Warbird Information Exchange

I went and saw it yesterday. Its the first movie I almost walked out of while the credits were on the screen. It is at this point that it depicts a fighter escort leaving the bombers high and dry to go chase German fighters so that they can "get all the glory". What did you guys think.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Zack saw it... to say that he was less than impressed is being charitable, but I'll let him tell his tale.

As for me, I'm just working on a big ol' "I TOLD YOU SO" sign to post on every forum where I took heat for saying the movie was going to be crap as soon as the first trailers came out. Despite that, I'm still going to go see it this weekend.

Lynn

Pearl Harbor isn't looking so bad now.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

It's as hokey as 'MEMPHIS BELLE' was, I thought I was looking @ filming FOR MB from a camera plane it's the same stillted wooden, unnatural interaction, don't know what the script deal was but it sounded like canned, unoriginal community playhouse type dialogue. To me the CGI seemed awfully repetative, nice work but on a 'loop' and an awfully crowded sky @ times. Laid a big smokin' one- What a waste of my limited funds after an 'interesting' drive in 3 inches of compacted ice to get to the theatre, what a shame.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

One of my friends saw it and he said "it made the Star Wars episode 1's script seem like Oscar material" That's pretty bad.

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Better is the enemy of Good.

I went to the 1:00pm matinee yesterday and the theater was packed. I went into the movie with absolutely no expectations of historical accuracy, but I was expecting a halfway decent adventure yarn, which is what George Lucas said he made. Well in my opinion he failed.

The dialogue was so cliche and frankly, amateurish in the first 5 minutes that I too nearly walked out. There were some really great actors in this film, but their talents were reduced to next to nothing with a horrible script.

I tried to ignore the inaccuracies in markings, but when every B-17 that is shot down has a wing fold up...well. I'd swear the animators watched that one clip of a B-24 losing a wing and modeled everything on it. Whatever you know about physics, forget it when you see this film. That being said, I did appreciate some of the camera angles used in the dogfights.

There were some high points. There is a bit of a love story that was actually somewhat entertaining because of language barriers. The set and costume design was excellent for the most part, although it was weird to see some of the ground crew wearing full winter gear and as the camera pans, others with their shirts off. All in all, I think reenactors will appreciate some of the set details.

I've heard that many people were cheering in various theaters at the end of the film. In Oshkosh I heard a lot of "hmm"s, "oh well"s, and at least one "at least it was a matinee and not full price.". With all of its (many) faults, I still encourage everyone to go see it and form your own opinion. Save yourself a few bucks and see a matinee showing...

Zack

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Curator - EAA Aviation Museum, Oshkosh, WI
"Let No Story Go Untold!"
http://www.timelessvoices.org

I've heard many interviews with cast and family members of the 332nd. Several have said that if it weren't for the Red Tails, Normandy would have been a failure. I thought they were in the 15th AF. Did they do a TDY to N. Europe or is this a myth?

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Cheers!

Lance Jones

I think the real story here is that, as with the Doolittle Raiders in Pearl Harbor, the real story is being distorted, which is odd because there is so much good stuff to work with without messing the history up. I mean, for real, no Doolittle Raiders were in the Battle of Britain, and no, the Red Tails weren't anywhere near Normandy.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

I have to say...why does they get all this recognition? Cuz their black?
There were black soldiers fighting in the Civil War.
So is a black pilot in ww2 any different then any other pilot during that time?
Glorifying these pilots cuz their black always kinda burned me.
It's a double edge sword that turns everyone racist no mater what.

I have not seen the movie, and will probably wait until it comes out on video so I can fast forward where needed.

The preview show them shooting up a battleship. Can there be any historical background to that?

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Kevin McCartney

I'll wait for the release on my satellite system.

Take that Mr. Hitler.

TM.

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"Welcome back Mr. Lasky."

That's a good question. That's what I was alluding to on the other Red Tails thread.....I was hoping it would be historically accurate so the audience can see what actually took place....warts and all. To me...it's a little frustrating guessing which scenes are historically accurate and which ones are not.

How about that quote "but can you help save lives", from the trailer?

Worse than Pearl Harbor, absolute crap. These days they don't even try and get it right they just use cgi to keep the budget down and spend the savings on 32 ads on the same tv channel in the same hour to market it hoping that will be enough to get people to show up.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

The RN sinking the Italian fleet at Taranto?

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Yeah, but the RN used 86 MPH FAIREY SWORDFISH @ Taranto. During the battles around and for Malta BEAUFIGHTERS dropped torpedos against German and Italian shipping and convoys. The Italians used SM 79 trimotor bombers as torpedo planes, and pretty effectively too, snuck in and blasted the poo out of the British fleet anchored near Gibralter a couple of times.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-