George Lucas sees 'Red Tails' having a huge impact
By LOU GAUL Calkins Media Film Critic | 0 comments
There’s a good reason why the force is behind “Red Tails,” a big-screen war drama about the Tuskegee Airmen.
“Star Wars” creator George Lucas took $58 million out of his wallet to personally fund the highly anticipated picture about African-American pilots taking to the skies and battling the enemies of America during World War II.
For the 67-year-old Lucas, who began developing the film in 1988 and had his special-effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, supervise the use of special effects for the dogfights, “Red Tails” is a way of celebrating these military heroes in a cinematic work that seems destined to be screened around the world and seen in classrooms for years to come.
“For those of us in my group of filmmakers, like Steven (Spielberg) or Ron (Howard) or Marty (Scorsese), we want to make movies that enthralled us when we were little,” Lucas said in a recent interview in USA Today.
“For me, ‘Red Tails’ is like ‘Flying Leathernecks’ (a 1951 aviator picture with John Wayne). It’s corny. It’s uber-patriotic. And it’s a really exciting action-adventure movie.
“As for the racism in our story, it’s embedded in the material, so we just had to be careful not to overdo it.”
The film, which opens Friday, shows the Tuskegee aviators in dogfights with German pilots in the air and battling racists obsessed with maintaining segregation in the military on the ground. (According to the “Red Tails” website, the film is a fictional tale inspired by the true story of America’s first all-black aerial combat unit.)
Directed by 36-year-old TV veteran Anthony Hemmingway, whose series credits include “The Wire,” “ER,” “Heroes” and “True Blood,” “Red Tails” stars Cuba Gooding Jr. (who also appears in the 1995 HBO movie “The Tuskegee Airmen”), Terrence Howard (“Iron Man”) and Method Man (“The Wackness”). (The title comes from the airmen painting the tails of their P-51 Mustang planes red.)
Wikipedia notes that Lucasfilm invited some of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen to Skywalker Ranch, where they were interviewed about their World War II experiences. Lucasfilm was also given access to the original mission logbooks used by some of the pilots.
“I have one agenda,” Lucas told USA Today, “and that’s for a lot of young people to see this movie. I think kids who see this, be they black or white, will walk out thinking (the Airmen) were cool.”
I was planning on seeing this movie anyway. As you know, Once a year, I, La Loca, have enough funds to treat myself to a full Cinema-scope venture at the movies; the hardest part being: finding a quality movie worthy of sacrificing my hard earned dollars for. Mission Impossible XOXO didn't count, because that was my BF's treat, and that was just as much for the kids.
Red Tails had peaked my interest right at the first trailer shown on the Military Channel.com. The fact that Cuba Gooding Jr. was in it, not-with-standing. Look, I know he's a wonderful actor, but he has been THE African American military man since a Few Good Men. If this story was going to rely on type-casting and SPX, I was going to post a thread soliciting advice on what folks thought would be the best possible choice of film, with Red Tails being in the top five.
A few things have convinced me, this is the Go-To Movie;
1) George Lucas, and he doesn't seem to be too heavy handed in this production. (It didn't look immediately like one of his works; it delighted me to find it was) He's just the heavy-hitter finally backing a worth-while project.
2) The Buzz, that even with George Lucas behind it, Hollywierd didn't want to invest in such a high-risk stake as a Big Budget Black Movie.
You heard that correctly, Mr. Lucas was nearly turned away (which is one reason why it took twenty years to complete this film) when the script held such historical accuracies as an All African top billing.
This wasn't even an integrated company, which shocking enough as that would be, would still make this bankable mainstream cinema. An all Black cast was something only for comedies and limited audiences. Heroic Epic Battles couldn't be staged with only colored actors and expect to draw huge number$; it had never been done before.
Fortunately, Lucas has some knowledge about breaking down genre barriers and more faith in humanity than that. This has all the hallmarks of Lucas at his best, an exciting moving story about a subject he truly believes in, while making the SPX perform at its peak.
This should be entertaining, educational and supporting a good cause, all at the same time! ...Gooding should be proud to be a part to this.
