As is to be expected for a movie which had its visual effects supervised by Industrial Light and Magic, the CGI is outstanding. Everything else is CGI or full scale mock-ups. For some of us, the question is are the air battles done well? The answer, IMHO, is a resounding "yes." In making the movie, they had three P-51 Mustangs, one B-17 Flying Fortress and a C-47 available for filming. Okay, that addresses some of the issues that are clouding this movie. In interviews, Lucas has said that his intent was to show the Tuskegee Airmen as heroes, not victims. The movie's focus is on the air battles and how that combat effects each of them in different ways. However, it is also true that is not the main focus of the movie. The movie does show the pilots experiencing discrimination, both institutionally in the way the Army assigned them missions and equipment, and individually in their interactions with other soldiers. Another common thread in the professional critics reviews is that they were unhappy that the movie did not devote more time to exploring the discrimination experienced by the Tuskegee pilots. Maybe some of the characters were stereotypes that we have seen in war movies many times before, but for me, that added to the period feel of the movie. The characters, including relatively minor supporting characters, seemed well rounded and each one unique enough that it was easy to tell them apart, even when they were in cockpits with helmets and oxygen masks covering much of their faces. Some reviews opine that the characters are shallow and not well developed. There are no anti-heroes in this movie the pilots and their ground crews are portrayed as real heroes.
RED TAILS is neither anti-war nor pro-war, but it is definitely pro-heroes. Apparently, war movies made now are only allowed to be cynical and anti-war. Many of those reviews dislike RED TAILS because of that old fashioned sensibility. The movie has received a lot of negative reviews from the professional critic class. It has a very old fashioned feel about it, as if it had been made in 1945 and then stored away until now. If the STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES movies were Lucas' attempts to recreate the serials of the 1930s and 1940s, then RED TAILS is his 1945 war movie.
My wife and I went to an afternoon matinée. RED TAILS, the movie about the Tuskegee Airmen that was produced by George Lucas, premiered today.
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