"Red Tails" film Jan. 2012 Release planned.

The CGI does look better than some earlier movies, but the aircraft still appear too fast in some cases. I did not see a P-51C in the trailer, looked like P-51D's only. Not sure why they could not have featured P-51C's if they are using CGI. It would be nice to have used (assuming they didn't) the actual "Red Tail" P-51C out there at air shows around the country.

The movie looks like it has potential, and I will wait and see how it works out before passing a verdict on it. It is a great story that needs to be told (though it has been told before), but I think there are a lot of other great aviation stories from WWII that deserve to be screened just as much and some hopefully will be in the future.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

As an active Tuskegee Airmen member and youth mentor--Maj. Gen. Irene Trowell-Harris Chapter, in Newburgh, NY--I would hope that this film isn't as romanticized as the Larry Fishburne version was. The establishment of the Tuskegee squadron was an extremely controversial matter even within the African-American community, many leaders of which saw the "Experiment" as just more segregation--separate but equal.

And of course the still-urban-legend matter of the Airmen "never losing a bomber" has been thoroughly enough disproven that our own national organization--Tuskegee Airmen Inc.--urges all of its chapters to never repeat this false claim in whatever PR we issue.

The Airmen, when they finally got into the war, were in a different fight than all who preceded them. The days of ace-making and dogfighting were largely over--there weren't that many German fighters aloft in late 1944 and '45--and the reason there never was a TA ace--Lee Archer was originally said to have five kills but it was later reduced to 4.5--was that the Airmens' fame came not from challenging the Luftwaffe but from sticking with the bombers. They let the -109s and -190s stunt around the periphery but were never distracted from their primary escort duty. Come in and challenge them and they'd fight. Stay out there and trash-talk and they'd ignore them.

[DLSheley]

I sure hope the movie has some B-17s with 15th Air Force markings on them instead of 8th Air Force planes like in the trailer.

[Steve Nelson]

I sure hope the movie has some B-17s with 15th Air Force markings on them instead of 8th Air Force planes like in the trailer.

I thought I was the only one who noticed that. The Luftwaffe markings don't look too bad, except for the silly yellow stripe on the tails. It's completely bogus, and I can only assume it was added to make the swastikas stand out (a long shot here, but I suppose it's possible the yellow stripe might make it easier to digitally erase the swastikas for the European market.)

All in all, it looks pretty good. The CGI in the trailer still looks a bit "cartoony." Hopefully it'll look better in the final film. I just hope they didn't let Lucas write any of the dialogue...

SN

[Iclo]

I don't remember if a part of the real aerial footage were done in the US ?
I know that a part of them were done in East Europe, with the P-51 Nooky Booky, the P-40 Little jane and the B-17 Pink Lady from La Ferté Alais collection (France)

I suppose it's possible the yellow stripe might make it easier to digitally erase the swastikas for the European market.

The swastikas are not a trouble in Europe, only in Germany, the only condition is there have to be presented in "historical context" like a film or on a warbird.
I tkink the CAF had more trouble with their Ju-52 marking in the US, that European operator of WWII german plane with accured markings....

[Jerry O'Neill]

I did see some real aircraft footage intermingled with the CGI stuff in the trailer. One in particular is the rear take-off shot of the P-51's. There are two or three in the center of the frame and those appear to be real as their gear comes up.

Remember, and if you look around You Tube a bit, the set footage posted a year or so ago showed the P-51's making continual passes up and down the set airfield. Take-off's, landings, taxing etc. They use these images not only to help the CGI guys but they become the main background plate that the CGi guys work from. They add aircraft, tents, vehicles, people etc. to the image. Check out some of the stills on line and you'll see only part of the base is recreated. In the trailer you see the shot looking down on the field with P-40's taxing all over the place and the entire air base is full of stuff.

I'm not defending the CGI, as I do think the aircraft still move too fast and try to cram too much stuff into the frame to make it exciting.

I the current climate of hi-powered action films, everything is over cranked, edits are very fast and the audience attention spans are shorter. Remember, we are the exception. We are NOT the target audience for this film. Let's just hope the script was good enough (including the re-writes ) and holds out the story properly and with some coherency.

Let's also pray they don't fly the missions with their Victrola's playing ""Sing, Sing, Sing" in the cockpit because that's the way they fly the best! (a la Iron Eagle!)

or the sound track doesn't have JayZeee doing the main theme!

Can't wait to see what transpires and how, as adults, we lonely beacons of restraint at WIX, handle it.
Jerry

[Mudge]

I'm just going to watch it as a fan of WWII movies. A GLARING mistake may cause me to groan, but the minutiae of stripes, dots, or whatever is not going to reduce my (expected) enjoyment of the film.

Mudge the war flick fan

[snj5]

I have high hopes for this film, but the trailer CGI cartoon-like effect and predictable aimed plot is a bit distracting.
I am sure I will see it, but I do not think current Hollywood aviation films are quite the standard of "Twelve OClock High" and "Battle of Britain".

I wish Peter Jackson would do his WW1 movie. He made a trailer in his back yard as an experiment using NO CGI. The planes and tank were all part of his collection. It's amazing the emotion he can convey without script.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpTHFVBlm_A

[Obergrafeter]

Looks like the CAF might have hit a home run by geting their "Red Tail" display going at just the right time to capatailize on the films release.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

A film that focuses on machinery--airplanes, race cars, America's Cup sailboats, whatever--satisfies only the narrow audience interested in those machines. Unless the story is about human beings and their emotions and conflicts, forget about it.

One of the worst films ever made, certainly the worst film Steve McQueen ever made, was the scriptless, wordless, disjointed movie "Le Mans." Unless you are insane about racecars, it is unwatchable. Yet gearheads adore this movie, which sank without a trace on the broad filmgoer market. Particularly Porsche guys, for whom it is an unequaled icon. And I write that as somebody who has raced Porsches, owned a number of Porsches--including one right now--and written extensively about Porsches as an automotive journalist.

A dramatic story needs to be about people, not machines. Which in fact is why the greatest car-racing film ever made is the French film "A Man and a Woman"...

Oh, and please don't tell me how great "Le Mans" is. I've heard it all.

[CoastieJohn]

or the sound track doesn't have JayZeee doing the main theme!

X2, Any music should be of the era IMO. Snoop Diggity Dog ain't gonna fit.

[p51]

I really don’t want to go too deep into the race issue, but I just hope they don’t do the “brothers beat down by the man” shtick stuffed down our throats. I have always felt these veterans deserved SO much better than that. I always looked at the unit as a darned good bunch of stick jocks who just happened to be black, instead of the other way around. It seems an injustice to look at them any other way as to do so diminishes them in some way based on their ethnicity, as if they weren’t any more capable per person than any other group of men behind the stick once the bullets started flying.

Sure, they should show the racial injustice where it actually occurred. But not ALL white pilots hated the blacks and not ALL people were out to lynch them (well, maybe the Germans, but they weren’t too keen on any allied airmen). I hope the movies doesn’t portray it as such. The HBO movie had so much of that, you’d have almost thought on their first mission, they were going to start shooting down the B-17s filled with “white devils” instead of the Germans. Sure, they had plenty of hatred for their skin color, especially on the ground, but I truly doubt hardly anyone even in WW2 had an issue with them while their bacon was being saved by any Mustang with a red painted tail. At a moment like that, you just don’t think of who’s flying the thing.
I read at one point there was a big stink about a white director helming this project. I know that white director Eddie Zwick did an incredible job with “Glory” which to me is the definitive movie about blacks proving themselves in the military. We all saw what Spike Lee did to his WW2 movie.

[Jerry O'Neill]

A dramatic story needs to be about people, not machines. Which in fact is why the greatest car-racing film ever made is the French film "A Man and a Woman"...

Always my point with ANY film made. If the script is not good, the rest follows no matter who they get to star in it, or how much action and CGI they put into the film.

BTW, did you ever see Le Mans? What a great film!!
(I couldn't resist!)
Jerry

[Mudge]

What Spike Lee movie?

Mudge the curious

[Jesse C.]

Steve McQueen Approves This Thread!