The Tuskegee Airmen, starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney B. Vance, Christopher McDonald, John Lithgow, and many other well-known actors.
[Based on] the true story of how a group of African American pilots overcame racist opposition to become one of the finest US fighter groups in World War II.
During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate African American pilots into the Fighter Pilot Program. Known as the "Tuskegee Airman" for the name of the airbase at which they were trained, these men were forced to constantly endure [harassment], prejudice, and much behind the scenes politics until at last they were able to prove themselves in combat. Written by Anthony Hughes from imdb.com
How much do you know about the group of ‘experimental’ men who made up the Tuskegee Airmen? I will honestly say that other than knowing the men were black and having heard “Tuskegee” and WWII connected in some way, I probably could not give much more information. Pretty sad, isn’t it? I certainly think so. I was a history minor and live with a WWII enthusiast.
My husband rented this movie from Netflix as a movie for him and I to watch. It wasn’t intended to be watched by our kids who are 15 and 12 {almost 16 and 13} but at the last moment we decided to let them watch. I’m actually glad that we did.
This ‘review’ may have spoilers- I apologize now but also want you to be aware. I don’t really know when I’m adding a spoiler though… I’m the type that nothing really spoils a movie for me.
The movie, aside from the language {h*ll, a**, sh**, d**n, d**k- I was surprised by that last one honestly}, somewhat subtle innuendos and graphic scenes of death {of which there really are only perhaps 3} was done well enough. We start by seeing a man’s dream of flying as a kid become reality during WWII. He, Hannibal Lee {played by Fishburne}, is one of the chosen black men to become cadets of the US Army Air Corps group of Tuskegee Airmen. We see how he meets other men bound for the same location and training on his way from Ottumwa, Iowa, to Tuskegee, Alabama.
On this train ride, the blacks are roughly removed from the train at one stop to make room for German prisoners to sit. The prisoners are white. The Tuskegee bound men are forced to sit in the rear cars. They had to give up their seats for prisoners because they were black. You can bet that sparked discussion as we watched.
Once at the base, the men meet Lt. Glenn {Courtney Vance}, Major Joy {Christopher McDonald}, and Col. Rogers {Daniel Hugh Kelly?}. Each of these men hold a different mentality towards the Tuskegee Airmen ‘experiment’. We can feel the almost hatred {and possibly it was hatred in real-life} of Maj. Joy, the anticipation, perhaps curiosity of Col. Rogers, and the hope in Lt. Glenn.
Lt. Glenn we learn a little bit later was the only officer on the base with actual combat experience. He fought with the Canadians because the US would not allow ‘colored’ pilots. He did 43 or 48 tours {my number is based on memory- please correct me if you know the correct number} during his time with the Canadians and took down many enemy planes.
We follow the journey of training, although not much detail is given here as to what they actually went through. The men were segregated from the white cadets and so the harassment came from their presiding officers and somewhat from each other. Many of the men did not make it through training. Two men, one of his own accord, died during training. Many more ‘washed-out’ because it was mentally and physically exhausting. We can definitely feel that during this part of the movie although if it were remade today, I can imagine this would be visited in more detail than might be necessary.
Once through training the airmen are sent overseas to finally join the war effort. Once there they are assigned to taking out enemy railways and factories. They don’t see any ‘action’ and almost all would like to be closer to the front lines. Many of the men have something to prove. It is here that the group of Tuskegee men meet Benjamin O. Davis {Andre Braugher} who was quite pilot and soldier during his time. If I understand it correctly, he went to West Point and was ignored the entire time- not one person spoke to him- but he carried on and persevered.
As the men of this squadron are carrying on, there is a behind-the-scenes committee that is trying to see the results of this ‘experiment’. Senator Conyers {John Lithgow- who you never know if he will be a ‘good guy’ or a ‘bad guy’} is spearheading the opposition. He is quite rude and narrow-minded, in my opinion. He has a study conducted by those of a university with ‘impeccable reputations’ showing that black people have smaller blood vessels in their brain that results in black outs more frequently than whites. I do wonder about that study. That also made for some good discussion between the kids and I.
In the end, the Tuskegee Airmen go to Italy and take part in much more of the ‘action’. They are assigned to be escorts for bombers but at first it seems they’ve been sent on fake missions because their ‘cargo’ seem to be missing. During one such flight, Lee and Roberts {Cuba Gooding, Jr.} hear a bomber in distress over the radio. Although not their assignment, they fly to the rescue and the bomber makes it safe to it’s destination. The bomber pilots, wishing to thank the escort pilots are shocked to find that their rescuers were black pilots. One in particular, Capt. Butler {Ned Vaughn}, from Texas I add, is fairly horrified and in turn is rude to Lee and Roberts when he finds out it was them.
The Tuskegee Airmen, who are now the combined 332nd, were successful in all of their escort assignments –not losing one bomber the entire time they were in action. I believe it said that over 450 medals were awarded after the war for many of the Tuskegee Airmen. Many died, however. My dd, Lee, was upset that much of the original cast we started with were not there at the end. She put it well that we got used to them and were ‘attached’ to them. But we knew they would die…
I personally thought this was a good movie. The kids and I discussed it more than once after watching it. I think because of this movie we will be doing some more research on the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII. But not only that, we thought about how we think of different people. Would we have felt differently towards blacks if we were alive during the same time? We would like to think we would still feel the same as we do…but it was a different time and almost a different world then. Who is to say.
From my reading (so far it’s been just more than a glance), this book does not take the same stance as the many popular books of the time, and not the same angle as many movies. It shows a man, Abner Beech, who was an anti-abolitionist, standing against his entire town. Even members of his own family. 
Well, that isn’t entirely true. They read. A lot. Percy Jackson books mostly. Would that count as historical fiction? They are well versed by now in mythology. 
