During World War II, Hannibal "Iowa" Lee, Jr. (Laurence Fishburne), travels by train to Tuskegee, Alabama for military flight training, as part of a group of African-American flight cadet candidates that includes Billy "A-Train" Roberts (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Walter Peoples III (Allen Payne), and Lewis Johns (Mekhi Phifer). Colonel Noel Rogers (Daniel Hugh Kelly), the base commander, Major Sherman Joy (Christopher McDonald), director of training, and Second Lieutenant Glenn (Courtney B. Vance), a Black pilot, brief the cadets. Rogers speaks on the honor of earning pilots' wnigs while Major Joy reflects the majority view of white America that African-Americans aren't suitable to serve as military pilots. The trainees discover that many of them are college educated and Walter Peoples vows he will be the top pilot of the group.
Major Joy has the cadets retake the flight exam they took to qualify for the program. Learning Peoples has a commercial pilot license, Joy takes Peoples up in a PT-17 training aircraft and tries to intimidate him with dangerous maneuvers, but Peoples' resolve is not broken. Major Joy explains the retesting to Colonel Rogers, stating his belief the cadets may have cheated to get in the program. Rogers informs Joy that no one scored less than a 95% on the retests.
The cadets begin practical flight training in the PT-17 training aircraft with instructor pilots. Cadet Johns (Pheifer) and his instructor are killed when Johns fails to recover from a stall. The crash shakes Cadet Leroy Cappy (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) and others voluntarily leave the program. Cadets Lee and Peoples convince Cappy to stay and the cadets advance to solo flying. Major Joy lets Cadet Lee make several solo flights. When Lieutenant Glenn instructs on air combat, he reveals he had fought in the Battle of Britain with the Royal Canadian Air Force, downing three Germans and making him the only Army Air Corps officer on the base with combat experience.
Peoples and Lee solo in the AT-6 Texan training plane, and Peoples wins a mock dogfight against Lee. Peoples celebrates with unauthorized aerobatic maneuvers and he's removed from the training program. Peoples pleads for forgiveness to Colonel Rogers and Major Joy to no avail, and to avoid going home in disgrace, Peoples commandeers an AT-6 and kills himself by deliberately crashing it. The cadets argue about Major Joy's tactics. Roberts states that Joy set out to break Peoples and effectively murdered him. Cappy sides with Roberts and feels Major Joy will eventually fail all of them. Lee however refuses to let Major Joy talk him into quitting or derail his dreams of flying.
The cadets graduate with commissions as second lieutenants in the Army Air Corps but aren't deployed to the European theatre due to racist concerns by Congressmen. First LadyEleanor Roosevelt intervenes, inspecting the base and flying with Lee. The ensuing positive press coverage prompts their deployment to North Africa as the 99th Pursuit Squadron. They're relegated to ground-attack missions, until a chance encounter with Messerschmitt Bf 109s shows the Black pilots are capable of successfully engaging in air to air combat. Cappy breaks formation and shoots down one of the Germans, but Cappy is killed in the battle.
A congressional hearing of the House Armed Services Committee hears evidence regarding the Tuskegee Airmen experiment, including charges of incompetence and medical studies claiming that "Negroes are incapable of handling complex machinery." The commanding officer, Benjamin O. Davis (Braugher) persuades the committee their information is largely false, and the 99th Pursuit Squadron joins three new squadrons out of Tuskegee to form the all-black 332nd Fighter Group, under his command.
The 332nd deploys to Ramitelli, Italy, to fly escort missions for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, which are experiencing heavy losses. Lee and Billy Roberts (Cuba Gooding Jr.) sink a destroyer and rescue a straggling B-17. When the bomber's pilot and co-pilot travel to Ramitelli to thank them, the B-17 pilot refuses to believe that black pilots saved them. Roberts is shot down on a later mission while Lee is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking the destroyer and promoted to captain. The Tuskegee Airmen are specifically requested for escort for a raid on Berlin when the disbelieving B-17 pilot learns that no heavy bombers are lost when the Tuskegee airmen are assigned as escorts.
A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile.[1]
Production
Robert W. Williams (left) and other Tuskegee Airmen at a briefing in Ramitelli, Italy (March 1945)With the characteristic cry, "Here we come, fellas," the 332 FG escorted USAAF bombers over Europe. (screenshot)
Ottumwa, Iowa, native, Captain Robert W. Williams, a wartime pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps' "332nd Fighter Group", the all African-American combat unit trained at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, wrote a manuscript years earlier, and worked with screenwriter T. S. Cook to create a screenplay originally intended for a feature-film project. The plot combined fact and fiction to create an essentially historically accurate drama. Linking up with Frank Price, owner of Price Productions in 1985 finally gained some traction for the project, and when financing was eventually obtained nearly 10 years later, Williams stayed on as co-executive producer with Price as executive producer.[2] Originally intended as a HBO made-for-TV project, the network invested more into the production, a reputed $8.5 million (the largest investment in a telefilm project to date) striving for historical accuracy.[2] Although most of the lead characters were fictitious composites of real pilots, the inclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt and General Benjamin "B.O." Davis was based on actual events.[3] When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941, she insisted on flying with C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson, the first African American to earn his pilot's license and the first flight instructor of the Civilian Pilot Training Program organized at the Tuskegee Institute. She had the photograph of her in a training aircraft with a black pilot at the controls widely circulated. Other than some differences in physical appearance and profile, Andre Braugher's portrayal of "B.O." Davis and his role as the commanding officer pointedly was an accurate depiction of the unit's first commander's personality and character.
Location shooting took place at Fort Chaffee, right outside of Fort Smith, Arkansas. The barracks had been used in the filming of Biloxi Blues (1988), another wartime story. The principal photography also used locations at Juliette, Georgia and Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as studio work in Los Angeles. A collection of period aircraft including North American T-6 Texans and North American P-51 Mustangs was representative of the many types flown by the Tuskegee Airmen. A few authentic P-51 fighter aircraft in appropriate "red tail" colors were employed in the aerial sequences.
In addition, some period gun-ciné films were also used,[2] as were sequences from the films, Memphis Belle (1990) and Battle of Britain (1969). The producers also borrowed a technique used in Memphis Belle by using cutout silhouettes of aircraft to make more aircraft parked at the various airfields apparent. One example of period dialogue that was faithful to the times was Hannibal Lee Jr. (another fictitious composite) singing: "Straighten up..." finished by Billy Roberts (fictional character): "...and fly right." (The catchphrase was derived from the 1944 top-40 hit record, "Straighten Up and Fly Right" by the King Cole Trio led by Nat King Cole.)[4]
Reception
Although originally released on cable, the HBO feature was shown on multiple repeats and eventually was released as a limited feature in selected theaters. In 2001, a home video/DVD version was also released in both formats. The transfer was done in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which exactly fills a 16x9 display, and is anamorphically enhanced.[5]
Criticism of the movie was generally focused on clichéd dialogue and slow, stagy scenes, but the overall impression by the public was mostly favorable.
G. Michael Graham, Joe Melody, Anton Holden, Bob Costanza, Tim Terusa, Mike Dickeson, Mark Steele, Darren Wright, Michael Lyle, Gary Macheel, John K. Adams, Richard Steele, Mark Friedgen, Billy B. Bell, Kristi Johns, Stan Jones, Mark Heyes, Jill Schachne, and Tim Chilton
Besides the character of ColonelBenjamin O. Davis Jr. (who is actually among the attendees during the wing-pinning ceremony scene) played by Andre Braugher, no other actual real-life Tuskegee Airmen were portrayed in this film. Other featured Tuskegee Airmen characters are composites of the men with whom Williams served.
At the end, the film details the unit's accomplishments: 66 of the 450 Tuskegee Airmen died in battle, they engaged and defeated Messerschmitt Me 262s, the first operational jet fighters, and they were awarded a total of 850 medals over the course of the war. The credits also note (inaccurately, but a common belief of the time) that the 332nd never lost a single bomber to enemy fighters. This claim is a source of historical controversy. The statement was repeated for many years and not challenged because of the esteem of the Tuskegee Airmen. However, Air Force records and eyewitness accounts later showed that at least 25 bombers were lost to enemy fire.[13][14] This was, however, still an excellent loss-to-enemy fire ratio; the average for other P-51 fighter groups of the Fifteenth Air Force was 46 bombers lost.[15]
Ambrose, Stephen Edward. The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys who Flew the B-24s over Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN0-7432-0339-9.
Broadnax, Samuel L. Blue Skies, Black Wings: African American Pioneers of Aviation. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2007. ISBN0-275-99195-4.
Bucholtz, Chris and Laurier, Jim. 332nd Fighter Group - Tuskegee Airmen. London: Osprey Publishing, 2007. ISBN1-84603-044-7.
Cotter, Jarrod. "Red Tail Project." Flypast No. 248, March 2002.
Holway, John B. Red Tail, Black Wings: The Men of America's Black Air Force. Las Cruces, New Mexico: Yuca Tree Press, 1997. ISBN1-881325-21-0.
McKissack, Patricia C. and Fredrick L. Red Tail Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. New York: Walker Books for Young Readers, 1996. ISBN0-8027-8292-2.
Thole, Lou. "Segregated Skies." Flypast No, 248, March 2002.
The Tuskegee Airmen (VHS/DVD). New York: HBO Home Video (Release date: 23 January 2001.)
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