Just curious, has anyone seen the movie trailers for Geo Lucas's Red Tails and what do ya' think, yea or nah. I might be interested just to see the CGI flying scenes. It's seems to me there was another one about the Tuskegee Airmen a few years back that had some eal flying scenes, can't remember the name off hand
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Just curious
- Thread starter av8erjm
- Start date
brad kaste
Charter Member
av8erjm,...............the movie you're thinking of is called "The Tuskegee Airmen" which debuted on HBO in 1995. It starred Laurence Fishburne. For a limited budgeted film,....it was well done. From the acting to the action itself...all top shelf.
Pauke! Pauke!
Charter Member
I agree Dain Arns. It looks to be mostly an affects movie with some re-writing of history to enhance the story. I'm a bit skeptical about how factual the P-51 kills of Me-262s were as they were passing through the B-17 formation at speed as depicted in the trailer. I know there were Me-262s downed by Allied fighters but most were when the jets were approaching their own airfields low on fuel and attempting to land or limping back damaged or experiencing mechanical problems. Many were destroyed on the ground by Allied fighter sweeps of the German airfields. I have no doubt that the Tuskegee Airman perhaps downed some Me-262s but in a less spectacular way.
The reality of their courage would not be so cinematic. Despite the tremendous bigotry that they had to overcome, the units excelled. Escort missions were very long and tedious. Hours of cold lonely flying with perhaps seconds of sheer terror in combat. Add that European weather can turn from fair to foul quickly and equipment malfunctions could occur at anytime, the stress of keeping up the situational awareness and navigation must have been exhausting. This however, would not make an exciting movie for most people. There has to be lots of action. Also, we should not forget that these units were entirely segregated with the exception of some white officers. That means that the ground crews and support units were also black. They also suffered from bigotry and had to excel in keeping the aircraft flying so that the pilots could succeed.
Wiki listed these accomplishments in their section on the Tuskegee Airman. Very impressive!
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:
The reality of their courage would not be so cinematic. Despite the tremendous bigotry that they had to overcome, the units excelled. Escort missions were very long and tedious. Hours of cold lonely flying with perhaps seconds of sheer terror in combat. Add that European weather can turn from fair to foul quickly and equipment malfunctions could occur at anytime, the stress of keeping up the situational awareness and navigation must have been exhausting. This however, would not make an exciting movie for most people. There has to be lots of action. Also, we should not forget that these units were entirely segregated with the exception of some white officers. That means that the ground crews and support units were also black. They also suffered from bigotry and had to excel in keeping the aircraft flying so that the pilots could succeed.
Wiki listed these accomplishments in their section on the Tuskegee Airman. Very impressive!
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.
- 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
Like Brad mentioned, if you are looking for a better telling of the trials, tribulations, and feats of the Tuskegee Airmen, I still feel the HBO series was pretty top notch as well.
I'm sure I will be doing a lot of 'eye rolling'
during "Red Tails", but it does look like it will have some amazing (and I'm sure unrealistic) dogfighting action. 
I'm sure I will be doing a lot of 'eye rolling'
during "Red Tails", but it does look like it will have some amazing (and I'm sure unrealistic) dogfighting action. One thing I noted during the trailer. It was stated "Inspired by Actual Events". Not based on, not depicting a historically accurate time line of actual events. Inspired by. Meaning....the movie was INSPIRED by the history and deeds of the Tuskegee Airmen. Knowing that, I will watch the movie as nothing more than a shoot'em up movie with airplanes instead of horses. A tribute to the men who flew with Red Tails...yes. An accurate depiction of their service...no.
About the CGI...well, it's 2012. There aren't that many flying Mustangs, B-17s, 109s, 262s, or German Navy destroyers sitting around just waiting to be used for making movies. In the absence of real planes, cartoon planes had to be used. That is a fact. No getting around it. Unless someone knows of a 50 acre parking lot of WW2 aircraft in flying condition, and pilots enough to fly them on the edge of their flight envelopes, you will just have to accept that any and all WW2 theme aircraft movies will be composed of CGI flight and fight scenes.
OBIO
About the CGI...well, it's 2012. There aren't that many flying Mustangs, B-17s, 109s, 262s, or German Navy destroyers sitting around just waiting to be used for making movies. In the absence of real planes, cartoon planes had to be used. That is a fact. No getting around it. Unless someone knows of a 50 acre parking lot of WW2 aircraft in flying condition, and pilots enough to fly them on the edge of their flight envelopes, you will just have to accept that any and all WW2 theme aircraft movies will be composed of CGI flight and fight scenes.
OBIO
The trailers for the movie reminded me of the artwork in the DC war comics I used to read when I was a kid. Streams of tracers all over the place, planes flaming and exploding across the page (or screen in this case), close-up cockpit shots, etc. But I definitely want to see it in the theater.
I, too, saw the bit about this movie being "inspired by actual events". Movies made in this fashion are usually a string of events, sometimes spread out over multiple units, tied together and presented as a movie. It can work, but a historically accurate story it is not. CGI to recreate vintage aircraft and ships I can understand, but odds are the movie will have massive CGI air battles with all the action happening very quickly. I'll likely wait until it's out on DVD. I'm not paying $10 plus an outrageous sum of money for a small box of popcorn to watch Star Wars set in 1944 earth.
The trailers for the movie reminded me of the artwork in the DC war comics I used to read when I was a kid. Streams of tracers all over the place, planes flaming and exploding across the page (or screen in this case), close-up cockpit shots, etc. But I definitely want to see it in the theater.
Yeah, me too. I want to see it in the theater to see if I want to buy it.
Since I have read every book and chronical about Tuskegee Airmen to build the campaigns, I know I will not watch the movie for accuracy of historical facts. I will watch it for entertainment and probably enjoy it.
Devildog, you're close to my age. From the war comics you probably remember the WWI "Enemy Ace" stories featuring Rittmeister Hans Von Hammer flying the red Fokker triplane, also Johnny Cloud the Navajo Indian ace flying the P-51. Johnny's spirit guide was the chief who always appeared in the clouds. Another story series I liked (though not aviation) was "The Haunted Tank" with the M-3 Stuart tank. IIRC the tank was commanded by the great grandson of Gen. Jeb Stuart and the general's ghost would show up periodically to give them advice. Even now I still like those old comics. I'm not a collector but if I come across a comic book show in a mall I'll always look for them.