Red Tails- January, 2012

[El Paso Mark]

Let's hope it's not the typical hollyweird smarmy, alternate history BS of late-

Red Tails:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpA6TC0T_Lw

Cheers,

Mark

[Guamsst]

something is wrong witht the link

Let me guess, more tuskegee airmen..

[El Paso Mark]

Fixed. Thanx for pointing that out, I didn't test it (Obviously) after posting.

Cheers,

Mark

[Rick]

Just wonder what the real story is about the Red Tails. Some WW-2 veterans in town claimed they saw the Red Tails take off for their first mission and the Germans really cleaned their clocks. The Red Tails broke and ran back to the airfield according to their story. The vets claimed this was in Africa. I didn't know the Red Tails served in Africa so this may be a Sea Story.


Another of the town Veteran stories were a copula of the guys saw the first German Jet go over. At that moment they thought there goes the war.

[Griff Murphey]

CGI looks very good. Ought to be some good looking real warbirds in it, too. We'll see if it is historically correct or not. Speilburg has done a lot of WW2 stuff, yes, often criticized, but we would not have it at all if he was not doing it....

Of the eight fighter squadrons covering the Anzio beachhead, the 99th/332nd FG had the highest score. In a 24 March 1945 B-17 raid they flew cover for, they claimed 11 Me-262s (jets) shot down. USAAF credited 3. German records admit four shot down, with all German pilots surviving. I have attended a talk by and met one of the Red Tails, Claude Platt, who lives in Fort Worth, and he is a fine, well spoken gentleman, as are the other men I have seen interviewed on TV, and it is not difficult to believe they did a good job.

[Guamsst]

I'm done, 24 seconds into it and it is total horse Sheize!

Oh my gods like the white escorts ran away, all of thems...oh my gods, white people suck, please mr black man come save us.

If the trailer hadn't opened with the escorts fleeing in mass and hundreds of German fighters decimating the bombers in 1944, I might have given it a chance. It's amazing to me that the only time you hear about the cowardice and ineptitude of our fighters seems to be in every account of the Tuskegee airmen. Not to knock them, they did their job and I have never heard any credible account say they didn't do it well. It's the hollywood BS that gets me. The story should be about them proving they were competent and capable. Not about how they were the saviors of the European Air War when the white pilots were such incompetent cowards. And that's what I get from the beginning of the trailer.

Also, They completely screwed up the German tactics at that time.(ok, watched again and they only got it half wrong)

Looks bright and shiny though just like the battle scenes in Star Wars....go figure.

Ok, last half of the trailer was ok but I still hate the preface of it.

[dryheat]

Sounds like that movie with Donald Sutherland about the civil war(or whatever you want to call it). The gist was, guns are bad, white men are bad, war is bad. I hate getting hit over the head with a theme.

[Griff Murphey]

Well I must be in the minority because it really looks good to me. Not only speaking as an aerophile and military history buff, which I must say the actual aircraft used and CGI ones also look great.

Pre judge as you will... But I personally think a lot of kids today, and in particular some of the African-American youth, could sure use those guys as role models. You will note, the men selected for pilot training were well educated and spoke proper English.

They were no mere "community organizers...."

[Guamsst]

Pre judge as you will... But I personally think a lot of kids today, and in particular some of the African-American youth, could sure use those guys as role models. You will note, the men selected for pilot training were well educated and spoke proper English.

I have no problem with the men or them being used as role models. I do have a problem with the portrayal of the need for a solution to the problem of all the cowardly white pilots, the german fighters attacking the formations from the rear in 44 as well as the front and just running back and forth.

I also am less enthused about it after seeing the recent TV preview which showed a lovely little 10ft radius spinning loop by a P-51 which immediately downs a 109. Looks about as good as the E-brake maneuvre in Top Gun.

[Col. Colt]

Someone will have to go see it and report.

And although I want every young man in America to have role models, that does not have to be deliberately engineered at the expense of anybody else. Whenever you make something Politically Correct, especially History - YOU ARE FLAT WRONG. Creating a sense of pride based on half or mistruths does no one any credit. We need AMERICAN role models, Not RACIAL Role Models. Was not this country supposed to learn to ignore color - rather than glorify it? I hope the initial impression created by the trailer is wrong. If not, Mr. Speilberg has just done history - and our country - a great disservice, and deserves no more of our cash. CC