Red Tails - is the movie any good?

But you can't use it as a resource for historical accuracy.

For example, that P-51 Mustang doing an aerial flip and taking out the Me-262. It's in the trailer. Looks sick, but total BS

 

I know. I didn't feel like it was going for historical accuracy. It felt more like a comic book movie than a historical WII drama:

 

Not so much. There's documented P51 kills of Me-262s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Me-262Shootdown.JPG

That'd be from a P-51's gun camera.

And there's this:

P-51 shooting down an Me-262

I haven't seen Red Tails yet myself, but suggesting its historically inaccurate because it depicts P-51s being able to shoot down an Me-262-a thing that actually happened on multiple occasions-is rather off.

 

Chuck Yeager was a P-51 pilot who got a 262; that's not a problem. The problem is the maneuver that Red Tails shows the Mustang doing to get the kill. It's a kind of semi-controlled tumble that an airshow or aerobatic competition plane might do, but a high speed fighter like the Mustang won't do. If you know what a lomcevak is, it looks something like that.

 

That's just nitpicking at that point, if you ask me. It's like complaining about Top Gun having (imaginary) MiGs that're obviously Skyhawks

 

I've never seen it and kinda doubt that it's 'good', but i respect the intent. You've seen so many inaccurate, exciting, dumb action-packed movies based on historical events, but when have you seen one starring minorities? It's kinda cool it exists.
I'm sure i'd go insane if i was an aviation buff though.

 

I probably would've watched this movie about a billion times if it'd come out when I was 9 or so. Loved WW2 aircraft then. Still like them, but just not as much.

 

I was surprised at how mediocre it was. I didn't go in with huge expectations, I didn't see it in theaters or anything I just caught it on television, but I just told myself "Lucas is involved, he knows how to do thrills, at the very least the dogfights will be good". But they weren't, the action was ho-hum. It's not faster or more intense. It didn't thrill me, much less give me goosebumps, like the Battle of Yavin or the Battle of Endor. It's not even nearly as good as Top Gun, in any way really.

 

Actually, it was F-5 Tiger IIs that acted as "MiG-28s".

The Skyhawks are the planes the instructors fly.

 

Yeah, wasn't quite sure and took a guess.

 

It was ok. It just didn't have have the substance it could have had.

 

I think this is my third post so I will just get to it, Red tails was a really fun movie If you have any doubts of its accuracy or how good it was, the living members of the Tuskegee Airmen were consultants on the film. At the movie premiere the Tuskegee Airmen who were in Attendance were so moved that they were all in tears. my favorite scenes were when they were flying in the planes, you could hear Star Wars space ship sounds coming from the planes And the CGI was some of the best ever from ILM It felt like you were flying with them especialy in the theater on the big screen. I thought the acting was very underrated and especially the guy that played Lightning, and Cuba Gooding JR, and Terence Howard all had Oscar Worthy Acting performances. The movie should have been at least nominated for best picture at the Oscars. As for the relationship between Lightning and that Italian Girl that was based on true tales, soldiers hooked up with European Women often and in Europe the people were less racist towards African Americans. in conclusion it was a great movie if you haven't seen it rent it on Netflix or some stuff like that.....

 

Only the opening sequence was done by ILM. The rest was done by third-party SFX companies, although ILM oversaw the whole project.

 

I watched the entire credits like over 100 times, because that is what I do, I am a credits watcher. I think it cheapens the movie if you don't watch the credits especially in the theater but not exclusively in the theater. It is also a waste of money to go to a theater and not stay for the credits, the credits are part of the movie and with the price of movie tickets you should want your best bang for your buck. and I can assure you ILM did most of the Visual effects, yes there were other vendors that helped out but ILM did the bulk of the shots. Also if you watch the credits ILM is the first visual effects company listed and has the biggest most prominent logo. If you don't mind me asking where did you get your info from?

 

i haven't seen it but i've heard the dialogue, etc is very cliched. people are stupid though and they want to blame everything that doesn't work on lucas. the dumb people on the imdb board were talking about the cringe worthy lines that the black pilots say and blaming lucas for being white and not knowing anything about black people. i pointed out that the two writers are black and the director is a black. anyway people are morons but i digress.

 

That's not true.

Of course. Like I said, they were the ones who oversaw the whole project and respective shots.

and here.

 

I watched the video and What I said stands, they have VFX vendors for the Film but ILM is the main VFX company on the film. Rick McCalum said " WE FARMED OUT SHOTS" = Vendors, how is that any diferent then what I said? Nowhere in the video does it say ILM was not the main VFX company. As a matter of fact they said ILM oversaw all the VFX work so that kind of says to me that ILM was in charge and the main VFX company behind "RED TAILS" ! You don't have to be a Rocket Scientist to figure this stuff out

 

You are hitting a strawman. I said from the start (and repeated again on my previous comment) that "ILM oversaw the whole project", so yes, they are the main FX company of the film. However, in terms of actual work, they've only done the intro battle sequence (and re-touched the other shots for seamlessness). The rest (90% of the shots) were done by 3rd party companies.

 

You are saying you admit that ILM is the main Visual effects company for red tails but at the same time you say that they did not do the bulk of the VFX shots? Do you know how bipolar that sounds? You sound like the republicans who try to deffend going into Iraq, it is just insane, we should have never gone into to Iraq, and ILM did most of the VFX shots in Red Tails. Obviously I will not change your mind on this and you wont change mine pluss what does who did the VFX have to do with how much I or you view the movie, I still love Red Tails either way. so lets agree to disagree.....

 

OK, @Leoluca Randisi and Alexrd, how about you both drop it - it's hardly a disagreement worth dragging parallels with the Middle Eastern conflict into.

 

Sorry, I just thought there was a parallel there. Consider the matter droped

 

If you can't understand the difference, there's nothing I can do.

Couldn't agree more. Don't know why he brought that up...

 

Red Tails was excellent, and I regret not seeing it in the theater. The story was solid, and the dog-fighting scenes were superb - IMHO it's almost as if Lucas came full-circle with this film - i.e., in ANH the X-wing/Tie Fighter Death Star battle was inspired by footage of WW II dogfights. And, in Red Tails he's actually made a film focusing on WW II dogfights.

It's also worthwhile to mention that Lucas wanted to make this film for years - I remember reading about this back in a Lucasfilm mag. from the early '90's - and, it wasn't until 2012 that it was actually released to theaters. Considering the financial issues that Lucas had when trying to produce this film, it's a minor miracle that Red Tails was ever released...

IMHO, a great companion piece to RT is the '90's HBO film The Tuskegee Airmen (starring Larry Fishburne). Some I've talked to have preferred TTA to RT, but I feel the films shouldn't be compared, and that they actually complement each other. RT is more oriented towards action, and TTA is more oriented towards story/dialogue.

Now, I need to re-watch RT on Blu....

 

I knew GL would ruin it when I saw he was going to direct it.

I knew he would make it "Star Wars Fighter Combat On Earth With A Buncha Black Guys".

And from what I can tell, he did.

I knew he would make the airplanes fly in physically impossible ways, P-51s pulling off maneuvers that could only be achieved through CGI, that no real P-51 could do.

And again from what I can tell, he did.

I saw the trailers for it and read reviews, that is enough. Honestly in the trailer I half expected R2D2 to sound off in the back of the cockpit.

The mid-90s made-for-TV Tuskeegee Airmen movie was a better effort by far.

Red Tails could have been great, but it got Lucased.

 

I thought it was a solid film, if a bit too cliche at times. The dog fights and sound design were terrific! If you have a good sound system, pump it up. It's just a shame they didn't release it with at leas a 7.1 mix because it was designed with an 11.1 mix.