Red Tails
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Short description
Red Tails follows the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilots in the United States military, during the Second World War. Stationed away from the front and given assignments of little importance, the men face racism both from within the armed forces and from the wider society they serve. Among them are Joe "Lightning" Little and Martin "Easy" Julian, whose unit is led on the ground by Major Emanuelle Stance and Colonel A.J. Bullard. As the air war in Europe grows more demanding, the pilots are finally given the chance to prove themselves on a mission to escort Allied bombers in daylight, a task other squadrons had avoided.
Anthony Hemingway directed the film, working from a screenplay by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder, with Rick McCallum and Chas. Floyd Johnson producing. It was Hemingway's first feature after years of television work. The cast includes David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston, Andre Royo and Daniela Ruah, part of a credited cast of fifty, with 242 credited crew members.
Released in January 2012, the film had a budget of 58 million dollars and took about 50 million dollars worldwide, a return below its production cost. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from roughly 39,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 out of 10 from around 744 votes. A critics' rating of 5.3 out of 10 across 135 reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A couple of years before the start of actual work on the film, several veteran pilots received an invitation to George Lucas's famous ranch in California. Their stories and recollections were used in the further development of the project.
- Lucasfilm Studio gained access to flight logs of pilots from the Tuskegee program stored in museums and archives.
- In the summer of 2008, George Lucas privately offered the director's chair to Samuel L. Jackson. He liked the working script for the future film, but Samuel Jackson was unwilling to take a year and a half off from his acting career.
- Terrence Howard previously played a Tuskegee airman in the film "Hart's War" (2002).
- During filming in the Czech Republic, the actors underwent two and a half weeks of training camp. The conditions there were made as close as possible to those experienced by pilots of the Tuskegee Program during World War II.
- The idea of making a film about African American pilots, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, came to George Lucas as early as 1988. At that time, the planned release date was 1992, with Kevin Sullivan slated to write the screenplay and Thomas Carter to direct.
- After all major Hollywood studios refused to work on the project, George Lucas had to almost fully fund the film's $58 million budget, plus allocate an additional $35 million for release preparation and the advertising campaign.
- The film is based on John B. Holoway's book "Red Tails, Black Wings: Black Men of the BBC in America."
- Before the experimental Tuskegee Program started in 1941, African Americans were not allowed to serve in the military aviation. A total of 996 African American pilots were trained within this program from 1941 to 1946. The final decision to abolish racial segregation in the American army was made by President Truman only in 1948.
- Seventeen years before the release of "Red Tails," Cuba Gooding Jr. played one of the leading roles in the HBO television film "The Tuskegee Airmen" (1995), which was also dedicated to African American pilots.
- In March 2010, during the reshooting of certain scenes, director Anthony Hemingway was busy working on the television series "Trimay". In his absence, George Lucas had to take over the director's duties.
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