So... I saw Red Tails

[neotoma]

ellen_fremedon and I went to see Red Tails today. It was about what you'd expect -- gorgeous men in gorgeous planes and full of explosions.

Now I want to see what else the main cast have done. Because Red Tails is a WW2 movie -- you can see the tropes coming a mile away and nothing is a surprise (well, okay the sheer dread you feel when you see the jet contrails is a bit of a suprise), I'd like to see each of these actors in roles that let them extend their ranges a bit more.

For a war movie about pilots, the air combat was wonderfully easy to follow. I never felt like I didn't know which planes were American and which were German (and considering both sides start the movie sort of greyish and zip across the screen, that's a feat) or what action I was supposed to be seeing. I'm sure a lot of it is due to the fact that George Lucas put a lot of his own money into this film -- there was no way the special effects would be bad.

The writing, however, didn't give the actors much to work with, in my opinion. The writers hit all the notes I'd expected -- hotshot pilot vs. by the book squadron leader, men proving themselves while bigots deride them, a romance between a pilot and a local woman, even the doomed new recruit. The only thing that was a surprise was the POW camp and escape -- but once that happened, I knew Raygun would get back to his unit before the end.

The ground crew asking Lightning, "Did someone throw a train at you?" was the first good line, and at about 10 minutes in, was rather late. The best dialogue was probably Lightning and Sofia telling each other "You're beautiful... and you have no idea what I'm saying, do you?" -- it was sweet and funny. I did like that no translation convention was used, and that we only got subtitles when it was absolutely necessary -- Pretty Boy's lines and not much else.

The very end scene was mawkish, in my opinion, and it was the one time the greenscreening failed noticeably. And I was wincing at the soundtrack -- perhaps I'm too cynical, but that sort of tugging on heartstrings and nationalism just repels me. It's too much like being trapped at a high school pep rally.

But coming out of it, what I really want is for there to be a 10-episode miniseries like Band of Brothers or The Pacific about the Tuskegee Airmen. Using composite characters to get the story down to movie-length doesn't do justice to the real history, and it's not like there isn't a compelling narrative for a miniseries to follow.

I do hope there will be crossover fic -- the military fandom writers should be all over this! Recs if you've got them?

Comments

[zvi]

Many of the actors were on The Wire, if you want to see them in something else.

[neotoma]

Thanks! It's not something I've seen myself, but I've heard that it's very good (and kind of violent? it's a cop show, right?) but I think I can pick it up through Netflix.

[zvi]

It's a cop show in its first season, but it moves throughout various Baltimore institutions over the course of the show.