In 1988 George Lucas started planning an epic cinematic trilogy centred around the story of the African American fighter pilot squadron known as the Tuskegee airmen who fought in World War 2. He wanted to create his own Lawrence of Arabia-esque masterpiece with a long detailed narrative, but after he was warned of the high likelihood of boring people to death, he decided to focus in on the combat portion of the greater story. Production stalled for a couple of decades while Lucas concentrated on Young Indiana Jones and then ruining everyone’s childhood with his prequel trilogy to Star Wars. The film that would eventually become Red Tails waited and waited and waited until the time came that George needed some extra cash to buy several thousand more plaid shirts. 2012 was to be the year Ol’ Georgie Boy got to fill up his closet and Red Tails finally got its cinematic release. I do quite enjoy movies set in that era, and I was very curious as to how Lucasfilm would handle not only a war story, but one based on actual events. Join me below the cut to find out what I thought.
