I have so many feels, you guys. I can’t.

This may well top Avengers Assemble as my film of the year, and  Avengers Assemble was incredible. And I saw that twice and would happily see it again.

The tension throughout was  incredible – most notably during the aerial engagement scenes. I don’t think I’ve been more on edge during a film since I saw Jurassic Park for the first time and I was…what? 9 years old at the time? Admittedly a large part of the  tension stems from the fact that at every moment I was expecting one of the main cast to die – it’s a war film, that happens.

I admit, yes, I do love watching war films – it’s something I grew up with, thanks to my Dad. A lot of the films  we watched were about just this era – World War Two. More than that though, he used to read books written by ex-servicemen from that time and I suppose that’s where Red Tails really comes through. The books that my Dad and I read really brought through the experiences of the airmen (all the books tended towards the RAF rather than any other service, since my Dad had been in the RAF when he was younger) and not just of the time they spent fighting in the air, but the relationships  on the ground.

Red Tails really captures the loss and heartbreak suffered by those at war – both in the armed forces and to an extend, for the  civilians too. It’s easy to forget, often, that the men doing all these heroic deeds had families back home waiting for them and though the focus of this film is obviously on the pilots, you don’t forget that they all belong to someone – whether as a husband, father or son.

I only have a limited knowledge of the segregation and racism faced by black people at the time (and for that matter, now – I’m a mixed-ethnicity girl in the UK) but seeing this film has made me want to really find out more about the situation then. I think every single film or book that I’ve seen/read about the Second World War has been from an entirely white perspective. The only alternative view I really know well is that of my mum’s father’s experience in Malaysia at the hands of the Japanese and my lack of Hokkien and his lack of English, combined with the generation gap and that he didn’t like to talk about it…well, that doesn’t really give that full a picture (although there is still quite a story there about my Chinese grandparents).

This is a great film.

Rating: 8/10

IMDB Link 

Originally published at half girl, half robot. You can comment here or there.

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