Taglines: Courage has no color.
The 332nd Fighter Group, an all-black World War II unit made up of the best escort pilots and known as the Red Tails, fights racism at home while fighting the Nazis abroad in this action-packed drama based on the true story of the Tuskegee Airmen. The movie also looks a little bit at the men, as individuals. We get to know some of their strengths, weakness, dreams.
One doesn’t follow directions, and is highly aggressive fighter. One is captured by the Germans. One drinks whiskey. A couple die, due to combat injuries. One is badly injured, and sent home. The pilots finally get a more responsible assignment, do well, and then are given more responsible assignments. The end of the movie is the unit getting recognition for a job well done.
Red Tails is a 2012 American war film directed by Anthony Hemingway in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) servicemen during World War II. The characters in the film are fictional, although based on real individuals. The film was produced by Lucasfilm and released by 20th Century Fox. This was Cuba Gooding Jr.’s first theatrically released film in five years since his starring role in 2007’s Daddy Day Camp.
John Ridley wrote the screenplay, based on a story created by him in collaboration with George Lucas. Additional material was shot the following year with executive producer George Lucas as director and Aaron McGruder as writer of the reshoots. It was filmed in March and July 2009. Red Tails was a personal project for Lucas, one that he had originally conceived in 1988.
It was the first Lucasfilm production since the 1994 film Radioland Murders that was not associated with the Indiana Jones or Star Wars franchises. Terrence Howard had previously portrayed a Tuskegee pilot in Hart’s War, and Cuba Gooding Jr. had previously starred in The Tuskegee Airmen, an HBO made-for-television film about the same group of pilots.
Red Tails (2012)
Directed by: Anthony Hemingway
Starring: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gerald McRaney, David Oyelowo, David Oyelowo, Tristan Mack Wilds, Nate Parker, Marcus T. Paulk, Leslie Odom Jr., Bryan Cranston, Andre Royo
Screenplay by: John Ridley
Production Design by: Michael Carlin, Nick Palmer
Cinematography by: John B. Aronson
Film Editing by: Ben Burtt, Michael O’Halloran
Costume Design by: Alison Mitchell
Set Decoration by: Tina Jones
Art Direction by: Milena Koubkova, Martina Ter-Akopowá
Music by: Terence Blanchard
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sequences of war violence.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: January 20, 2012
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