I found an old Lucasfilm magazine from the mid-90s and they mentioned Red Tails as one of Lucasfilm's upcoming projects, it spent 20 years in development hell!
Well, I guess HBO didn't wait and made "The Tuskegee Airmen" TV-movie in -95 :D Haven't seen it, but I would think that that is better than this shit that I unfortunately watched and discovered it to be just b-grade BS war movie with overly dramatic direction, and it looked horrible. This is a good story but it needs much better direction and a script, so it can be presented as it should... And just found out that the HBO TV-movie is at the moment in youtube :D go watch that
@@villemantyniemi1739 Seen it in early 00s. Laurence Fishburne is in it (that was my main draw to it back then) and aside being obviously working under TV movie limitations it's a really solid movie. Definitely has less cheese in it. It's no Glory, but it's still miles ahead of Red Tails. It's pretty amazing how Red Tails was marketed under the whole "FIRST MOVIE LIKE THIS", while a superior version was made 15 years earlier and no fuss or media histeria was attatched to it.
it's interesting looking back at this, the first action movie with an all-black cast. especially after seeing black panther, the first action movie with an all-black cast.
I remember when I was a kid my dad took me to the cinema to see the first action movie with an all black cast, and I was amazed. Now I can bring to my son to see a new first action movie with an all black cast. I hope that in the future, new directors continued with the beatiful genre that is the first action movie with an all black cast.
As a german I can say that this film is entirely accurate in its depictions of my countrymen. Every day, before the routine sinister marching, I practice saying "Africans. Show no mercy." Into the mirror while cutting new scars on my face.
o good i know what timeline you are from dont wary you well be saved by cthulhu one week from now. and it will start a war of DARK LORD ZENU AND CTHULHU.
8:34 The Tuskeegee Airmen's motto was actually "Spit Fire." "Per Ardua ad Astra" ("Through Adversity to the Stars') is in fact the motto of the Royal Air Force. Since the latter has the word "adversity" in it, it got appropriated and put into the trailer, presumably to lure African-American audiences, while the Tuskeegee Airmen's own motto got left out. So much for honoring the Tuskeegee Airmen's legacy.
that scene in "Night at The Museum 2" where that one Tuskegee Airman keeps saying "The Tuskegee Airmen are on the march once again" was better than this entire movie
So you know that joust that the guy has in a P-51 against the ME-262? The one where he gets shot in the chest a dozen times? The ME-262 was armed with 4 30mm autocannons firing high-explosive shells intended to crack bombers in half. If that guy got hit in the chest with a single round, he wouldn't have a chest anymore. This movie is very fun.
HBO just showed "Tuskegee Airmen" and the guide said "Red Tails" was coming on next. So, I watched the end of TA, where Laurence Fishburne acts out a sad, contemplative moment remembering his friends that died and it flashes back in a cheesy way to those characters' introduction scene plus one other memorable scene. But then it comes back to Fishburne curling up in his cot, with a tear in his eye and he acts the shit out of it and you feel the character's pain. And then I watched this review instead of waiting for "Red Tails" to start.
FManAngryAmerican George Lucas: Adolf Hitler is the key to all this. We’ve never had a character as funny as Hitler. I based him off my favourite comedian from the silent movie era. We just need to get him to work.
No because Lucas didn't take a pre-existing franchise. Atleast he made his agenda movie without pissing off fans. Still doesn't make it right but still.
@chris malott, if you take a look at the History or Discovery channels, I'm sure you'll find enough WWII fanboys that would be pissed off by a movie like this. Reality (or at least a romanticized view of it) has enough fanboys to make any franchise jealous.
There are no "fanboys" of history. There are people who love and are fascinated by it but it's an entirely different beast from when it comes to pop culture fandoms.
People fictionalize history all the time. It's called historical fiction. You haven't met many world war 2 gets have you? Or many gets for that matter. They would find the inconsistencies trivial.
Aw, come on. It's scientifically proven that being black lets you shrug off multiple 30mm minengeschoss to the chest. And anti gravity fields were a thing in dogfights, yo.
So did others by that time (about sixty 262s were shot down just by americans before that happened, mostly from 8 AF (obviously not all in dogfights(parentheses, gotta love them))). I don't mean to diss the Tuskegee Airmen, I'm just saying I'd rather watch a movie true to their real achievements instead of a movie that has gone full Lucas.
This movie is heartbreaking. But not in the way they intended. Its heartbreaking to see a good true story portrayed in such a lame way. You guys nailed it. They had all the pieces to make THE oscar bait movie, but decided to do a TV movie.
The funnier part is that this movie was done WAY better in 1995, as a made-for-HBO film called "The Tuskeegee Airmen". Also starring Cuba Gooding Jr., oddly enough.
There are a ton of movies with an all black cast from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and on and on and on. It has been happening for decades. You have been sold a lie that racism and sexism is alive and well in the past few years.
@@DavidFrancis24824 Racism and sexism are dead folks, we can go home. As a black woman, Grant Schweitzer here says it's all good. You necro'd a two year dead post to say something asinine and stupid, congrats.
Steve Harvey speak for yourself. Imo opinion George owes us decades of community service.. cleaning up graffiti, picking up trash etc... I still wake up with nose bleeds from the nightmares i have of jar jars poorly conceived character.
Mau Jo Unfortunately, that site just has the same movies as youtube. 2 or 3 others, besides Star Wars/Trek, but that's all. So many other bad movies out there for him to do:) Hollywood has been busy for 100 years.
Bubo 25 I wish they'd make a Canadian villain. It would be celebrated across our country as the one time we were portrayed as more than just really nice people
Damn, I met the guys who did some of the CG for this. That part of the showreel was usually accompanied by something along the lines of "In the film industry you can get to work on great films, then sometimes you have to work on this.".
No they didn't, but people like to pretend they did for internet clout It's got two fairly prominent white characters among other people that appear in it and were in all the marketing.
I love that you mentioned Glory. Glory does everything right when trying to tell a story like this. The characters do feel real, their character arcs are impactful (even in application to today's politics), and when we get that super emotional AND HISTORICAL ending, you cry. Glory took itself seriously, while also allowing for the actors to bring humanity into their performances. Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Andre Braugher, and Jihmi Kennedy bring the voices of the men of the 54th to life. Even with Matthew Broderick (as Colonel Robert Shaw) as the lead, and Cary Elwes as well, the movie prioritizes the voices of the whole of the 54th rather then making it a "they vs us" race baiting situation. Glory tells the story of the men of the 54th fighting side by side overcoming predjudice to fight for freedom, during one of the most infamous wars in American history: the Civil War. It's a damn good movie, and I recommend everyone should see it. Glory puts any movie that tries this kinda stuff (like Redtails) to shame. Glory is a movie you can't get away with making today, but its a film that should never be forgotten because of that. Every actor brings their A-game and so do the writers, directors, and reenactors who worked hard to bring the story of the 54th to life. They did it to tell a story, not sell a product, and damn did they succeed.
I saw the title "red tails" and went, "Oh, a Lucas film. Is this, like, a re;view? Wait, they reviewed this when it came out? Why have I never heard of it?" Really shows why I never knew about it.
George Lucas just got carried with the spectacle of visual effects. True special effects are a tool to tell a story, as he said in the 70s- 80s, but he also said that they need story to be exciting which he ended up ignoring/forgetting himself. Therefore CGI has been the only thing on his mind (in terms of filmmaking that is), such as the prequels being focused on spectacle (causing a story that had good potential to be overshadowed by superior spin off stories of the same era in the timeline), and him forcing (or rather *pesturing*) Spielberg into pitting Aliens in Indiana Jones 4.
Jan Frackiewicz I don't think the man responsible for The Conversation, The Godfather I and II and Apocalypse Now can ever be called a hack, no matter how low he's fallen. Same goes for Spielberg. They may have lost their spark for a good while now but when they were good, they were two of the best ever.
It's interesting looking back at this, the first action movie with an all black cast. Especially after seeing Black Panther, the first action movie with an all black cast.
That bit where one of the pilots swoops down on a German cruiser (in the Mediterranean, who'd of known!) and shoots it with his machine guns and it explodes (cruisers weren't armoured or anything like that). That was great.
That's insulting to videogames lol. There's been plenty of videogames that have storylines with depth, emotion, and well developed character arcs. It would be more accurate to say that this movie has the look and script of any soulless or single dimensional work of media
That's insulting to videogames lol. There's been plenty of videogames that have storylines with depth, emotion, and well developed character arcs. It would be more accurate to say that this movie has the look and script of any soulless or single dimensional work of media
+Ryan Mitchell HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER for instance uses *not words* but visuals, mood, and players' imagination to tell its story and lore, serving as the lead director's way to express his struggle with heart disease (through the main character) while being a solid game experience with rewarding exploration and great + challenging combat.
Have you even played a video game? That's awfully ignorant to just lump all video games into one category. That's no different than me saying all films are about cats.
Three years later, nobody remembered this film. Everybody will remembered 12 Years a Slave and Selma more than Red Tails. George Lucas failed as a Storyteller and a business man.
WalterLiddy How is it rehashed? Just curious because I don't think it isn't really rehashed or hell a typical Oscar bait and this is based on a book that was told from a point of view by a Slave which is directed by a British black man which is rare to see in any Hollywood movies (yeah, Django Unchained did it, but that was more of a cartoonish exploitation film than the realism in 12 years of Slave and 12 years a Slave is an older material that survive for years vs ripped off material from the 60's) and it isn't safe with their material and really brutal. Yeah, it have tropes and cliches, but something new and original have them too. I think it will be like Schindler's List where people in American history classes would show this film to show its depiction. But what's your point that something am missing?
George Lucas is a billionaire, his movies make hundreds of millions of dollars, even if they're bad, and he sells a ton of merchandise. So, no George Lucas is not a bad businessman, he's actually a great businessman, one of the best. He does fail as a film maker though, I'll agree with you on that.
Trystan McClellan I think its telling how those two films gathered such huge praise and respect for their story and they too were based on real figures and real events. I can only guess that Twelve Years a Slave and Selma did one thing that Red Tails did not and that was over-glorify itself as the be all end all of Black cinema. You can tell by the way Lucas is talking in those interviews that he views himself morally superior to the people he claimed wouldn't take the film and listed off a bunch f reasons why he ASSUMED they would not take the film. I remember watching the Tuskegee Airmen film that the guys are talking about back when I was 12 or so and loving it because it was interesting, entertaining and it didn't sugarcoat or try to be Star Wars when telling the story. To me, Lucas sounded so arrogant in how he was portraying himself to be this victim of the industry when HE IS THE INDUSTRY. He has millions in the bank and even if he was turned down, he still could have made this movie ON HIS OWN as he has enough funds himself to do so. He made himself out as some sort of poor, starving film-maker who is just being torn down by the Hollywood bullies when we all know that's a load of bull. As someone above me commented, he has been doing this for YEARS and made loads off it so I don't see how or why he thinks he's the victim in all of this when people will still come to him and ask for him to make movies, no matter the level of quality they are. Yes, Red Tails was a flop but if there is anything we can learn from it it's that you still need SUBSTANCE in your story. It feels like people were relying just on the fact that the cast was mostly Black as a means of drawing people in and after hearing a lot of BLACK critics just deflate after it came out it was just sad. It was sad because people got themselves hyped up, were made to believe this was going to be a breakthrough epic of some sort and it wasn't. It was just MEH with a big name to back it. Twelve Years a Slave and Selma DESERVE the praise they get because they were out to make a STORY, NOT to claim that they were the BEST nor did they talk down to the public who were still making up their minds whether to see them or not. These two movies and their directors were not making people feel guilty. They didn't cry and whine in interviews and I'm sure as hell that these stories got more shit than Red Tails because they didn't have the titles under their belt like Lucas did. These two films got the respect they deserved by delivering a story, a message, and a peak of history. Lucas just expected people to hand him praise on a platter because he was Lucas.
There was already film about "The Tuskegee Airmen" before "Red Tails" starring Laurence Fishburne, Allan Payne, Vicellous Shannon, Courtney Vance and... Cuba Gooding Jr.
Ok, so first of all, for the tiny record, I'm an African American professor in Detroit--Wayne State University (Cornell is my alma mater). I have taught film studies (English Dept.) and I am absolutely LOVING your review of "Red Asses" as I like to call it. Blood lust, cartoons, FLAT, cornball patriotic WWII movies, style defeats the purpose, unreal characters, dialogue on-the-nose, bad editing, phony, no heart or feeling, secretly directed god-awful script secretly directed by George Lucas, and so on.... These are your comments and they are each as true as the sun in the sky. Every word you said were the thoughts that I had, and so far I have heard only insane positive comments about this horribly racist, foolish film. I am one of the Black people in the theater you felt sorry for, and believe me, I felt sorry for myself for having spent money on this stiff, affirmative action goofing, overhyped bull crap. From the very beginning I sat there in fear of the inevitable moment when a Black character, would shout, "WHOOOOOOOO!" (as always in a bad Hollywood film or TV commercials, of documentary, or fast food ad). Sorry, I DO believe the movie wasn't touched by the studios Lucas approached because of racism, and that "Glory", which you are correct, was the antithetical GOOD film compared to "Red Asses", but you are wrong to gloss over the fact that Mathew Broderick is the 'shoe in' for studio acceptance. That IS a very common and for me by now disgusting reality about Hollywood. Black history, thought, and life is ritually 'shoed in' to American film through the inclusion of a White actor (he's the shoe in). You are understating the MASSIVE reality of racism in the medium of film and television. Consider the recent Golden Globe award given to a nonexistent film, "Hidden Fences". To White viewers this was I guess an honest mistake? (I hasten to add, that "Hidden booties" as I call is it just another "Red Asses" without planes but with space capsules and the inevitable "WHOOOO") To Black viewers of Golden Globes, this foolish flub was exactly what we experience in our every single day life: only two freaking Black films being awarded, and they had to conflate the two titles?? Believe me, co workers who have known me for years still do that to my freaking NAME(!?) One of my graduating students recently appeared on her Texas grad school's lists as "Opra Winfrey" (!?) (first name actually Donna). I can't afford to be as magnanimous as you are about the mighty fog of both primitive racism and 'careless' racism that marks Black life at the atomic level. My Black friends in the industry (including award winning independent Black director, Andre Seewood--I challenge you to interview him, he is the author of a book, "Slave Cinema") talk CONSTANTLY of the truth of everything Lucas says about the reaction to his film. Particularly hideous is the claim that Black films cannot be marketed overseas, though Blacks who travel on their own dime to France and Italy find out that they can be. They are. Just not by the major White studios, distributors, producers, and marketers. Andre can explain that to you--Spike Lee does not represent hundreds of independent Black filmmakers such as Andre who experience this crap constantly. Nevertheless, I am glad you did this review and that you achieved what I think is the perfect tone. You were careful, detailed, technical (Black movies and directors deserve technical analysis when they are good, as well as technically legitimate criticism when they are bad), and you paid the subject of Black film respect by not being afraid to still be mocking and humorous, which is your hallmark. You made a point of being truthful, and you said exactly what you think without any fear or any patronizing of Black people, and I love that. DO MORE BLACK MOVIES, good and (mostly) bad.
@@clericjack she did paragraphs, she just didnt remember to hit enter *twice*, because college professors don't write youtube comments all day. a word processor that grownups use all day would be indenting, automatically, so you don't need extra lines to break up paragraphs.
yeah I think they are in a little bubble in the racism angle. Also they were kinda wrong now that we have recently seen people or at least trolls claim to boycott blackness in movies.
@@mitchellhorton9382 You didn't read her comment, what the hell are you talking about, and do you have a point other than white people out number black people and therefore matter more?
Denzel Washington literally has his career started by Glory as far as movies go, since St. Elsewhere barely made him into "whatshisface TV star of one role" (and you should probably know how this usually goes after stuff like GoT, Supernatural and few other and their "starts" trying to break out). I finally saw Glory two weeks ago. Solid stuff - not perfect, but solid. A bit corny, but in the sense of "late 80s American Civil War movie that tries to be ground-breaking, but really can't, since it's late 80s", rather than "George Lucas is a complete hack" type of corn.
When I first watched Men of Honour, I wasn't aware that the Navy diver was black. I was blissfully enjoying a movie about a person facing hardship and overcome it with determination.
Yes. Also, black skin is apparently impervious to such weapons, as the pilot of said P-51 takes several high-explosive cannon rounds to the chest and shrugs them off like he was hit with spitballs. Meanwhile, the .50 cal machine guns aboard his aircraft manage to cause an entire cruiser to explode into flames after a second or two of firing straight into the armored turret and deck. Truly, an inspirational film of grand historical accuracy. It shall be remembered for generatio-ohwait no it is already long forgotten.
I am from 2020, remember 2017's Starship Troopers re:view, where they made fun of how much rich changed in just 5 years (2012-2017).. you'll never suspect that they don't look like these nerds anymore.
I have never heard of this movie. In fact, the first time I seen the thumbnail and read the title of the video, is the first time Ive seen anything about this movie, ever.
i didnt forget this movie. since i absolutely love air combat games and movies, this was a must watch for me. i dont give two shits that the cgi looks like it was made on a dreamcast. its ww2 planes shooting at each other, and that is a massive win for me.
The face scar thing is a real historical thing and has a cultural context. They're called Schmisse and they were fencing scars that were a mark of prestige.
Seems like the same marketing strategy for this film was used and failed for the Sony Ghostbusters. "The movie is groundbreaking, and if you don't think so you're a -ist!"
If i hadnt watched this video, i wouldve never known this movie existed. And if i had watched this movie, i wouldve still needed this video to remind me of it.
It works as an analogy though. One reason the current ✡️ run system prefers blacks is because they cannot self-organize against the state, but whites have - and can again.
Jay should 100% watch Glory ASAP. It's a fucking masterpiece. It's a movie that stirs up a lot of emotions, but it earns every emotional beat in the film. It doesn't make you feel ways about stuff just because the music and dialogue tells you that you should. It gets me every time when the 54th is marching in front of all the other regiments, and the one dude says "Give 'em hell, 54! It gets me every single goddamn time.
The problem with George Lucas is what they said in another review, that when he takes control over a film he ruins it. That's why Star wars was so great and memorable. He had to consult with other people who would not mind telling him his ideas are stupid. Race has nothing to do with the movie, he wanted people to get rallied up for the movie so they would go see it.
Makes me feel bad that he and his first wife got divorced in 1983. From what I've read she was a damn good editor who had worked on multiple Martin scores sees films and even won the Oscar for best editing with the original movie. According to interviews she was one of the only few people George would listen to and take criticism from, and Mark Hamill said that he felt like George would've made better movies nowadays had they stayed as partners.
Don't get your history from Hollywood So many things wrong with this move. Example: Initially, the US philosophy was that fighter escorts should protect the bombers. They even had mottos like "our job is to protect the bombers". This was the case till General Doolittle arrived at 8th Air Force. On seeing one such motto, he said, paraphrased, "no, that is not your mission. Your mission is to kill Germans." When, at his direction, they let the fighters off the leash to go hunt German fighters, two things happened. Bomber casualties went up...at first. And German fighter casualties skyrocketed giving the Allies total air dominance. The chief of Luftwaffe fighter command (Galland) stated that the day the fighters were unleashed was the day he believes the air war was lost. I don't know which philosophy the Red Tails were ordered to use, but the movie's implications is that "selfishly chasing enemy fighters" was a bad thing. History shows this "selfish" act was devastating to the German fighter force.
This exactly what Javier Navarrete & Jim Caviezel did with Sound of Freedom. Claiming no one wanted make this film and that there is a moral obligation to watch it.
Lucas' excuse for botching the prequels "They're kids movies!" lol. Well looks like another amateurish and childishly written film about a serious topic. What's the excuse this time? Any filmmaker who still uses "The chosen one from the prophecy" as a central theme for his trilogy is utterly bankrupt of creativity.
***** Although I agree with your sentiment, I think you give Lucas too much credit. I think his original thinking doesn't go much beyond simplistic cliches.
Cryofax Dumb, simplistic, generic stuff like that can work if the rest of your movie isn't utter shit, though. Guardians of the Galaxy had the generic MacGuffin to kick-start its plot, and it's arguably one of Marvel's best movies to date thanks to its likeable characters, good script, and competent director.
It's hard to believe a studio would refuse to support a film purely because it has a black cast, when the movie sucked, and George Lucas using that as a means to promote his trash movie is offensive
Yes! The word "trivialized" was exactly what ran through my mind while sitting through the parts of the movie I was (barely) able to sit through. Gawdawful.
