Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I watched this film in preparation for a historical presentation by the Major General Irene Trowell - Harris Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, located at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. It's being given next week at my local library in Florida, New York and it's something I'm looking forward to. I've heard of the Tuskegee Airmen of course, and this film was a good introduction, though not as expansive as I thought it would be regarding the history of the unit. It primarily focuses on a handful of individuals and as such, plays more as a story about how a small group of potential black Army Air Corps flyers overcame overt racism to become combat pilots during World War II. The caliber of actors selected was a good choice, including Laurence Fishburne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney Vance and Andre Braugher. Each in their own way depicted how they persevered throughout their training and eventual assignment during the War. Fishburne and Braugher in particular displayed the singular type of attitude and behavior required to overcome the racism directed at them, thereby gaining a grudging respect from white officers and fellow flyers who they had to interact with. Andre Braugher portrayed the real Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, the only black line officer in the entire U.S. Army at the time (besides his own father), but one comes away from the film not knowing if the characters portrayed by Fishburne and the rest were also based on real heroes of the World War II. That will be a pertinent question for the military spokesmen at next week's presentation, and one I'll be looking forward to asking.

There is a reason HBO films had a rep for make movies that were ,well,not what Hollywood was making,yet what the public needed.This is such a film.I reviewed Red Tails on my own little blog,and enjoyed it,BUT as I stated it was a little"safe"for the box-office.This is NOT.Far sadder and shameful in the depictions of the disgraceful treatment these WW11 black airman faced.Think of a hundred Jackie Robinsons,who as a Army officer went thru much of the same BEFORE he played Baseball.But this movie is NOT about him. The mostly all black cast is well cast and recognizable and it would seem unfair to name but a few,so I won't .For this film had a true repertory feeling. My favorite scene was when Mrs Roosevelt has a spare of the moment flight at the hands of Lt.Lee and that signals that this group of pilots have finally been accepted to a certain degree,at least to now go oversees at least.In the end most of the airman would probably admit that the destination was worth the rocky ride to get there.They are better men than me,for I would have blown that road up !!!! Thats why their story must always be told and remembered and indeed,celebrated as we do Jackie's.

Normally I'm quite fond of movies featuring underdog stories, so to speak. The type of movie and story in which a persons or persons against all odds achieve great things. And to be honest I also really expected to like this movie, since it has a good reputation, features lots of great actors and had the type of story I expected to love. But it instead turned out to be a very shallow and melodramatic piece.The story of the movie sounds so great on paper and also seems like one that needs to be told and heard, about a group of Afro American fighter pilots who served and fought during WW II, despite of all the prejudices and racism they had to face. But I'm sorry, I just never felt like they were having a hard time getting their training, getting accepted and simply get to do everything a Caucasian fighter pilot was also allowed to do. Nobody is really holding them back or trying to work against them from achieving anything and to just simply do their part and as far as the racism in this movie goes; it comes across as simply stupid and something that got forced in. It's very unrealistic honestly. I'm not saying that this never happened and it most likely did but the way it got presented in this movie made it seem very unlikely though. It made the story and just overall important message of the movie very shallow. So I just can't say that the film-makers are doing much justice to the true story and heroes.And there is also really far too little happening in this movie and everything was extremely predictable, to be honest. First half hour of the movie is being very blah blah but once the action kicks in it becomes painfully apparent why they didn't featured any from the start on. The action is absolutely horrible! First of all the editing is extremely weak and the air fights don't even get resolved properly but what is actually laughable is that for all of the true dock fighting and stuff blowing up they used actual war footage from WW II. So just imaging, a modern 1995 movie, featuring grainy WW II footage from the '40's, right in the middle of the action sequences. At first I was honestly thinking it was some kind of editing trick and the air men were still in the middle of their training, pretending to be attacking ground targets, with WW II footage put in as sort of training for the viewers to see what they are pretending to hit. But the movie is not doing it once, not twice but ALL THE TIME during all of the battle sequences.The movie also just never gave me the feeling that it was supposed to be a war movie. The movie looked like it was set at the same place, all the time and there is never any sense of danger of an ongoing war, even though people of course get killed in this. This seems to happen very randomly though and without ever an epic battle or heroic action. Stupidity is most often what kills the characters in this movie and this really doesn't seem very respectful to any of those who truly flew and fought in WW II.Yes, this all is of course really due to the fact that this movie didn't had a big budget behind it but can this really serve as an excuse? I mean, when something is bad and it doesn't work out it is simply bad. This movie simply shouldn't ever had been made with such a small budget behind it.Not even all of the fine actors that are in this can spice up things. I mean it has Oscar nominees Laurence Fishburne and John Lithgow and Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. in it, among many other great actors. Their characters all remain extremely shallow, as does the rest of the story. It's really not a powerful or emotional movie to watch but more one that forces stuff upon you with its melodramatic elements and very stereotypical characters. Such a waste of all the talent involved with this. But honestly, it's not an horrible movie to watch. I'm making it sound much worse than it is to watch actually but I just can't think of any reason though why anyone should ever watch this in the first place, even though it features an important historical story. You are better off reading a book about it I guess, also since this movie actually takes lots of liberties with the truth as well.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I am an American History teacher and I really appreciate this film. While for me, I prefer some of the documentaries featuring the actual airmen, this is a great movie for teens and adults (despite the LARGE amount of swearing you'll hear throughout the film). It takes the true story of these pilots and creates a a fictionalized story--changing names as well as taking a bit of a creative license in telling the story. However, in spirit it is very accurate and is an excellent history lesson. What I particularly like is how blunt and directly it deals with prejudice--it doesn't pull punches or take the politically correct route.The movie itself is well-written, directed and acted. In fact the film has an excellent ensemble cast--complete with some famous names (such as Lawrence Fishburn and Cuba Gooding) and lots of faces you'll recognize from TV and movies.Another HBO Production about the Black-American experience that I STRONGLY recommend is MISS EVERS' BOYS. Once again, top-notch production values and an important film for our history.NOTE: The DVD for this film is pretty poor. While all the content of the movie is there, there is little else. A documentary about the pilots and other background information is conspicuously absent. It's a real shame.