Red Tails

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Red Tails

PG-13

2012

2h 5m

History

Drama

War

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

41%

Tomatometer

135 Reviews

57%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

During World War II, the Civil Aeronautics Authority selects 13 black cadets to become part of an experimental program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The program aims at training colored personnel to become fighter pilots for the Army. However, discrimination, lack of institutional support and the racist belief that these men lacked the intelligence and aptitude for the job dog their every step. Despite this, the Tuskegee Airmen, as they become known, more than prove their worth.

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Critics Consensus

Despite a worthy fact-based story and obvious good intentions, Red Tails suffers from one-dimensional characters, corny dialogue, and heaps of clichés.

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Ina Diane Archer

Film Comment Magazine

11/05/2013

One longs for more scenes between the ensemble on the ground, but the emphasis on aerial (and digital) technology leaves the characters without context.

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Tara Brady

Irish Times

06/11/2012

3/5

This is a proper war film. That's to say one with crazy dogfights and (no, really) Nazis with prominent scars.

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Phelim O'Neill

Guardian

06/07/2012

3/5

The true story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a squadron of African-American second world war flying aces, is one of those amazing tales that you just couldn't make up.

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Don Shanahan

Every Movie Has a Lesson

Jul 28

3/5

"Red Tails" succeeds in telling a worthwhile true story of history with a flair for action that can only come from a guy who knows his way around the Force.

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

02/23/2023

2.5/4

Reduces a story of triumph over racial prejudice to a standard gung-ho war movie.

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Jack Fleischer

Battleship Pretension

03/24/2021

In the end, this movie is exciting to watch, but it's otherwise exceedingly bland. Red Tails simply doesn't do justice to its source material.

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Raphaël T

@Salbataaar Feb 6

Red tails is not bad but all the clichés and lack of realism makes it a little corny. While it's nice to see the Tuskegee airmen represented, the movie lack depth and character development. Overall it's a decent action movie, but falls behind due to its flaws.

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HameZz O

@HameZz Jul 31

I remember watching this when I was probably eleven and crying with my brother at the end. I know there's some cliche and even cringy material but the overall story is definitely entertaining and the ending is still great and quite sad. Can't see why the reviews are this low.

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Korra N

@RT88131552 Jul 6

It's not the movie it should've been or could've been, but RED TAILS is a thrilling albeit fairly rote depiction of the Tuskegee Airmen, never fully capitalizing on how truly important they were, instead focusing on entertainment over engagement.

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Glafira Regina O

@Glafira_Regina May 24

The film is decent, but for its genre, it’s pretty standard and doesn’t offer anything new. Surprisingly, it lacks action—odd for a war movie—which makes it feel a bit slow and even boring at times. Still, the story of the “Red Tails” and the Tuskegee Airmen is based on real events, and I hadn’t seen it brought to screen before, so it’s worth a watch for that alone.

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Dirk D

@DirkD May 12

I wanted so much to like this movie. But between the sound editing, the editing and the CGI I just could not get through the whole movie. It is so disturbing how bad the sound editing And the CGI. It was just got awful. I could not get through it. I swear,I so wanted to like this movie and story. Whoever put this movie together needs to be ashamed of themselves.

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noah R

@RT88972984 02/25/2025

while it does suffer from lack of historical accuracy it is a entertaining fun movie.

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Anthony Hemingway

Director

Cuba Gooding Jr.

Major Emanuelle Stance

Terrence Howard

Col. A.J. Bullard

Nate Parker

Marty "Easy" Julian

David Oyelowo

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Synopsis

During World War II, the Civil Aeronautics Authority selects 13 black cadets to become part of an experimental program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The program aims at training colored personnel to become fighter pilots for the Army. However, discrimination, lack of institutional support and the racist belief that these men lacked the intelligence and aptitude for the job dog their every step. Despite this, the Tuskegee Airmen, as they become known, more than prove their worth.

Director: Anthony Hemingway
Producer: Rick McCallum, Charles Floyd Johnson
Screenwriter: John Ridley, Aaron McGruder
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Rating: PG-13 (Some Seq. of War Violence)
Genre: History, Drama, War
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 20, 2012, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $49.9M
Runtime: 2h 5m

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