Big Picture Big Sound

Putting on the Dogfight

"Red Tails", the inspired-by-true-events story of a squad of Tuskegee Airmen stationed in Italy in 1944, took years to get to the screen. According to producer George Lucas (yes, that George Lucas), this delay is due to the fact that it's a big budget action movie with an almost entirely black cast. There may be some truth to that, and I'm sure that exact reason has halted production on other films, but after seeing "Red Tails", I humbly propose another reason for its delay: the script is terrible. In fact, lines like "Germans! Let's get 'em!" and "Die, you foolish African!" had me checking to make sure Mr. Lucas didn't actually ghost-write any of the dialogue.

The characters all go by call signs like "Junior", "Joker" and "Smoky", which is fine since few of the men have distinguishing characteristics beyond their monikers. There are two exceptions: squadron leader, "Easy" (Nate Parker, channeling a young Denzel Washington), battles a drinking problem. At least, I think it's a battle. He certainly takes a lot of guff for it - including bearing the brunt of the blame for a crash landing that wasn't his fault. And loose cannon, "Lightning" - who might as well have been named "Maverick" or, more to the point, "Loose Cannon". Played via the film's one breakout performance by David Oyelowo, with charisma to spare, Lightning doesn't fly by the rules. His behavior typically includes suicidal maneuvers like playing chicken with a train or going one-on-one with a German destroyer. These moves are only slightly more believable than the preposterous, tacked-on love story between Lightning and a young Italian woman (neither of whom speaks the other's language).

The actors give it their all - particularly vets Terrence Howard, delivering every line as if he's on the verge of tears, and Cuba Gooding Jr, acting by way of a fancy pipe - and the aerial sequences are nearly worth the price of admission (though some may complain about the physics of the CGI).

The biggest shame of the film is the missed opportunity. Mr. Lucas has said that he originally conceived the film as a trilogy (that's unlike him) since there is such breadth to the story of the Tuskegee pilots. Rather than spend the time to explore that rich history, however, the script by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder, goes for easy laughs and quick resolutions, making it feel like a cliche-ridden Lifetime movie. The few scenes of racial tension are resolved as quickly as Easy's alcohol problem, and there's even a brief sequence behind enemy lines which feels like the Cliff's Notes for "The Great Escape".

Perhaps ironically, the biggest problem with the script is that there are no shades of gray. The quality of the film, however, has nothing to do with color.