Red Tails: Stereotypical Black Men or Real Heroes

Red Tails: Stereotypical Black Men or Real Heroes

Red Tails is an epic story based on the Tuskegee Airmen produced by George Lucas. The movie tells the story of the first 996 African American pilots in the Tuskegee program; these pilots are faced with racial discrimination and segregation during the World War II. The pilots were soon appealed by their supervisor, Col. A.J. Bullard to duty. As they rose to duty the Pilots flew in airplanes distinguished by distinctive red tails and fought hard to defeat the enemy. Even though the pilots were portrayed as alcoholics, immature, stubborn, and disobedient men; their bravery made them heroes. However, the movie has more things that are accurate than it has inaccurate, which makes it a good historical movie.

Red Tails portrays the reality back in the "Jim Crow" era very precisely. The movie main focus point was racism where white supremacy was still the law of the land. Even though slavery was abolished after the Civil War; there was still racial segregation during the time of the World War II, especially in one of the top raciest cities, Tuskegee, Alabama (Cox).

Another form of racial judgment that the Tuskegee Airmen faced was from the Army Air Corps squadron. As shown in the film, the six black men were determined to become pilots; they went through training, became pilots, and waited patiently on the command to fight. In the movie Red Tails, General Luntz (played by Gerald McRaney) says, "I can't afford the kind of losses my bombers have been suffering. Can you help save lives?" (Red Tails) In reality the only reason the Air Corps let the Tuskegee become an experiment was to prove to everyone that African Americans couldn't fly in battles. They highly doubted the Tuskegee Airmen and the experiment was designed to see them fail. They were soon sent overseas to fly as escorts for the whites who flew bomber planes over Germany (Cox). As they prepared to fly, Colonel A.J. Bullard (played by Terrance Howard) motivated the pilots by saying, "We count our victories by the bombers we get to their target, by the husbands we return to their wives, by the fathers we give back to their children. To the last minute, to the last man, we fight. We fight!" (Red Tails)

Another accurate scene in the movie showed the appreciation of the Tuskegee Airmen and the slowly transformation of racial segregation. Jack Daniel, broadcaster for Wrov Rock 96.3, explains how the Tuskegee Airmen walks right past the club for the white officers only, when one of the officers asked them to stop. As expected, the airmen kept walking, thinking they are about to be tortured. The white B-17 pilots invited them inside for free drinks as a thank you for keeping them safe over Germany. They all smoked, drunk, and chatted amongst each other. At that point, in the club, everyone was a U.S. Pilot instead of a color (Daniel).

Another accurate scene throughout the movie was when the duties of the Tuskegee Airmen were portrayed. The airmen looked for the enemy troops who were stationed on the ground as well as accompanying the white bombers to their destination (Jacob). The Germans also flew jet fighters in World War II which was shown in battle scenes throughout the movies with accurate plane markings (Daniel).

There are other truthful aspects. The movie shows how the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a battle while escorting bombers to their enemy fighters. There wasn't any other escort who had a record like them. The Tuskegee Airmen contributed to the integration of both men and women in the military.

Many of the scenes in the movie portrayed the reality of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, but there were also many things in the movie that was inaccurate. One of the main inaccuracies in the movie is the way the Tuskegee Airmen were treated. The real airmen had to face much crueler treatment than what was showed in the movie; the movie fails to show the harsh bigotry that happened in that time period (Smith).

Another inaccuracy of the movie is the portrayal of the characters. The men in the movie were very stereotypical and didn't represent the actual real Tuskegee Airmen, they were crude, rebellious, unmanageable, and disheveled (Milloy). For instance, the main squad leader