a good one. This is based on a true story, so it's always cool to see war movies based on true stories. But what ruined it was all the terrible dialogue that made this feels more like a film written by Alex Kendrick. If you are hoping for a revolutionary war film, you better leave your hopes here.

The cast is led by Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. who are superb actors most of the time, but here the entire cast tries to be so melodramatic that it ends up making their acting laughable. It may have not been their fault's, for all I know director Anthony Hemingway made act so dramatic because he felt it would make the audience feel more, but I laughed more at their acting then felt sorry for them. Anyone who felt this acting was good must have much lower standards in a war film than I do. The reason I do not mention any actors is because you will never remember anyone, and if you do than you must have an incredible memory. Overall this cast does nothing special to separate it from other war films.

Red Tails is a film you should still watch, mainly because the plane warfare scenes are great and save the film from being a disaster. I will give credit to Anthony Hemingway for that, he did do well with the special effects and action. But a war film must have more than that, it must have depth and true characters that we can truly relate too, not men who keep whining about not being treated fairly because the world is racist; they need to get up and do something about it. The film was trying too hard to be something it's not, and what it ends up being is just that movie you saw once and you will forget it in about a week. If they had made the characters feel more like people instead of using horrible dialogue to make them feel like an episode of The Bachelor, than possibly I could've liked this film, but I ended up not being a fan. If you enjoy war movies than check this out, but I wouldn't get your hopes up because you may be disappointed in what you get.