Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(1995)

The Tuskegee Airmen is about the “experimental” program that trained African-Americans as wartime pilots. Ironic that they would fight in a war against hatred and racial genocide while enduring a similar hatred from many of their own countrymen. They defended their country regardless of that fact, and God bless them for it.

If you’ve never read up on the history of the Tuskegee airmen, you simply must. It is absolutely awe inspiring.

I recall one white pilot in the film referring to the black pilots as the “Buffalo Soldiers” as if that was an insult. However, those who would be considered Buffalo Soldiers from American history counted the title as a badge of honor and they’re undeniably deserving of it.

Incidentally, these pilots technically ARE counted among the Buffalo Soldiers who fought in American wars from 1867 to 1948 until president Harry Truman desegregated the American armed forces. The Tuskegee Airmen were instrumental in that decision.

Why? Because they were exceptional. While they never should have been required to prove themselves capable any more than the white pilots, proving themselves capable is precisely what they did. Beyond capable, in fact.

Even though they occasionally suffered losses among their own ranks, not a single bomber under their protection went down during their many campaigns. Their record was so impeccable, even the most critical white pilots began to trust them with their lives implicitly.

Among their most stalwart defenders was Eleanor Roosevelt herself, and she was a badass in this film! What better way to show her confidence in these men than to demand one of them take her up. And by “demand” I mean it was of the white superior officers this demand was made. They could not say “No” to the First Lady. Love it!

Lawrence Fishburne, Andre Braugher, Cuba Gooding Jr., were all phenomenal. John Lithgow is an antagonist so you can’t stand him but that was his goal, so “well done” to him. Rosemary Murphy as Mrs. Roosevelt was a freakin’ rockstar!

There was so much here that could have been fleshed out but they wanted to keep the runtime to standard feature length for this HBO tv movie. I would have gladly watched a whole miniseries on this subject matter. As it is, some things feel a bit rushed.

I do feel the scale of events is lost a bit in the film as we do not effectively see just how multitudinous the ranks of the Tuskegee Airmen are. Focus on Fishburne’s character makes the film a bit claustrophobic, as if Lawrence is one of three airmen when there were in fact over 1,000 black pilots and more than 14,000 support personnel.

These are nitpicky complaints, however; talk of burnt rolls during a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. Frankly, if the biggest complaint is not enough of a good thing, that works out to a decent compliment sometimes. 

Time to go watch Red Tails (2012) starring who else but Cuba Gooding Jr. …again!

Box art!