I, personally, never said anything of the sort. I just pointed out that it's nearly identical to that movie as far as the storytelling is going and that the special effects -- the only thing that it would have going for it -- are obvious and kind of cheap looking. I also pointed out that they made absolutely no mention of what the movie is actually about, instead preferring to spin it as some kind of work of fiction instead, which is pretty damn insulting to the people it's supposed to be celebrating.
I don't know if they're trying to pass it off as fiction or if they are just trying to distance themselves from being compared to the other movie which is fairly well known (I think a lot of people who might not have watched it are familiar with what it is). Even if not it doesn't have to be insulting, if people watched it as a story and then find out it was based on a real story that could be moving in its own way .
I would guess that in the trailer, the words "Inspired by TRUE EVENTS" are meant to imply that the movie was, you know, inspired by true events.
Looks fantastic, I've been wanting to see a big budget WWII bomber/fighter film for a while now. As for the CG, really guys? I mean it's not perfect yet, but it's a trailer, so I'm sure those aren't the final outputs for shots, but at the same time, it was pretty damn good. I think sometimes that no matter how real a shot looks, people will always say it looks CG because it IS CG, and they know it has to be, because no one still has a full operational squadron of B-17s in the world.
The first part of the trailer strongly reminded me of Star Wars, but I'm not sure that's such a good thing. This is an actual historical story, and I'd like a movie that presents a story and characters that I can believe actually existed. I sincerely doubt the real Red Tails spent their time making cornball speeches.
I don't know how you can make the call that Red Tails is nearly identical to Tuskegee Airmen based solely on a few clips. Both films are dealing with similar subject matter, but to say they are identical based off of what has been presented to us in that trailer is stretching it. Granted, they didn't spell out it is the Tuskegee Airmen (from what I recall), but I think the trailer established that this a story about WW2, black pilots, fighting for their country and self-respect while fighting against domestic discrimination and the Nazis. That's not too shabby for a couple minutes. It didn't really focus on one character or supply us with any names, but it did lay out the stakes the men are up against with some aerial combat action shots. I don't think they spun it as some kind of work of fiction, and I don't see how you came to that conclusion. Perhaps it is a work of fiction (like Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna), a fictionalized take on the Tuskegee Airmen, which is fine in my book, though hopefully it will be historically accurate. Even the HBO show's account has been criticized. I attended a program held by the son of the one of the Airmen and he was saying something along those lines. I didn't get a chance to ask him for more information about he felt was in error with the HBO movie.
How was it not made clear that the film is about the first black aviators in the US military serving in ground attack and bomber escort roles during WWII? That's what the film is actually about at its most basic level, besides other themes like overcoming adversity and bigotry and so forth, which was also touched upon. Plus, despite the fact that the characters and some events are fictionalized (which contrasts with the more historically accurate 'The Tuskegee Airmen' and gives a good reason why the two films should be complimentary to each other rather than redundant), the film also touched on some pretty specific historical moments: - The 332nd being criticized for having no aerial kills when they were initially tasked with ground attack/air support missions; used as a means to try and disband the group. - The sinking of a German destroyer with machine gun fire only (Although they were flying P-47s at the time IIRC and not P-51s, but that's an understandable filmmaking choice to avoid having to explain that they changed aircraft four times. But they still got in the transition from their first aircraft - P-40s - to their last aircraft of the war - the P-51). - The fact that many other escort fighter groups either took to chasing after the enemy (being seemingly more interested in getting kills than protecting the bombers), stayed too far out from the bombers to be of any use, or left too early. The Red Tails always stuck with the bombers and lost an extraordinarily low (compared to other groups) number of bombers as a result, thus earning their loyalty. - The attack by German Me-262 jet fighters during the raid on the Daimler-Benz tank factory in Berlin (though that may not be mentioned by name) in which three Me-262s were shot down by three individual pilots. The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation as a result. So, I see this as a film that should work nicely alongside The Tuskegee Airmen in giving less historical characterization but more spectacular aerial fighting and perhaps reenactment of more specific events (mentioned above) where the other film could not due to budget, while still hitting on the essential message of triumphing over adversity and facing enemies both at home and abroad. Plus, when the Me-262s showed up it was pretty awesome. I rewatched that part several times.
Since Star Wars combat was modeled after WWII aerial combat, I am interested see how the movie skirts the line between the tropes of entertainment that Lucasfilm helped established on one hand and realism on the other. With Lucasfilm now doing extensive aerial combat, beyond its brief treatment in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this extended chapter in the depiction of dogfighting in film since 1977 has come full circle. Or if you prefer, the circle is now complete. But yeah, I want things to stay on the side of that line that reality is on, first and foremost. Already, the trailer promises that Red Tails will go deeper than Top Gun's, "I'm not...leaving...my wingman." (Or is this concept also redundant to address?) Yeah, I'm looking forward to that too.
It would be funny if there was an easter egg of a x-wing fighter or "Roger Bravo leader!" The early scenes did evoke a star wars aerial flight.
Isn't that true of any movie based on or inspired by historical events? If you didn't know Vasily Zaytsev was a real person or that the lions of Tsavo were real, the largely fictionalized films of 'Enemy at the Gates' and 'The Ghost and the Darkness' based on them might seem to be made up out of whole cloth if not for the disclaimers in them. That's probably why they included the "Inspired by true events" disclaimer in this trailer too, huh? Do you have an actual point in any of this, or is it just another excuse for you to whine and act undeservedly superior to everyone else? I wasn't rude to you before the comments you made above.
Dude, Checkmate, you saw TWO minutes of the movie. How can you say they don't celebrate the men ythey are portraying from TWO minutes of the movie?
^ In the land of the Internet, it is acceptable to form a complete opinion of something no matter how complete or incomplete our knowledge of it is.
I see the fanboy hatred of the Lucas is strong in this thread. Movie looks cool, might be a nice January surprise.
I've been waiting for this for years... If the dogfights end up looking like Star Wars ones, that'll be because the SW ones are based on old WW2 footage - that's what he used as temp shots for SW before the FX were done.
Aah, well, I didn't specifically remember that and didn't rewatch the trailer so I was responding to the post itself at face value.
Yeah, that piqued my interest as well. This looks like it could be good. I'll probably go see it, unless the reviews are bad. Speaking of war stories about aviators struggling against discrimination as well as the enemy--at one point, Alexander Siddig was involved in a movie project about the "Night Witches," a highly-decorated all-female Soviet night bomber squadron. I wonder whatever happened to that? Not to take anything away from the Tuskegee Airmen, but they at least got to fly front-line fighter planes. The Night Witches had to make do with the Po-2 biplane, which attracted nicknames like the "Sewing Machine" and the "Flying Desk."