Masters of the Air
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Wait, whore these guys?
The 1995 made-for-HBO filmThe Tuskegee Airmenhas a strong reputation.
In any event, the Tuskegee Airmen certainly warrant a fancy $250 million-ish streaming miniseries of their own.
And the characters were real people whose descendants are still around to recognize what a slight this lip-service-bordering-on-tokensim is.
(Technically, the face belongs to actor Branden Cook.)
This would be bad even if the get-to-know-the-Red Tails scenes were exceptionally good.
Story credit goes to Orloff, Thompson, and, surprisingly, British comedian Morwenna Banks.
Besides introducing a new cast of characters, he has to cover D-Day too!
The largest invasion in history is told in the before and after.
There wasnt a single Luftwaffe fighter in the air, Rosie rhapsodizes.
The skies were ours.
All from routes you plotted, Harry!
Evidently, the fact Croz was high as fuck on uppers did not impair his work.
And then suddenly it is, per another title card, Two months after D-Day.
The Tuskegees are now being sent to attack targets in Toulon, France.
The colonel is right about the institutional racism, obviously.
Nor were Black airmen allowed to serve on bomber crews.
He created the all-Black fighter unit that became known informally as the Tuskegee Airmen under duress.
This was racist and wrong, but it was fact.
But first they have to get the Red Tails there.
Macon suffers a severe neck injury while bailing out of his own P-51.
Jefferson and Macon answer as Bucky did, giving only their name, rank, and serial number.
Do you know any country thats better?
The U.S. is trying hard to become what it says its supposed to be, Macon says.
And when I get back, Im going to help them do that a lot faster.
As Jefferson, Macon, and Daniels are marched into Stalag Luft III, theyre greeted like celebrities.
Hey, look, its the Red Tails!
one piece of ADR-ed crowd dialogue says.
Stalag Luft III, unlike the USAAF or its barracks, is integrated.
Gentlemen, welcome to paradise, he says.
(Its about an artist who risks everything to pursue his passion, Alex tells him.)
An inventive solution, as their jail guards would surely notice a mass outbreak of jogging or calisthenics.
And Jefferson includes a sketch of it that he made in his memoir!
The episode does end on an uncharacteristically elegant note.
Alex asks him how close they are when one of those newly installed S.S. guards bursts into the room.
Evil-eyeing its occupants but finding nothing amiss, he orders, Lights out.
In the darkness, Buck replies to his comrade: Theyre close.
Really, really close.
