Red Tails
 

Because this movie deserves its own thread. :)

This thread will include "spoilers." :eek: :p

I shall cut and paste one of my "spoilers" from the current movie reviews thread and place them here.

Starting with....

I thought Lightening would die because he was crazy as hell but I wanted it to be less predictable than that. I thought that perhaps Easy would die. It was hypocritical how Lightening and Easy preached to each other about alcohol and risk-seeking behavior. They both had low self-control and were both risk-seekers. They had no reason to lecture each other.

I knew Junior was not dead.

It was funny when the Red Tails were invited to have drinks with the white pilots. The Red Tails looked shocked and speechless like someone pissed in their whiskey. LOL.

On Race and Red Tails

http://movies.msn.com/winter-movie-g...S5&GT1=MOVIES5

Holy Spambot, Batman!

I cannot stand seeing the spammed threads on top.

Hey Doc, I'll be over to this thread later tonight. I'm still at work LOL, but I'm about to leave now.

I haven't seen this movie yet - really want to - love history movies. I'm interested to see how it compares to "The Tuskegee Airmen" - a movie I liked but never see around anymore.

I saw it and enjoyed it a great deal. As an entertainment movie-job well done by all.
History? May have been far from perfect. BUT a great deal of what was shown I have either seen or read about. And in some cases have been told about it by WWII pilots and crews.
And yes, there are a few points that one could wonder it happened that way or not. But at that point one is trying to nit pick.
Both this and The Tuskegee Airmen make the very same "error". While the Airmen DID attack a large German "PT" Boat/small "DE", they did it with P-47's and not P-51's. And not clear if boat was sunk or just put out of the war due to heavy damage.
And yes, during the mission to Germany, they did shot down at least three German jets.
I plan on seeing it again this weekend.
I hope that those who see it take some more time to look up more information not only about The Airmen, but about the other segregated units that fought in war. They all had a great deal to do with the Civil Rights Movement. Something that will be covered if Part II ever gets made. Yes, there are Part I and III to this movie. GL has been working on this for over 21+ years with the full support and backing of The Airmen.
For reviews, I suggest:
Movie Review Intelligence:
http://moviereviewintelligence.com/
Rotten Tomatoes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

:D Thanks for sharing, SOM. This is the first time I have read a detailed post in which you shared your own thoughts. :) I appreciate it.

I agree about the history part. I posted about that in the current movies thread. I do not expect movies and especially mainstream movies to be exact. They will take liberties. If people want to learn the true history behind the Tuskegee Airmen they need to watch a documentary, read some books, etc.

I also knew Lightning would die within the first 20 minutes of the movie. The only thing unpredictable for me was the timing. I thought he would die way sooner (when he went rogue against that big German ship).

Which brings me to something I thought of in the theater. Lots of people brought their small children to show them "history." This is a war movie--characters are going to die. That was a given. Someone if not multiple someones who you may like or are really attached to is going to die in a war movie, probably in a graphic way. People should know if their children can handle something like that then act accordingly.

Someone at school said that there should have been more sistahs in the film, especially since there were some Black nurses during this time. Meh. I think there were so few of them that it's not far-fetched to say there was a base that had none, especially overseas. Also, yes, Black women fought to be allowed to be nurses and that was a huge victory--but that plight is not the focus of this plot. Leave that for another movie.

If you love history then you'll really enjoy this movie. I'm big on history, too, and I enjoyed it. I'm buying it when it comes out on DVD.

The thing with Lightening is at the very beginning of the movie, I thought dude was going to die because he didn't always follow orders. But when I saw him doing all that crazy shit throughout the moive, and still surviving, then I didn't think dude was going to die. As soon as he got engaged to that white girl, I knew then, that his black ass was grass LOL.

Sadly, there is a blogger trying to lead a boycott of this movie because it does not show any Black women in it. And that it had this inter-racial relationship instead which is rude to "sistahs". Which over looks the fact the The Airman found the local Italian, in many cases, friendlier to them than follow Americans. And I have seen several interviews with Airman saying how good their relationships were.

LOL. Hello white woman, goodbye life?

Here is a non-spoiler as it is not in the film but really happened: A B-17 was shot up and was struggling to stay air-borne. Saw an allied air base and crash landed on it. All ten crewmen got out and got the shock of their lives. They had landed on a Red Tail base and it was the first time they learned that they were Black. They stayed with them for 3-4 days-sleeping and eating with them. All the crew seemed to have gotten along well with the Airmen. Seems as if all did but for one Officer. During a standard mail review, his letter home was read. Within it he was begging his wife's forgiveness for living with and eating with Black men. He hoped that she would find it in her heart to take him back.

Especially back then. It really didn't matter, because if dude would have brought her back to the states, they would have lynched is black ass LOL. That would have been one Italian speaking mofo, because that's exactly where he was going to stay if he lived. I was cracking up at that part. My girl, and some other black women in the movie were talking shit when dude was diggin that white girl. Especially the part when he said "you're so beautiful" because some other dude said the same shit about white girl in Miracle at St. Anna, that Spike Lee movie. I personally really don't understand that shit either (interacial dating), but to each its own.

My friends and I agreed that the actress who played the Italian woman was not "so beautiful" but it is all a matter of perspective. :) The interracial relationship did not bother me because many soldiers had Black wives and Black children in the states, nonBlack lovers overseas, and all sorts of things.

LOL, I thought she was hit. Her face was all long n' shit. See, but that's the issue I have. Not so much with black dudes dating white girls per se, but I'm talking about black dudes who will pass up a fine black woman, for a mediocre white girl. What trips me out about movies like that is they always show black dude in awe about white girl, on his knees n' shit, etc. like she's the most beautiful thing to walk the planet. It just makes me think back to that movie about the KKK going after black dudes who messed with white girls. I can't think of the name of the movie, but it came out in the 20s and it was saying that black dudes crave, and rape white women, when we all know that shit was the other way around. I've seen some attractive white girls, but (to me) there's always a finer black woman. But then again, I'm just not as attracted to white girls like I am to black women. I feel you though. A lot of black soldiers did have black wives back in the states.

I'll get back to the movie because I don't want this thread to turn into a race thread LOL.

Which maybe the reason, as shown in the movie, they would have remained in Italy.

A very good point about movies and history. A rather good example that does fit this thread is Patton. The opening speech was real. It was not made clear to whom he was delivering it to.
"Contrary to the movie Patton, it was to the black tankers of the 761st that Patton delivered his famous speech.
“Men, you are the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American army,” he began. “I have nothing but the best in my army. I don’t care what color you are, so long as you go up there and kill the Kraut sonsofbitches. Everyone has their eyes on you, and is expecting great things of you. Most of all, your race is looking forward to your success. Don’t let them down, and, G—damn you, don’t let me down. They say it is patriotic to die for your country. Well, let’s see how many patriots we can make out of those German sonsofbitches.”
Patton was a man to be taken seriously.
“There is one thing you men will be able to say when you go home,” he concluded. ‘You may all thank God that thirty years from now when you are sitting with your grandson on your knee and he asks, ‘Grandfather, what did you do in World War II? you won’t have to say, ‘I shoveled shit in Mississippi.’”"
Unit became known as Patton's Black Panthers.
http://www.commandposts.com/2011/07/...ould-not-quit/

And as I posted, there were more segregated units, all who fought more than one good fight.
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up of Nisei Soldiers, fought in the ETO while members of families where back home in "camps". As did over 5000 Nisei who worked in the PTO as translators, interpreters, interrogators and even combat infantrymen when needed.

There were also over 2500 Black Marines who fought in the PTO as well.

Several other units as well.

This is the first time I have ever seen something like this-
The cast of Red Tails saying Thank You:
http://www.youtube.com/redtailsmovie...howcase_2108_1

Among other things, very smart marketing move.

How dare these men not start relationships with sistahs who weren't in the country they were stationed. :rolleyes: Is it just me or do educated people seem to often need something for which to crusade?
I agree. And they're just so darn fun to look at...:o

The Forgotten Women
 

http://www.theroot.com/sites/default...uskegee400.jpg

Soror Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Willa Beatrice Brown

http://www.theroot.com/views/three-w...t-out?page=0,1

This thread is a review/discussion of the movie and all things pertaining to the Tuskegee Airmen. There are older GC threads that have some info on the Tuskegee Airmen.

Has anyone ever seen this Broadway play?
http://www.blackangelsovertuskegee.com/

I knew I was not the only person who found the one-liners to be corny and the narrative to be flat.

http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-c...&wa=wsignin1.0

The first 10 minutes of the movie made me cringe in embarassment and by the end of the movie I had a mix of celebratory pride and embarassment over kind of a halfassed movie release. My friends have asked me how I liked the movie as they prepare to go see it: It has its ups and downs, it works for what it is, you will know what I mean when you see it. I gave it 3 out of 4 stars just for the history, the point behind it all, and the mere fact that I love to see Black actors. It wasn't horrible. It just wasn't awesome.

I talked to a guy last night about supporting the movie by actually paying to see it. I don't believe in stealing movies by watching them on the Internet or purchasing a bootleg. But, if Black folks insist, steal The Help but support Red Tails by paying to see it. :)