Red Tails on the Big Screen

[52Romeo]

http://www.avweb.com/podcast/podcast/Au ... 953-1.html

Red Tails, the new George Lucas film about the Tuskegee Airmen, opens on January 20,2012 it will bring a classic aviation story to a new audience. Actor Marcus Paulk, who plays one of the airmen, spoke with AVweb's Mary Grady about how the experience of working on the film affected him and how he hopes it will affect those who watch.

[OregonMaule]

I'll be renting or buying as soon as I can.

Good day

[Zzz]

Starts tonight. I might go see tomorrow's matinee.

[denalipilot]

As I probably won't have a chance to see it for a long time, a review posted here would be very appreciated.
Thanks,
-DP

[Sierra Hotel]

Anchorage Daily News carried a syndicated review in today's paper, and it was not glowing - only gave it 2.5 stars (in my book that usually means it's going to be an enjoyable flick!). But they don't recognize it's all about the planes, pilots and the flying. Who gives a %^& about the script??????

[hardtailjohn]

I met some of the remaing Tuskegee Airmen when I was in Oshkosh years ago.... a very classy bunch! I was totally impressed with them and the way they talked to everyone. Great group in my eyes! I just hope the movie can do them some justice.
John

[RDUStinson]

A buddy of mine who's in the movie biz saw it in a private screening last night, and said it is THE BEST aviation movie he's ever seen. Given his interest in aviation flicks, that ringing endorsement really means something.

I haven't been in a movie theatre in over 10 years, but I will be making a special effort to see this one!

-Bill

[qmdv]

Anchorage Daily News carried a syndicated review in today's paper, and it was not glowing - only gave it 2.5 stars (in my book that usually means it's going to be an enjoyable flick!). But they don't recognize it's all about the planes, pilots and the flying. Who gives a %^& about the script??????

It will not be about the flying. They have not had any good flying in movies for years. All computer generated.

The father (Jim Bissel) of one of my high school buddies was a B-24 pilot. In 1964 he told us of a bunch fighters with red tails that escorted his outfit to target and back. After the third time out with these guys, his bomber crew and a few others wanted to go to the fighter base to buy them a few rounds. Most were shocked when they saw that they were black. Jim said he owed his life to those guys.

Jim was working for Disney Productions flying the corporate Gulfstream back then and doing part time flying for Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz. He did a bunch of the flying in Mad Mad Mad world. That is when there was flying in movies. Much cheaper to turn on a computer than fuel up a plane and pay a pilot.

Tim

[maules.com]

Go see the movie, it's fun, plenty of flying, a friend supplied the jeeps and suchlike. It's a movie. Gotta pack a story into a couple hours for a broad audience. Predictable because we know the story but entertaining anyway.

[Aviatorpa11]

Well I just got back from watching Red Tails. And in my humble opinion, it was an OK movie. I really was looking forward to the flying scene's and was not disappointed. Yes, 99 percent of it was CG, but really good! Alot of P-40's, P-51's, B-17's, ME 109's and 262's. The aerial battle's were great shots, but felt rushed to me. I wish they would have spent more time on the dogfights.
What I did not like about the movie was sadly, the acting. Besides Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrance Howard, I did not recognize any of the other actors. There was alot of overacting and alot of underacting as well. Also, it seems there was barely any flow between the scene's, and of course there was the proverbial undercurrent love story that Hollywood has to throw in. (I guess for the women folk to stay interested in the movie). Being that this is a George Lucas movie, its a shame that more attention wasn't given to the script.

I don't want to discourage anyone from seeing this movie, just giving my opinion. I am looking forward to other pilots review's.

[qmdv]

Sharon and I just got back from seeing this movie. I really enjoyed it. Got caught up in the drama and was moved.

I was under the impression that the Red Tails supported more B24's than B17's. Did not see one B24.

Go see it

Tim

[LT4247]

Well I just got back from watching Red Tails. And in my humble opinion, it was an OK movie. I really was looking forward to the flying scene's and was not disappointed. Yes, 99 percent of it was CG, but really good! Alot of P-40's, P-51's, B-17's, ME 109's and 262's. The aerial battle's were great shots, but felt rushed to me. I wish they would have spent more time on the dogfights.
What I did not like about the movie was sadly, the acting. Besides Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrance Howard, I did not recognize any of the other actors. There was alot of overacting and alot of underacting as well. Also, it seems there was barely any flow between the scene's, and of course there was the proverbial undercurrent love story that Hollywood has to throw in. (I guess for the women folk to stay interested in the movie). Being that this is a George Lucas movie, its a shame that more attention wasn't given to the script.

I don't want to discourage anyone from seeing this movie, just giving my opinion. I am looking forward to other pilots review's.

I saw it tonight and came away feeling about the same as what you said here. I was disappointed with Red Tails. The first one, "Tuskegee Airmen" in 1995, was a better movie. HOWEVER, it is still a flying movie and is way better than most movies.

[littlewheelinback]

I went to see it tonight...I am pretty much going to see any aviation themed movie that comes out. I even saw Fly Boys, which was pretty bad. I didn't expect much and that was good. This is in no way a good film. The only thing that kept me with it was the flying connection. Tons of over acting. Lots of little sub plots that get done to death and are predictable (and probably not true to life at all). Several historical errors that were unnecessary (like having the group transition directly from P-40s to P-51s completely ignoring the Airacobras and Thunderbolts they flew in between). Lots of inaccurate dialog and slang (one character actually tells another to "man up", a slang term that didn't come into usage until at least the '90s). But as a pilot I could ignore or forgive all of this if the flying was realistic. I don't really like CGI and I would really like to see real aircraft doing the flying (even large scale r/c models would be pretty acceptable as Spielberg did to good effect in "Empire of the Sun"), but if it looked real I could be ok with it. I understand that there just aren't enough of these old aircraft to make a movie with. I give "Red Tails" a 5 out of 10 on the flying scenes. The images of the aircraft are pretty good, but the motion is usually unrealistic. Some scenes of bombers are pretty good with the movement looking realistic, but the fighters often twist and skid and whip around in ways that any pilot would know are not correct. With all the realistic flight simulators out there I just don't understand why they couldn't have hooked up the images to realistic movement. It kind of reminded me of the old flying movies that used really good looking models that moved in ways contrary to the laws of physics. If you're going to see it, see it...just don't have high expectations.

[EZFlap]

Jim was working for Disney Productions flying the corporate Gulfstream back then and doing part time flying for Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz. He did a bunch of the flying in Mad Mad Mad world. That is when there was flying in movies. Much cheaper to turn on a computer than fuel up a plane and pay a pilot.

Tim

I was lucky enough to have Frank Tallman as my first instructor as a little kid. Since my family had been involved in the "Mad World" movie, Tallman related a story to me about how there had been no film in the camera when he flew the Beech through the sign. The sign had been built out of balsa wood and paper. But they ran out of balsa and the crew built it out of "real" wood the second time. The reason that the movie scene ends (cut away to another shot) so fast after that stunt is that in another second you would have seen the Beech nearly destroyed with pieces coming off of it.

We saw Red Tails tonight. IMHO it did not do the pilots or their story justice. I am not checked out to fly the P-51, P-40, BF-109 or ME-262, however I believe I can say with some reasonable authority that none of their turning and looping radius is as small as a long-wing Taylorcraft or 450 Stearman, particularly at 450 MPH and FL300. I also don't think that every B-17 shot down over Europe took a hit to the starboard wing root and folded the burning wing up and over the fuselage, in exactly the same way as that one famous photo of a B-24 dying that way.The attention to detail on the CGI models of the aircraft is awesome, but the flight maneuvers were not accurate for any pilot in the audience.

They took an important part of American history, and a source of great pride to the black community, and turned it into a rather weak "pop" movie. I would have expected this from lesser moviemakers, but George Lucas should know better and should have taken his position as "steward" of this story more seriously. It is a good movie, but not a very good or great movie which is what they deserved. IMHO Spielberg would have done it right, perhaps with less visual pizazz and CGI detail, but his film would have had a soul that was closer to the truth.

[Glidergeek]

I haven't seen it yet but will soon sounds like they didn't make it for pilots, they made it to make money.

[LT4247]

In the theater where I saw the movie ALL the black people stood and applauded at the end!

They took an important part of American history, and a source of great pride to the black community, and turned it into a rather weak "pop" movie. I would have expected this from lesser moviemakers, but George Lucas should know better and should have taken his position as "steward" of this story more seriously.

[DPEA4]

we went to the theater on saturday. extremely disappointed in Red Tails. casting is bad, flying is all fake, airplanes sound like they are pipers. More importantly to me was that the tuskegee airmen were the real deal and this should be a better movie.

[scottnt]

I went to see it last night. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 7 and that's being generous. However, I don't want to discourage anyone from seeing the movie. I'd like to see as much support for this movie as possible. There's not enough flying movies out there as it is, and the Tuskegee airman deserve every bit of recognition we can give them. My wife even liked it Wish there was more real soundtrack of the Rolls Royce engine. It's one of the most beautiful sounds on the planet in my opinion.

[GroundLooper]

Finally got around to seeing Red Tails. Once again, this reaffirms that I don't think Lucas is a very good story teller.

The movie was OK but certainly not on par with what it could have been.

I also picked up a copy of FARGO for only $5.00. Now there's a movie worth seeing.

[soyAnarchisto]

I saw it at Oshkosh. I give it 1 tomato (over ripe). I wanted it to be awesome, I really did. Meh.