Red Tails is a 2012 American war film directed by Anthony Hemingway in his feature directorial debut, and starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr.

The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) servicemen during World War II.

Additional material was shot the following year with executive producer George Lucas as director[7] and Aaron McGruder as writer of the reshoots.

In 1944, as the air war over Europe enters a deadly phase with increasing losses of Allied bombers, the 332d Fighter Group (the Tuskegee Airmen) consisting of young African-American USAAF fighter pilots, after enduring racism throughout their recruitment and training in the Tuskegee training program, are sent into combat in Italy.

Flying worn-out Curtiss P-40 Warhawk aircraft and chafing at their ground attack missions, the Tuskegee Airmen fear they may never fight the Luftwaffe.

Meanwhile, Bullard secures a chance to "light up the board" when the Tuskegee Airmen are chosen to support the Allied landings at Anzio, Italy known as Operation Shingle.

However, Ray Gun is shot down and captured by a Wehrmacht patrol, while Deke crash-lands and nearly dies, but is rescued from his burning Mustang before the fuel tank explodes.

We wanted to start in the United States and show the full racism these guys had to go through, then go to the heroic story that we're telling now and then come back and do the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

Then we got heavily into Young Indiana Jones, which ran for three or four years, then the Star Wars Special Editions and the prequels, but throughout we did continue talking.

[17] Lucas originally conceived of the film as a long, detailed narrative similar to Lawrence of Arabia, and as a trilogy,[3] but after multiple script drafts, he decided to focus on the combat portion of the story.

[19] In researching the film, Lucasfilm invited some of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen to Skywalker Ranch, where they were interviewed about their experiences during World War II.

[24] Anthony Hemingway, a former production assistant for Lucas' The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series,[25] was ultimately chosen to direct in 2008.

[27][28][29] Production began in March 2009 with high-definition Sony F35 cameras used for principal photography,[30] which took place in the Czech Republic, Italy, Croatia and England over a period from August to December.

[2] While shooting in the Czech Republic, the actors also underwent a "boot camp" program, during which they lived in similar conditions to the actual Tuskegee Airmen.

"[32] Aerial scenes in Red Tails involved actors sitting in a gimbal-mounted cockpits (and mock-up fuselages and wings), in front of a green screen, rocked back and forth by production crew members.

[7] In order to achieve a realistic reaction, actors were flown in actual P-51 Mustangs at the Planes of Fame in Chino, California, to experience the forces involved in dogfighting.

[36] The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder was brought in late in production, after Hemingway's principal photography, to provide re-writes for the Lucas-directed reshoots.

[38][39] The film had a presence at 2011's New York Comic Con; Lucasfilm sponsored a panel featuring many of the cast and crew, as well as a P-51 flight simulator.

The site's consensus reads: "Despite a worthy fact-based story and obvious good intentions, Red Tails suffers from one-dimensional characters, corny dialogue, and heaps of clichés.

"[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, stating, "Red Tails (is) entertaining.

"[45] In a similar vein, aviation historian Budd Davison, in agreement with fellow historian Barrett Tillman, although cognizant of the "Hollywood treatment", had a caution to aviation enthusiasts looking for a faithful reenactment of the Tuskegee legend, "... buy some popcorn, lean back and enjoy, this is Hollywood telling a story, not making a documentary.

"[48] Adolph Reed, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, said the film "trivializes segregation in the military by reducing it to a matter of bad or outmoded attitudes.

The ironic effect is significant understatement of both the obstacles the Tuskegee airmen faced and their actual accomplishments by rendering them as backdrop for a blackface, slapped-together remake of Top Gun".

[52] Red Tails portrays largely fictional events based on the exploits of the Tuskegee airmen, although many viewers were left with the impression that the film was entirely historically accurate.

Although discussions as to use of equipment and dates were mentioned, three claims made in the film were the most contentious: the number of losses suffered by bomber crews under escort, the encounters with Luftwaffe jet fighters and the overall record established by the Tuskegee Airmen.

[54] As depicted in the film's climactic scene, the Luftwaffe Me 262 interception of a Tuskegee Airmen escort mission did not result in the first victory over the vaunted jet fighters; this was credited to another U.S. unit much earlier in the war.

The film notes, correctly, that 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses were awarded to the unit and 66 Tuskegee Airmen were killed in action.