Red Tails

"Courage has no color."

2012 2h 5m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 749

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron during World War II.

“Courage has no color.”

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Cast

Bryan Cranston
Colonel William Mortamus
David Oyelowo
Joe 'Lightning' Little
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Major Emanuelle Stance
Daniela Ruah
Sofia
Terrence Howard
Col. A.J. Bullard
Andre Royo
Antwan 'Coffee' Coleman
Robert Kazinsky
Chester
Lee Tergesen
Colonel Jack Tomlinson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Anthony Hemingway
Writers: John Ridley, John Ridley, Aaron McGruder
Languages: English, German, Italian
Countries: United States of America, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $58M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 87% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, German, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: United States of America, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

292+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Anthony Hemingway, shot by John B. Aronson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Terence Blanchard. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Anthony Hemingway directs. John B. Aronson behind the camera. Terence Blanchard scores. Ben Burtt cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia. Dialogue in English, German, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $58M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Earned back only 87% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released 14 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, German, Italian.
5International production across 4 countries: United States of America, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia.
6292+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
7Directed by Anthony Hemingway, shot by John B. Aronson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by Terence Blanchard. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Ben Burtt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Bryan Cranston and David Oyelowo and Cuba Gooding Jr. carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "Courage has no color.".
12IMDB entry: tt0485985 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
13Classified under 9 themes, including "world war ii", "fighter pilot", "u.s. air force", "based on true story".

The technical file

Cinematography: John B. Aronson
Original score: Terence Blanchard
Editing: Ben Burtt
Production design: Michael Carlin
Costume design: Alison Mitchell
Makeup / hair: Wesley Hodge
VFX supervisor: Juri Stanossek
Sound: Ben Burtt
Stunt coordinator: Pavel Bezděk
Runtime: 125 min · 2h 5m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $58,000,000
Box office: $50,365,377
Return: 87% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Red Tails (2012)

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Anthony Hemingway

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Dark Jedi2014-04-13
★ 5/10
I have to say that I was a wee bit disappointed in this movie. I felt it was surprisingly mediocre and very “Hollywood”. The good parts are the flight scenes and the special effects. They are enjoyable to watch and reasonably well done. However, that is pretty much what makes up this movie in terms of enjoyment. I would say that a lot of it is not very realistic. The German anti-aircraft guns seems to be next to useless most of the time for instance. Also, there is the scene where a single P51, armed with nothing but machine guns, takes out an armed German warship in two quick runs. That felt quite unrealistic. A lot of the film also felt too much like some Hollywood drama. Some of the pilots behave like morons and in real life they would have been shot down rather quickly. The alcohol problems and the romance seems to have been thrown in just to appeal to the American soap-opera viewers. The entire movie is very shallow and if it was not for the budget and special effects it could very well have been a TV-movie. Most of this movie I was yawning in my seat and waking up only when the flight action started so that I could watch the special effects.
GenerationofSwine2023-01-12
★ 1/10
Yeah, I came into this long after seeing HBO's Tuskegee Airmen, which kind of stared everyone on earth and was brilliantly acted and had a great and compelling plot. So this is kind of a bias review. Compared to the HBO original movie, Red Tails has better special effects but that's about all. The story is worse, the plot is worse, the acting is worse. The history is worse, and I like to give movies a wide breath for artistic liberty. It tells a love story instead of a Tuskegee Airmen story. It replaces drama with fx. Walk away and dig up the HBO movie from the 90s.