Hollywood was struck again in July, providing me with some options this month in order to get back to my theme of writing about films of recently deceased actors. I could go down the path of a decent movie depicting a little-known and important part of our country’s history, or choose between a few awful movies that starred Hulk Hogan. Apologies to anyone waiting for 1500 words on No Holds Barred…but I went with the better film: The Tuskegee Airmen (1995, dir. Robet Markowitz).
The Tuskegee Airmen is the story of the first all-black unit of combat pilots in World War II. It primarily follows the journey of Hannibal Lee Jr. (Laurence Fishburne) through training and eventually the war itself. Lee is joined by fellow trainees Billy Roberts (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Leroy Cappy (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), Walter Peoples III (Allen Payne), and Lewis Johns (Mekhi Phifer). As is probably obvious, being the first of any group to break the color barrier, much of the story deals with white officers and politicians putting up some additional roadblocks, including retesting every pilot before training begins due to assumed cheating on entrance exams. Eventually, several of the trainees get through to war and the exploits of 99th Pursuit Squadron.
The film is fairly procedural and predictable, but it is a fascinating story at the same time. Fishburne is his typical commanding presence, carrying off the role of Lee with quiet confidence and power. Gooding and Warner are more laid back in their approach, which provides a nice mix of camaraderie as they advance through training. Perhaps the best performance comes – as it so often does – from Andre Braugher as their eventual commanding officer. There is extraordinarily little that Braugher did in his career that is not magnificent, and this is no exception.
The film looks great – capturing the claustrophobic WW2 cockpits while adeptly filming the air combat sequences. The weakest element is the script. Again, the story is amazing, but the actual words used to tell it are often either too perfectly written (leading to a feeling that no human beings talk like this) or so poorly underwritten that you wonder if they showed up on set that day with a director who just says “action” and they improvised everything in one take. A more widely seen version of the same story (Red Tails, 2012, dir. George Lucas, also featuring Cuba Gooding Jr.) came out later, but it did not improve on the storytelling.
If you, like me, did not know anything about this brave group of decorated pilots, The Tuskegee Airmen is worth a watch. If it teaches you something about an important aspect of military history – albeit a fictionalized version of it – then it will be time well spent. And it serves as a better posthumous honor to Malcolm-Jamal Warner than watching any number of episodes of The Cosby Show.
FUN FACT – The film shot much of the training section on location at Fort Chaffee. Keen-eyed filmgoers will recognize the barracks from Biloxi Blues and several of the replica planes from Memphis Belle.
Just Watch says that The Tuskegee Airmen is currently streaming on HBOMax with a subscription (not surprising, as this was an HBO Studios film). It is also available for rent/purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and other services.
As a reminder, here is the original postthat details the scores and weighting system.