Red Tails Review

'Red Tails'
Theatrical Release 01-20-2012
Blu-ray Street Date 05-22-2012

Synopsis from the Official Site
1944. To help win the war, the Pentagon brass has no choice but to consider the untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program. Just as the young Tuskegee men are about to be shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. These intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight for their country - and the fate of the free world.

TRAILER





STORY
George Lucas began developing 'Red Tails' in 1988. After all of the build-up by Lucas and media speculation, it was rather surprising when the movie actually went into pre-production in 2009. '

Red Tails' is loosely based on the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces which made up the 332nd Fighter Group. This fighter group were given the name "Red Tails" after painting their fighter plane tails the color red. The story focuses on the racial discrimination that the Tuskegee airmen had to endure before being allowed to engage on more advanced and news-worthy missions.

As the story unfolds, the lives and personalities of four of the pilots become the focus point. Each pilot has their own character peculiarities setting thme apart from one another. And with most movies of this genre a competetion of who is the more accomplished fighter pilot, endangers a good friendship. The character development seems rather haphazard, not providing any real incentive to you to be drawn into the film.



VIDEO PRESENTATION
'Red Tails' has a 125 minute runtime. The video is a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded presentation running 23.976 fps with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The film is wondrous to view, the warm colors of the barracks in contrast to the cool blue of the flight scenes seems to instantly separate earth from sky. There is a lot of detail in this film, especially in the darker areas, textures and shadows which can really show off how well your display is set up.

With 'Red Tails' being a Lucas Film project, what else should you expect but top notch CG? The detail of the aircraft are amazing at time, showing scrapes, scratches and rivets almost as if you were standing right next to the plane. In a second viewing, I did happen to notice a few soft spots, but you have to look hard and long to notice these. The physics of the CG may come into question, you can make computer rendered aircraft do things that physical aircraft simply cannot do. But if you set back and do not over analyze the CG, I believe that you will enjoy what you see.





AUDIO PRESENTATION
The English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is lively and accurate. The dialogue is clear and clean, it does not overpower the effects nor do you need to strain to make out the dialog under the sound effects. This film's surround sound will be coming at you from every direction. The aerial battles are enveloping and amazing, with completely believable directional movement across all of the speakers. I can only imagine how awesome this would have sounded if it were set up as a 7.1 audio track.



EXTRAS
'Double Victory: The Tuskegee Airmen at War'
Narrated by Cuba Gooding Jr. is a very informative extra, providing some real details of the men that Red Tails based it's story on.
'George Lucas: Executive Produce'r George Lucas discusses the process that it took to make 'Red Tails'.
'Anthony Hemingway: Director' An interview with the director discussing his feature film debut.
'Terence Blanchard: Composer' The composer discusses the score and behind the scene peeks.
'The Cast of Red Tails' Brief interviews with the cast.
'Movie Magic' Focuses on Industrial Light and Magic's visual effects.