‘Red Tails’ — The Real Story of the Tuskegee Airmen

Posted on January 15, 2012 at 8:00 am

George Lucas wrote the story for this month’s release, “Red Tails,” about the heroic WWII fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. It will be in theaters on January 20.

The American armed forces were not integrated until 1948, so throughout WWII they were still segregated. The 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps, informally known as the Tuskegee Airmen, were the first African-American military aviators. The historically black Tuskegee Institute initiated a flight training program. When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited for an inspection and was taken for a ride by one of the instructors, it brought some visibility and support to the program and the work of civil rights pioneers like the NAACP’s Walter White and labor leader A. Philip Randolph led to the passage of legislation specifically allocating funds to train African-American pilots.

The pilots and support crew of the Tuskegee Airmen had an extraordinary record of skill and heroism.

According to Wikipedia:

In all, 996 pilots were trained in Tuskegee from 1941 to 1946, approximately 445 were deployed overseas, and 150 Airmen lost their lives in accidents or combat. The casualty toll included 66 pilots killed in action or accidents, and 32 fallen into captivity as prisoners of war.

The Tuskegee Airmen were credited by higher commands with the following accomplishments:

15,533 combat sorties, 1578 missions

One hundred and twelve German aircraft destroyed in the air, another 150 on the ground

Nine hundred and fifty railcars, trucks and other motor vehicles destroyed

One destroyer sunk by P-47 machine gun fire

A good record of protecting U.S. bombers, losing only 25 on hundreds of missions.

Awards and decorations awarded for valor and performance included:

Three Distinguished Unit Citations

99th Pursuit Squadron: 30 May–11 June 1943 for the capture of Pantelleria, Italy

99th Fighter Squadron: 12–14 May 1944: for successful air strikes against Monte Cassino, Italy

332d Fighter Group: 24 March 1945: for the longest bomber escort mission of World War II

At least one Silver Star

An estimated one hundred and fifty Distinguished Flying Crosses

Fourteen Bronze Stars

Seven hundred and forty-four Air Medals

Eight Purple Hearts

An excellent made-for-television film, The Tuskegee Airmen, starred Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding, Jr., who appears in this film. “Red Tails” also stars Terrence Howard, who played a downed Tuskegee airman taken prisoner in “Hart’s War.” There is a PBS documentary, The Tuskegee Airmen, with the pilots and crew of the 332nd and those who are working to tell their story and restore one of their planes.

There are also many books, including The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History: 1939-1949 and the oral history Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and the children’s book, Tuskegee Airmen: American Heroes.

More “The Real Story” posts:

We Bought a Zoo

Unstoppable

Soul Surfer

Sanctum

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The Real Story War

The War Horse

Posted on December 23, 2011 at 12:30 pm

The second Steven Spielberg movie of the week opens on Christmas Day, a grand epic, is big, long, ambitious, and showy. It is a work by a master, but it is not a masterpiece. Every detail is carefully considered. Every leaf on every tree is perfectly aligned so that every sunbeam and shadow fall perfectly across them. Every equine muscle, every country cottage, every blade of grass, every puff of smoke from a discharged weapon is exquisitely framed and lit, but the visuals outweigh the story. The result is serviceable but stodgy, stuffy, and static. The poetry and symbolism of the stage play (with a multi-operator puppet as Joey) is replaced by postcard-picturesque images that are visually rapturous but feel thin in comparison to the movie’s aspirations.

It’s “Black Beauty Goes to War,” the story of a magnificent horse named Joey and Albert (a dull Jeremy Irvine), the boy who loves him. When World War I begins, Albert’s father sells Joey to a gallant young officer (Tom Hiddleston), who promises Albert he will do everything he can to keep Joey safe and get him back home after the war. But war has a way of changing everyone’s plans and soon Joey is on his own journey that will take him back and forth between the British and the German forces and, for a short idyllic time, a respite with a frail but brave little French girl and her affectionate Grandfather. The horse can switch sides in a way that a human cannot, and the movie makes clear the difference between the soldiers who are taken prisoner and shot and the animals who are inherently neutral and thus commoditized. The brutality of war affects the human characters differently as we see in their responses to the animal.

The sweep and grandeur and tragedy of the film pay homage to majestic WWII-era filmmakers like John Ford, with gorgeous cinematography by Janusz Kaminski. One quiet scene of breathtaking power recalling the real-life Christmas truce reminds us of our better angels. But it also reminds us of Spielberg’s better films.

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Pearl Harbor Day

Posted on December 7, 2011 at 2:34 pm

Skip the Ben Affleck movie and watch these to commemorate the anniversary of the day the Japanese bombed the US Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

As news of the attack reached the world, everyone waited to hear what the President would say. Franklin Roosevelt’s stirring response is still remembered:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE

Attack on Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy Japanese pilots and American sailors, eyewitnesses and participants comment on the events of the attack accompanied by newsreel footage, and analysis by military historians.

The History Channel’s Pearl Harbor The History channel provides background to understand what led to the attack and information about the military tactics. The documentary includes coverage of the Harvard-educated Japanese Admiral who planned the attack and interviews with both Japanese and American survivors.

Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack This National Geographic documentary follows Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the remains of the Titanic, as he explores the first casualty of the attack, a Japanese midget submarine that was sunk by an American destroyer an hour before the Japanese airplanes made their appearance.

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War

The Debt

Posted on August 30, 2011 at 6:04 pm

A+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Adult
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for some violence and language
Profanity:	Some strong and offensive language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Characters in peril, injured, and killed, some graphic images, references to Holocaust atrocities
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	August 31, 2011
Date Released to DVD:	December 6, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN:	B003Y5H4Y8

Stories are linear. Part of what gives them their power is that we jettison the details that are distracting or unimportant. But real life is messy. That may not be as compelling, but is honest. As we are told in “The Man Who Shots Liberty Valance,” “When the truth becomes legend, print the legend.” And sometimes the legend becomes the truth.

That is the story of “The Debt.” It begins in 1997, when a woman is celebrating the publication of her book, which tells the story of her parents’ daring capture of a Nazi war criminal named Vogel in East Germany three decades before. Her parents, now divorced, are Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) and Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkenson). Rachel still has a scar on her cheek from the prisoner’s attack on her when he tried to escape. She shot him to keep him from getting away.

Then we go back to the 1960’s, when Rachel (Jessica Chastain) passes through the Berlin Wall on her first assignment as a Mossad agent. The man they are looking for was responsible for atrocities that were a grotesque version of medical experiments during the war. Now he is a gynecologist under the name Bernhardt (the Danish actor Jesper Christensen), and Rachel is assigned to visit him as a patient, posing as the wife of another agent, David Peretz (Sam Worthington), under the direction of their leader, Stephan (Marton Csokas). The first time through, we saw the story they told. Now we see what really happened, and then we will see how the three of them, in their 60’s, finish the story.

It is a tense thriller with some action and a lot of suspense, especially the war of nerves as Bernhardt and the three young agents are stuck in a grimy apartment for days, essentially prisoners of each other. The young agents are rattled by Vogel’s coolness and manipulation. And then, decades later, their story starts to unravel and they have to finish what they started.

The movie works very well as a thriller that benefits from some ambitious aspirations and superb performances from Christensen, Wilkenson, and Mirren. But it spins out of control in the last 20 minutes, sacrificing story for action and losing much of its gritty momentum.

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Movies for Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 11, 2010 at 8:00 am

As we remember and thank those who have served our country and defended our freedom, these movies help us begin to understand their contribution.
The Messenger One of the finest young actors working today, Ben Foster, stars with Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton in this powerful story of an injured soldier assigned to visit the families of soldiers to deliver the news that they have been killed.
Gardens of Stone The detail assigned to Arlington Cemetery is responsible for honoring the war dead. James Caan, James Earl Jones, and D.B. Sweeney star in this moving tribute to the soldiers who pay tribute.
Taking Chance Kevin Bacon stars in this fact-based story of Lt. Col. Michael Strobl who volunteered to escort a fallen soldier’s remains when he found out they shared the same home town. It is a quietly touching drama about how the journey affected Strobl and the people along the way.