Taken from the true story of a group of black cadets who took the air by storm during World War II, Anthony Hemingway's Red Tails is a film that effectively mixes history, action and war-style suspense; ultimately giving audiences a fast-paced thrill ride where no soldier is safe.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't some overly cliche moments intermixed within the film's historically charged story.
The dialogue, though fitting for a PG-13 movie, is laden with generic arguments and mundane chitter-chatter. The music bears no form of uniqueness as sentiment and heroics are shown minutes in advance of the true actions. Foreshadowing is good, but when it comes in the form of our ears, there is a lack of creativity that must be noted.
While thirteen cadets were chosen to form the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, there were far fewer at the center of the film. And while much of the action revolved around David Oyelowo's Junior, the film did a solid job at dividing up the story lines and creating a true sense of unity amongst the men.
At the end of the day the film was a much better experience that I expected. And while debris cluttered the road at nearly ever turn, Red Tails did what it had to in order to provide a little entertainment out of a historical event that few have ever heard about.
