01 Mar The Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen, WWII Movie starring Laurence Fishburne and so many other great actors
(1995) The story, based on real events, of how the first African American pilots in the U. S. Army Air Corps were trained and sent into combat. There were obstacles and insults every step of the way, but the end result was above and beyond.
This was an HBO movie that was shown in a limited number of theaters. There were so many excellent actors: Laurence Fishburne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show), Courtney Vance (Law & Order), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (“Show me the Money”) were the ones I knew best.
One of my favorite segments was when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the training base and went up in the plane with one of the Tuskegee pilots.
Airman Robert W. Williams, a pilot in the 332nd Fighter Group that trained at Morton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, wrote a manuscript and worked with other writers to create the final screenplay, based on fact but tinged with fiction. It’s a great story that has been repeated just this year with the George Lucas film Red Tails which I plan to see promptly.
June 2012 Update: I’ve seen Red Tails now, and I actually liked this movie better.
The Tuskegee Airmen at amazon.com
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