Red Tails

2012
12A
2h 5m

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

38K

YOUR RATING

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron during World War II.

Play trailer2:28

29 Videos

99+ Photos

Docudrama Action Drama History War

A crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of C... Read allA crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard.A crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

38K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 9 nominations total

Videos29

Red Tails: Let Us Fly

Photos110

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Cuba Gooding Jr. is not new to the subject of the film. He has previously been in The Tuskegee Airmen (1995).

Goofs
In the opening scene, the German flight leader is not wearing his oxygen mask throughout the entire battle. B-17 missions were routinely at altitudes of 25,000 feet (all the American characters are wearing masks). Without the oxygen mask, the German commander would have passed out in a matter of minutes.

Quotes
Andrew 'Smokey' Salem: When you get upset, when you get mad, you turn red, right? When you get envious, or sick, you turn green. When you become cowardly, you turn yellow; and ya'll got the nerve to call us colored?

Connections
Featured in Maltin on Movies: Haywire (2012)

Soundtracks
It's Been a Long, Long Time
Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Performed by Harry James and His Orchestra (as Harry James & His Orchestra)
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User reviews420

Featured review

6/10

A really poor version of this story

This film opens with a CGI aerial battle that is literally of the quality I would expect from a direct-to-DVD film by a company like The Asylum. It's shockingly embarrassing for a theatrical release with a $58 million budget. Even the font used in the titles smells like a no budget film. It does get better than this, but not as much as it should. Explosions are all CGI and don't look like they exist in the same plane as the physical objects. Oddly, every German pilot in this film appears to be exactly the same person. Effects aside, this film is intended to play more like a 1950's era war movie than a modern one. That's a valid choice, but it doesn't play like a good one. The story is, on the face of it, an interesting one, but the narrative strokes are so unbelievably broad that the film really doesn't progress after the basic plot setup is done. Some of the actors do a pretty fine job given the one dimensionality of their characters (David Oyelowo is particularly good), but they have precious little to work with.