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Red Tails trailer

Three weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting with a B-24 pilot who flew 50 combat missions in B-24's in Italy during WW2. He was wearing a ballcap that honored the Tuskegee airmen. He asked me if I knew who they were. I said that I did. He said they flew top cover for him during some of his missions, and 67 years later he still has the highest regard for them and what they did.

I just watched the trailer for Red Tails and I must admit I'm really disappointed. LucasArts has some of the finest CG animators in the business, yet they continue to make the same mistakes when it comes to animating flying sequences. The same outfit did the cg for Pearl Harbor. They spent a fortune flying their texture artists to the movie location, hauling a P-40 up with a crane so they could get photos of it, and get a texture map that was an exact match down to the rivets for their cg models of the planes being flown in the movie. Still they had the planes flying like spaceships from Star Wars.

My complaint is that with just a little bit of effort they could have created a film that was accurate historically as well as entertaining. Since all the planes were cg, why not make them B-24's instead of B-17's. When making the movie about Col. Fister's hairiest mission, I found several photos of bombers flying in formation and none of them showed the bombers flying packed together like they are in the clips shown in the trailer. In the clips, the fighters still fly like space ships. Which is a shame, since it's now possible to take the movement data captured by FSRecorder, and using off-the-shelf software, convert the data into something that can be used by 3d modeling programs other than FS.

What a missed opportunity.
 
Yeah... CG is that, CG... It's not real, and frankly among us in the "know", will probably never be satisfied w/ a CG aircraft. That being said, I think from waht I saw in the trailer, it could be worse. I thought the B-17's looked good, and it seems nobody every gets those completely looking right...

Im looking forward to it & hope it does extremely well which, hopefully, will lead to more aviation themed films.

-witt
 
I never did care for CG aircraft in movies. I would rather see real video, either filmed during the war, or today of an aircraft made to look like a WW2 aircraft. Another thing I hate to see, is overdone special effects. A simple car crash, they try to make it look like a nuclear explosion.
 
Good CG or not, I'm really happy to see a movie about the 332nd FG. A superb oufit. :) I just hope that Hollywood doesn't sink the movie into an unbearable flag waving mush story.
 
The flying scenes look like a computer game, too much CG. Look at the way those fortresses are stacked with Messerschmitts and Mustangs roaring through the formation with guns blazing!

Me, I prefer the oldies like Tora, Tora, Tora, Aces High, Battle of Britain, Blue Max and Jet Pilot.

I din't like the NG movies Red Baron and Pearl Harbor - all the flying scenes seem so phoney!
 
This movie is about the men, not their machines. It is a people story. I would not even look at the mechanical parts as being accurate. It is done in this form to enhance the excitment and the story, but the story is the men. It will have to be seen to see if they get that part right! I hope they do. I would expect some Hollywood in it, since that is its birthplace!

Don
 
I shall not see it, worst CGI I have seen in years, George Lucus is not Peter Jackson.

And I never realized all 12,000 B-17s ever built flew on one raid over Italy, including planes from the 381st BG. Oh please deliver me from people making pretentious BS. :isadizzy:

Caz
 
There are some excellent books that describe the amazing contributions of these fine pilots. They do so without taking literary license, special effects or hyperbole. I'll take a pass on the movie and read a good book instead.
 
I kinda hate to do this but...

In defense of the movie producers you've got to look at their target audience.

Geezers like me who'd enjoy an almost documentary style movie don't buy enough tickets to make them the money they're looking for.

The kids who've grown up with CGI and game consoles are the ones who will make their money for them.
 
I don't like the CGI sequences either!
What's the matter with Lucas Films...? They have an almost unlimited budget to produce a blockbuster film and can't get it right.
The 'Battle of Britain' had better flying scenes, shot with real planes back in 1969!
Looks like flying the simulator in double speed!
The fast editing supposed to replicate drama and action, but all it does is give me a headache!
I bet that there is a built in love story too...! Well, Hollywood...!
As the film hasn't been released yet, I don't know whether to watch it or not.
I will wait for the first critics, as the base subject is really interesting.
 
I kinda hate to do this but...

In defense of the movie producers you've got to look at their target audience.

Geezers like me who'd enjoy an almost documentary style movie don't buy enough tickets to make them the money they're looking for.

The kids who've grown up with CGI and game consoles are the ones who will make their money for them.

Very true!
 
I kind of hate that I am finding myself defending a modern day motion picture, but I guess someone has to. Yes, people will not & cannot replicate films like "12 O'Clock High" or "Battle of Britian". To me it makes sense that films made 40-50 years ago have better "effects", because back then they wer not "effects". You saw the real deal. The fact is that we just do not have the aircraft available to make movies like that. What we do have available would cost an astronomical number to group, re-paint, and film that the cost of the film would far outway any profit.

The problem as I see it is that many of us cannot separate between a documentary and a 'Hollywood' film. Yes certain films are more historically accurate, i.e. "Tora, Tora, Tora"... but others I can honestly say I see to be entertained, i.e., "Pearl Harbor", or "Flyboys".

As stated, if you want something with facts and seemingly historical truths, read a book or watch PBS, if you want to be entertained and just relax KNOWING that what you are watching cannot be taken for historical gospel, then give me "Red Tails".......

-witt
 
I think that, when you put a "Based on actual events" in the opening credits, you have a responsibility toward historical accuracy. Inglourious Basterds made no such claims and was closer to reality than Flyboys and its fleet of all-red DrI.

And CG is no excuse for getting sloppy, quite the contrary in fact.

Those who fought and died "for real" deserved better...
 
I think that, when you put a "Based on actual events" in the opening credits, you have a responsibility toward historical accuracy. Inglourious Basterds made no such claims and was closer to reality than Flyboys and its fleet of all-red DrI.

And CG is no excuse for getting sloppy, quite the contrary in fact.

Those who fought and died "for real" deserved better...

Too true!

This shows what you can do with a limited budget but using REAL planes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhOlbsEXLA
(Music was added by poster)

The trailer for this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKjR1V-Dg14

Even though they use Hispano-Suiza powered Buchons instead of a real Me109.
 
Too true!

This shows what you can do with a limited budget but using REAL planes:

dark blue world used re mastered/done up, scenes from BOB, if you watch both you can see which sections the used, they also show the process they used in the dvd extras bit :)


Also whilst i hate the soppy mush story they always seem to plaster on hollywood wartime movies, i dont mind the CGI, sure it aint real, but as witt said, we dont have the planes anymore, and you cant expect an non aviation nut to ever get it right!! :icon_lol:... also, at least theres something being said about them, sure might not be 100% accurate, but if it gets kids intrested in the history and they go off and read more into it, then that has to be a good thing right?
 
Here's my comment from the other thread:

- I wasn't aware the 381st BG flew raids into Italy with the 15th AF.

- I wasn't aware the 15th AF could put 42,000 B-17s in the air all crammed together like that.

- I wasn't aware that the fate of the entire war rested solely on this plucky band of Real American Patriots- that the efforts of the 52nd FG, 86th FG, 325th FG, 33rd FG, 57th FG, 65th FG, 1st FG etc and the entire English component of the MAAF were completely for naught until the boys from Tuskegee showed up.

- I didn't realize the Bf 109G-6/R6 could hit 450MPH+ while racing in formation through a densely packed bomber formation.

- Minute 2.01 of the trailer... What is going on with those Me-262 markings? Yellow band? Yellow tail? Yellow Nose? Udet badge? Huh?


Seriously- the real story is awesome enough, the Tuskegee Airmen should rightly be looked upon as true heroes both for what they went through simply to serve our country and the part they played in securing the victory. But, they were one group out of many.

Why invent a truckload of ---- to over-sensationalize their contributions? It's an embarrassment to those who did serve and a terrible disservice to the other units who flew and fought almost completely anonymously, to minimize their contributions in this way.

Oh well, it's Hollywood.....
and I'm sure it'll do well at the box office.
 
dark blue world used re mastered/done up, scenes from BOB, if you watch both you can see which sections the used, they also show the process they used in the dvd extras bit :)

Interesting! I din't know that - quality goes a loooong way.
 
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