The Tuskegee Airmen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Allen Payne, Andre Braugher, Courtney B. Vance, Laurence Fishburne, Malcolm-Jamal WarnerBrand: FISHBURNE,LAWRENCE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed), Unknown
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-01-23
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Tuskegee Airmen
Movie Review: Fun to watch repeatedly.
Summary: 5 Stars
THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, stars Laurence Fishburne, known for playing an aggressive character (Ike Turner) in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, and a gentle, reclusive professor in AKEELAH AND THE BEE. This film also stars the equally versatile Cuba Gooding, who happens to be a household word in America.
THE FILM IS BASED ON THESE EVENTS. The Tuskegee program began with the formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron at the Tuskegee Institute. After basic training the airmen were placed under the command of Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., then one of the few black graduates of West Point, then was transported to Casablanca, Morocco, on the USS Mariposa and to participate in the North African campaign. From Morocco they traveled by train to Oujda then to Tunis, the location from which they operated against the Luftwaffe. Flyers and ground crew alike largely were isolated by the racial segregation practices of their initial command, Colonel William W. Momyer. The Tuskegee Airmen were credited with 112 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down, the German-operated Italian destroyer TA-23 sunk by machine-gun fire, and destruction of numerous fuel dumps, trucks, and trains. The Tuskegee airmen flew more than 15,000 sorties on 1,500 missions. On a mission flown March 24, 1945, they escorting B-17s to bomb the Daimler-Benz tank factory at Berlin, Germany. During the action its pilots were credited with destroying three Me-262 jets of the Luftwaffe's all-jet Jagdgeschwader 7 in aerial combat that day.
STORYLINE OF THE FILM. The film begins with several young African-Americans who meet on a train on their way to aviator school. They encounter a dose of reality during the trip, when they are required to move to a special blacks-only car on the train, to make room for white people (the white people are German prisoners of war). They encounter more doses of reality on the military base, where one of the officers, Major Joy, refers to them with the "n word," and sees it as his personal mission to sink the entire Tuskegee training program. At any rate, Major Joy does not succeed, and the Tuskegee airmen travel to north Africa, where they see huge quantities of combat action. Laurence Fishburne survives, but Cuba Gooding crashes during a mission.
The film is characterized by its occasional stylized dialogue and by its didactic script. Overall, the film is geared to people of the ages ten and up. The entire script seems to be about 25 pages long, as there are no lengthy dialogues. The violence is kept to a minimum. There is a minimum of bad words. This would make an excellent teaching device for a civics class, for middle school students.
THEATRICALLY STYLIZED and DIDACTIC SCENES. The recruits spontaneously derive nicknames from the men's background, and spontaneously begin using these nicknames. Mr.Fishburne is called "Iowa" because his character is from Iowa. Cuba Gooding exclaims, "Hey Iowa, are you ready for all this?" Other nicknames are "Stick" and "Train." In a scene typical of countless sports movies, Cadet Leroy expresses self-doubt about finishing training, in view of the fact that 1/3rd of the men had already dropped out. But Mr.Fishburne give him a pep-talk. At first, Leroy expresses self-doubt saying, "I don't know." Then, Mr.Fishburne give him more pep-talking, and Leroy half-heartedly answers, "Yeah, I'm going to make it." Finally, after more pep-talking, Leroy exclaims affirmatively, "I'm going to make it." Another didactic theme, found in this movie, and in other movies such as BILLY BUDD by Herman Melville, OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN with Richard Gere, and A SOLDIER'S STORY starring Adolph Caesar, is humiliation and abuse from the officers directed to new recruits. Thus, if you don't mind that your movie entertainment is sometimes preachy, corny, or didactic, then you won't mind these excesses in THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN.
QUOTABLE QUOTES. The film contains a number of quotable quotes:
(1) For example, after a crash kills one of the cadets, the liaison officer tells the other cadets, "If you don't believe in God, you'd better find a damned good substitute."
(2) In a confrontation between Major Joy, who wants to see the Tuskegee program eliminated, we find this exchange. The Major exclaims, "There's a war on," meaning that America should not be tinkering around with an experimental program to train black fliers. The Colonel replies to this with, "And I'd prefer that war not be on this base," meaning that it is not the Major's business to dictate military policy to the Colonel.
(3) Another great line is delivered by an older member of a chain gang, cutting tall weeds in a field by a country road, under the supervision of redneck guards with toting rifles. Two of the cadets, Cappy and Hannibal, experience engine trouble and they land on a country road by the chain gang. "Just a little engine trouble," explains Hannibal (Mr.Fishburne) as he climbs out of his plane, and pulls off his goggles. Of course, this surprises the rednecks as well as the members of the chain gang. An older member of the chain gang smiles broadly, and quietly utters, "They're colored fliers." This low-key scene is likely to instill more pride in the viewing audience than a dozen touchdowns at the Superbowl. To repeat, the great line is: "They're colored fliers."
The timing and development that went into this script is not something that can be easily be taught, or automatically learned, in film school. I might even be willing to characterize the script-writer as a genius. The ingenious sense of time and development, in the script, is especially evident in the scene when the 2 fliers land on a country road near a chain gang, and in the scene in the tent when the redneck bomber captain specifically requests the colored squadron.
Summary of The Tuskegee Airmen
A squadron of African American pilots in WWII fought against adversity in order to prove their courage.Genre: Feature Film Urban Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 25-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD
This true story of the black flyers who broke the color barrier in the U.S. Air Force during World War II is a well-intentioned film highlighted by an excellent cast. Proud, solemn, Iowa-born Laurence Fishburne and city-kid hipster Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the hopefuls who meet en route to Tuskegee Air Force Base, where they are among the recruits for an "experimental" program to "prove" the abilities of the black man in the U.S. armed services. Fighting prejudice from racist officers and government officials and held to a consistently higher level of performance than their white counterparts, these men prove themselves in training and in combat, many of them dying for their country in the process. Andre Braugher costars as a West Point graduate who takes charge of the unit in Africa and in Italy (where it's christened the 332nd). The film is rousing, if slow starting and episodic, but it's periodically grounded by a host of war movie clichés, notably the calculated demise of practically every trainee introduced in the opening scenes (ironic given the 332nd's real-life combat record--high casualties for the enemy, low casualties among themselves, and no losses among the bombers they escorted). Ultimately the Emmy-nominated performances by moral backbone Fishburne and the dedicated Braugher and the energy and cocky confidence of Gooding give their battles both on and off the battlefield the sweet taste of victory. --Sean Axmaker
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