Welcome To "ECCLECTICA"

An Ecclectic Perpsective on - Red Tails

Just came back from seeing this movie and it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. I have to give respect to George Lucas for bankrolling a film that every major studio turned down for the simple reasoning that “Black movies don’t make money”.  It’s a tough statement to make, but the reality is, we as black folks really don’t make or support these types of movies. You would think with the Jay-Z’s, Tyler Perry’s, Oprah’s or all the rappers coonin it up spending millions in strip clubs it wouldn’t have taken 23 years to get this film funded, but I digress..lol..Thanks Lucas for putting your money behind your convictions.

Now to the movie, they really dug every black actor out the woodwork for this one. You had Cuba Gooding, Terrance Howard, Ne-yo, Moesha’s Brother, Dude from Great Debaters and some other familiar faces on screen to tell the heroic story of the Tuskegee Airmen. There were a lot of good moments in this movie, the problem is that they never let them play out. I know Lucas did alot of re writes and re-edits and reshoots on this because you can obviously tell where the screenplay of John Ridley (Three Kings) and Aaron McGruder (Boondocks) had Dir. Anthony Hemingway behind it and where Lucas added his flavor.

The aerial battle scenes were really well done, even though I can tell Lucas threw in some Star Wars love in there. This is what really carried the film, seeing the men in action and its also where you get most of the natural interactions in the movie. The stuff that happens on the ground is great, but the movie often cuts away to some “smooth out” scene that I’m sure Lucas put in to diffuse some of the tension. There was also a good deal of “whitewashing” going on (Google it). I have to say I understand why Lucas did it though, I mean, this movie took so long to get made and for it to succeed, White folk can’t leave the theater in mass feeling depressed and convicted that perhaps many of their ancestors may have been racist jerks. So, we throw in some miraculous changes of heart here and there to make everything in the world right in the end.

But, with that said, there was some good character building going on, and though the story arcs may not have been the strongest they were entertaining. The action was well paced and you get an entertaining story that you hope makes enough money to open the doors to more movies of its kind. If you want however to get a more in depth look at the story, peep The Tuskegee Airmen movie that came out on HBO. That flick was dope.

All in all, a decent flick worth a ticket..Even if just to make a statement to Hollywood.

I gave it a 8 outta 10