Red Tails - 2 1/2 smiles

“Red Tails,” the World War II action-adventure tale about the Tuskegee Airmen, is exciting when the story takes to the air, but when the pilots are on the ground, the narrative gets stuck in superficial characterizations and stereotypical behavior. The members of first African-American squadron are true heroes, shooting down more than 100 German aircraft between 1943 and 1945 and “Red Tails” intends to honor them. There are four primary characters: squadron leader Marty ‘Easy Julian (Nate Parker), his best friend, Joe ‘Lightning’ Little (David Oyelowo), the wisecracking Samuel ‘Joker’ George (Elijah Kelley), and the youngest member of the group Ray ‘Junior’ Gannon (Tristan Wilds). They are defined by stereotypical behavior. Easy is a drunk with a domineering father and a tendency toward self-pity. Lightning is a hotshot and a lothario. Joker doesn’t know how to be serious and Junior wants to earn a more mature nickname. The 332^nd is stationed in Italy, running mainly surveillance and mop-up missions while under constant threat of being shut down. When Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) manages to get the bigoted generals in Washington to allow them to provide air cover during an amphibious landing and they prove their worth, they’re given more important missions, including escorting the first bomber squadron to strike Berlin.

The story would have been better if the script had delved deeper into what these men faced from the military’s entrenched racism. You get a brief glimpse of the bigotry with a scene in an officer’s club and a few clashes with officers higher in the chain of command. And there’s nothing about the Tuskegee, Alabama institute that trained the fliers nor is there much explanation about the pre-war lives of the individual pilots. There are, however, some annoying subplots – the grossly underdeveloped story of Junior’s time in a German prison camp, Lightning’s romance with an Italian woman and Easy’s guilt after one of his men is badly injured. David Oyelowo stands out as Lightening, the unit’s best flier, who, with a mixture of recklessness and skill, is the film’s most complex character. Terrence Howard is also effective as the low-key but defiant colonel who faces off against top military brass and fights for his squadron to be allowed to fly real missions. Nonetheless, it’s too bad that the meticulous attention to detail committed to the aerial dogfights isn’t evident in other areas of the movie. Produced by George Lucas, who also used his own money to finance the film, and directed by Anthony Hemingway, “Red Tails” is enjoyable if you don’t expect too much. 1/20/12