classicsoncall I watched this film in preparation for a historical presentation by the Major General Irene Trowell - Harris Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, located at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. It's being given next week at my local library in Florida, New York and it's something I'm looking forward to. I've heard of the Tuskegee Airmen of course, and this film was a good introduction, though not as expansive as I thought it would be regarding the history of the unit. It primarily focuses on a handful of individuals and as such, plays more as a story about how a small group of potential black Army Air Corps flyers overcame overt racism to become combat pilots during World War II. The caliber of actors selected was a good choice, including Laurence Fishburne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney Vance and Andre Braugher. Each in their own way depicted how they persevered throughout their training and eventual assignment during the War. Fishburne and Braugher in particular displayed the singular type of attitude and behavior required to overcome the racism directed at them, thereby gaining a grudging respect from white officers and fellow flyers who they had to interact with. Andre Braugher portrayed the real Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, the only black line officer in the entire U.S. Army at the time (besides his own father), but one comes away from the film not knowing if the characters portrayed by Fishburne and the rest were also based on real heroes of the World War II. That will be a pertinent question for the military spokesmen at next week's presentation, and one I'll be looking forward to asking.

dimplet There was a time when I had never heard of the Tuskegee Airmen, but that was long ago, before this movie came out 20 years ago. I knew the basic facts from various sources, so the movie held no big surprises. But for those unfamiliar with the story, it will come as a revelation.The movie repeats the myth that no bombers were lost to enemy aircraft while being escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen. At the time, 1995, this was still believed to be true. But around 2004-2007, studies found 27 bombers were, in fact lost, still well below the average of 46 by comparable P-51 fighter groups. More astonishing to me is that they took on the new German ME 262 jet fighters and the ME 163 Komet rocket-powered fighters in a raid over Germany, shooting down three jets in one day! Now that would have been an exciting scene for the movie.I've been reading a book on the history of WWII, "Roosevelt's Centurions," and the movie's presentation of the issue of racism in the military seems to get the balance about right. It is so sad to look back upon the racial segregation in the American military in WWII, given we were fighting fascists who were racists. The movie makes this point well, especially with the accurate point of the preferential treatment of German POWs. But our Allies were often even more racist in their treatment toward black GIs overseas, so it was not as easy to solve as it might appear in hindsight. One of the interesting consequences of segregation was that the Army trained 16,000 black support personnel, along with black medical personnel, gunners and navigators. So it provided a skilled foundation for later military desegregation, ordered by President Truman in 1948.Roosevelt was constrained by political considerations, but his wife was not. Eleanor was quite a remarkable lady. Actually, during a visit to the Tuskegee Institute, she flew with the civilian flight instructor, C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson, not one of the recruits. (There's a photo of the two on Wikipedia.) Wikipedia: "In 1940, Anderson was recruited by the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, to serve as the Chief Civilian Flight Instructor for its new program to train black pilots." This might explain the mystery of why the Army located this program in the Deep South. It sounds like the Institute was anticipating the war. Anderson had solid credentials: He created the Civilian Pilot Training for Howard University, Washington, D.C. in the late Thirties. Ironically, Anderson's flight instructor was the German-born Ernest H. Buehl, Sr. "Under Buehl's tutelage and personal insistence, in February 1932, Anderson became the first African American to receive an air transport pilot's license from the Civil Aeronautics Administration."The Tuskegee Airmen, like some other HBO historical movies -- Warm Springs and Truman -- is entertaining and thought provoking. It is historical fiction, not a documentary, but it seems to portray the historical period accurately. The original story was written by Captain Robert W. Williams, the fellow from Ottumwa, Iowa, who corresponded to Hannibal Lee, played by Laurence Fishburne. Aside from Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., all the other characters are composites. Here is the tally of sacrifice by the Tuskegee Airmen, from Wikipedia:In all, 992 pilots were trained in Tuskegee from 1941 to 1946. 355 were deployed overseas, and 84 lost their lives in accidents or combat. The toll included 68 pilots killed in action or accidents, 12 killed in training and non-combat missions and 32 captured as prisoners of war.We owe all of the Tuskegee Airmen a debt of gratitude.

Boba_Fett1138 Normally I'm quite fond of movies featuring underdog stories, so to speak. The type of movie and story in which a persons or persons against all odds achieve great things. And to be honest I also really expected to like this movie, since it has a good reputation, features lots of great actors and had the type of story I expected to love. But it instead turned out to be a very shallow and melodramatic piece.The story of the movie sounds so great on paper and also seems like one that needs to be told and heard, about a group of Afro American fighter pilots who served and fought during WW II, despite of all the prejudices and racism they had to face. But I'm sorry, I just never felt like they were having a hard time getting their training, getting accepted and simply get to do everything a Caucasian fighter pilot was also allowed to do. Nobody is really holding them back or trying to work against them from achieving anything and to just simply do their part and as far as the racism in this movie goes; it comes across as simply stupid and something that got forced in. It's very unrealistic honestly. I'm not saying that this never happened and it most likely did but the way it got presented in this movie made it seem very unlikely though. It made the story and just overall important message of the movie very shallow. So I just can't say that the film-makers are doing much justice to the true story and heroes.And there is also really far too little happening in this movie and everything was extremely predictable, to be honest. First half hour of the movie is being very blah blah but once the action kicks in it becomes painfully apparent why they didn't featured any from the start on. The action is absolutely horrible! First of all the editing is extremely weak and the air fights don't even get resolved properly but what is actually laughable is that for all of the true dock fighting and stuff blowing up they used actual war footage from WW II. So just imaging, a modern 1995 movie, featuring grainy WW II footage from the '40's, right in the middle of the action sequences. At first I was honestly thinking it was some kind of editing trick and the air men were still in the middle of their training, pretending to be attacking ground targets, with WW II footage put in as sort of training for the viewers to see what they are pretending to hit. But the movie is not doing it once, not twice but ALL THE TIME during all of the battle sequences.The movie also just never gave me the feeling that it was supposed to be a war movie. The movie looked like it was set at the same place, all the time and there is never any sense of danger of an ongoing war, even though people of course get killed in this. This seems to happen very randomly though and without ever an epic battle or heroic action. Stupidity is most often what kills the characters in this movie and this really doesn't seem very respectful to any of those who truly flew and fought in WW II.Yes, this all is of course really due to the fact that this movie didn't had a big budget behind it but can this really serve as an excuse? I mean, when something is bad and it doesn't work out it is simply bad. This movie simply shouldn't ever had been made with such a small budget behind it.Not even all of the fine actors that are in this can spice up things. I mean it has Oscar nominees Laurence Fishburne and John Lithgow and Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. in it, among many other great actors. Their characters all remain extremely shallow, as does the rest of the story. It's really not a powerful or emotional movie to watch but more one that forces stuff upon you with its melodramatic elements and very stereotypical characters. Such a waste of all the talent involved with this. But honestly, it's not an horrible movie to watch. I'm making it sound much worse than it is to watch actually but I just can't think of any reason though why anyone should ever watch this in the first place, even though it features an important historical story. You are better off reading a book about it I guess, also since this movie actually takes lots of liberties with the truth as well.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

morgan_lefaye I believe that this movie tells the story of the brave, the proud and the true, no matter their race. When the men were shot down, I cried, both because it was an emotional thing, and because I knew the real men these actors portrayed died fighting for our country, and their country, despite what others said.I don't know if the part when Peoples killed himself was true, but I know that he wanted to fight for his country more than anything, and they wouldn't let him. They took away his life. He just finished the job.When that white bomber pilot REQUESTED the 332nd, even after he spat at their feet(figuratively speaking of course), that made my heart soar. He was the best man in the tent, just because he didn't care if blacks were escorting them, as long as they were escorting them safely.If I sound cheesy, I don't care, because this movie made my day.