The Tuskegee unit formed to provide inspirational motivation for black units performing less heroic tasks while serving in other branches of armed forces (rather than as many have pondered, to prove that black pilots cannot fly, a myth which the Tuskegee then dispelled), has served with distinction, but yet has never produced an ace, so the superhero version is obviously a Hollywood distortion. Moreover, I like the new spin on WW2. It was now not about defeating Hitler and Hirochito (something my grandfathers taught me, one an airman, the other artilleryman at the time), but about defeating racism, so in a sense, you could not have won WW2 without the Tuskegee airman who heroically dispelled myths placing a black man on an equal footing at least as far as flying combat planes was concerned. I just hope this point won't be taken literally some day, and a sequel won't be made featuring a liberation of camps in Europe operated by the clan. =========================================================================== Red Tails Nosedives By Paul Kersey on January 30, 2012 at 1:03am Red Tails flew into the movie theatres January 20 with a ton of fanfare, via free publicity from a gushing Main Stream Media eager to promote the true story of Black World War II pilots overcoming white racism and segregation to make the world safe for Democracy. As I argued on VDARE.com as the movie opened, powerful forces are making the Tuskegee Airmen—the 332nd Fighter Group, a black unit created by the Roosevelt Administration and nicknamed “Red Tails”—into an heroic, albeit mendacious, myth designed for our brave new multicultural America. At the January 20 burial at Arlington National Ceremony of Lt. Colonel Luke Weathers, one of the last surviving Red Tails—he died October 15, but his funeral was delayed, significantly, until the release of the film—his son gave voice to this myth: "Historians may not say it, but if it weren't for the success of the Tuskegee airmen, we wouldn't have won World War II," Luke Weathers III, Weathers' son said after the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery today. "I mean that's just a fact. You're not going to find that in the history books.” Military salutes member of historic fighter pilot group 'Red Tails', by Jennifer Griffin, Foxnews.com, January 20, 2011 Of course, it’s not “just a fact”. It could hardly be further from “a fact”. The Tuskegee Airmen entered the war when the German Luftwaffe had lost its best pilots, largely on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, and the skies of Western Europe were literally devoid of Axis opposition; the unit’s record was honorable but not particularly distinguished. What is a fact is this: movies by black actor-writer-director-producer Tyler Perry open far better than Red Tails. After Red Tails’ first weekend, industry sources were still trying to put a brave face on things: Red Tails wasn’t the return to box office royalty for George Lucas, who served only as executive producer here, but the $19.1m it made this weekend was anything but disappointing. Quite the contrary. It’s certainly a better opening than Lucas’ past side project that featured neither giant spaceships nor Harrison Ford in a fedora. Radioland Murders opened in 1994 to $835,570, a number that had some believing George Lucas would give up the film making game completely. Red Tails’ reported budget is $58m, not an impossible number to overcome and get into the black. When you consider all aspects, though – marketing costs, splitting the gross with theaters, and foreign markets—you see the film has a lot of work ahead of it. Not an impossibility, but Ne-Yo [actor in Red Tails] probably shouldn’t hold out hope for fast-tracked sequel. [Box Office: ‘Underworld’ Kicks Some ‘Red Tails’ For a Box Office Win, By Jeremy Kirk, filmschoolrejects.com, January 22, 2012] Of course, that $58 million didn’t count the $35 million dedicated to distribution and marketing. Still, some were even more optimistic: Take That, Critics! “Red Tails” Is Box Office Hit!, NewsOne.com, January 23, 2012. But Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family opened to $25 million in April of 2011; and Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married opened to $29 million in April of 2010; and Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail opened to $41 million in 2009. See the numbers on BoxOfficeMojo.com. And Perry spends considerably less in marketing dollars and doesn’t get free, sycophantic “earned media”—let alone schools closing to take students to see fiction peddled as truth.
I guess hollywood was right in their hesitation to make the film that didn't have any big name white actors. Maybe they should have named it "Tyler Perry presents: Red Tails"?
It flopped because the movie sucked. The acting was terrible. The writting horrendous. I would recommend the HBO series "The Tuskegee Airman" to this.
I have not seen this movie as I prefer to not see the garbage that Lucas involves himself in, but after seeing the HBO series, why would anyone make a movie about the exact same thing? This may be the only movie in the history of the planet that Ben Affleck could be in and it would make it better.
Good actors, bad actors. I don't know. But one thing stands out for sure. This is one of those Clinton's revisionist films. Remember how upon Bill Clinton's recommendation ("every school child should see it") kids were bussed to see that facts-deficient flick relating how the concentration camps came to be liberated?
