I believe there was some concern about what the focus would be in the George Lucas-produced Tuskegee Airmen actioner, Red Tails, directed by Anthony Hemingway. My comrade Andre Seewood asked in his post a few days ago, whether it’ll be a “tepid feel good story or an unvarnished gaze” at the people, the place and the time.

Given all we’ve seen thus far, including this new trailer and the full poster below, I think we can lean towards the former.

This looks like, first and foremost, an action adventure movie folks! So I wouldn’t go looking for some treatise on the black combat experience during WWII, that’s heavy on the racism that enveloped this country at the time, and the discrimination, both within and outside the army, these men in uniform faced even as they represented their country with distinction. I don’t think Lucas is really interested in that. At least not with this movie, if the marketing for it so far is of any indication.

As my title states, shit will be blown up! A reductive statement, I know, but you get my point 🙂

Will this be a movie that the real Tuskegee Airmen would be proud of? I dunno… it may be the case of this succeeding almost solely as an action movie starring black actors, and not necessarily as a film celebrating the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen – men that many in the film’s target audience may know very little about.

The film’s cast includes: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds, Method Man, Lee Tergesen, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelley, Andre Royo and Jesse Williams.

Watch the brand new trailer below; the full poster follows underneath (by the way, I noticed that, on the poster, Aaron McGruder is listed as a co-screenwriter, along with John Ridley. This is the first time I’m hearing Aaron’s name mentioned in any connection with this film; also, when was the last time Cuba Gooding Jr got top billing on any major motion picture?):