Red Tails

Released in time for Black History Month, Red Tails is a story of the unappreciated thousands of African American soldiers during World War II, focusing on the pilot-fighter unit Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in American history and were given the nickname “Red Tails” due to the distinctive red paint they put on their planes.

A variety of characters were depicted but the depth of characters was rather shallow and one-sided. The aerial action scenes were adrenaline-filled and the favorite part for most of the audience.

“I think it is important for African American youth – and youth in general – to be taught about the contributions African American people have made to the nation’s history,” said freshman Yeongji Na.

Na said that while watching the movie, she was impressed by how brave and patriotic the African American pilots were. She also felt that it was ironic how they were sacrificing their lives to defend and fight for a country that treated them inhumanely.

The production of the movie itself was a story of confronting discrimination and finding a way around it. George Lucas, producer of Star Wars and Indiana jones, had been conceptualizing Red Tails from as early as 1988 and the movie was filmed in 2009.

Lucas revealed in an interview that the reason it took so long for the movie to get produced was because major film studios did not want to heavily finance an all-black cast with no major white roles. Many were adamant that a movie with black people playing serious, non-comedic roles was not going to sell in the film market. It was hard and long process for Lucas to get his film produced and he ended up covering the cost of production with his own money plus $35 million for distribution.

Critical reception to Red Tails was poor. Many critics attacked the portrayal of the Tuskegee Airmen as one of the weaker points of the movie. Certain activists believed that this media criticism was a racially-influenced attempt to depreciate the war efforts of the black soldiers. In response, a Facebook campaign was launched to increase the number of people watching the movie. In Oakland, two screenings of the movie were sold-out, showing how successful the campaign was.

Ellie Tesfahun, one of the organizers, said, “Regardless of what Hollywood thinks, we all want to see positive messages of black people in the movies … We need to speak, and speak loud, and speak with our dollars, because that’s where people pay attention, when you start talking with your money.”

Haeeun Blessing Jee

Blessing Jee is a rising senior at Cleveland High School and currently the Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, Le Sabre. She has a passion for journalism and writing in general. She enjoys following feminist and anti-racist blogs, as well as watching speeches by Obama, who she thinks is quite attractive. If she could vote (which she can't because she is not 18 yet), she would vote Democrat. If she could sing (which she can't), she would sing Adele songs all day long. If she could cook (which she can't), she would cook pasta for lunch every day because that's her favorite food. But since she can't do any of the above, she chooses to do something she can do: write.

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