Red Tails: Difference between revisions

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* [[Abandon Ship]]: Of the aviation variety. Various aircraft end up badly damaged, requiring their crews to bail out.

** Played straight a few times, notably with one pilot who escapes his burning plane simply by jettisoning the canopy, unbuckling from his seat, and rolling the plane onto his back, which neatly drops him out of the plane so he can trigger his parachute. This technique is truth in television but particularly applies to the British Spitfire, whose cockpit was so narrow (thanks to the need for streamlining) that climbing out quickly was difficult.

* [[Faceless Goons]]: The only German pilot's face you see is "Pretty Boy," the main antagonist, who never seems to wear his goggles. Could also be [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic]].

* {{spoiler|[[Fatal Family Photo]]: Lightning's photo of Sofia.}} Averted with {{spoiler|Junior}}. It's only after the heroes find out that [[He Didn't Make It]] that it is mentioned that he had a wife and two kids.

* [[Five-Man Band]]

** [[The Hero]] / [[The Leader]] (type II) - Easy

** [[Ironic Nickname]]: Pretty Boy sports a nasty scar on his face. Easy is the most tightly wound of the bunch, with Lightning concerned that he is going to [[Heroic Fatigue|burn himself out]].

** [[Nicknaming the Enemy]]: "Pretty Boy"

** [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: The German ace that acts as a recurring antagonist is only known as "[[Nicknaming the Enemy|Pretty Boy]]."

* [[Iconic Item]]: Deacon's "Black Jesus" picture, Junior's toy Ray Gun, Stance's pipe, and {{spoiler|Easy's pocket flask.}}

* [[N-Word Privileges]]: Discussed at length, and eventually [[Played for Laughs]].

* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: A joint vehicular and human version when Lightning's plane goes head to head with an M-262 jet fighter. M262s were armed with 4 × 30 mm MK 108 cannons which are exploding rounds; Lightning and his plane are hit several times and should have been obliterated instantly with that kind of firepower. {{spoiler|He dies and crashes soon after, however.}}

* [[Point Defenseless]]: The anti-aircraft guns at the German airfield, aboard the destroyer, and in the American bombers are pretty much useless in this movie.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Major Stance, and then Colonel Bullard once he returns from Washington.

* [[Red Alert]]: The Luftwaffe airfield when Pretty Boy reports that he is [[Coming in Hot]], pursued by four American fighter planes.

** The [[Fighter Launching Sequence]] barely has a chance to get started before the American pilots lay waste to the place. Two planes [[Sitting Duck|barely make it into the air]] before getting shot down.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Easy is Blue to Lightning's Red

** Interestingly, while Easy is much more level-headed (and higher-ranking), Lightning is much more often ''right'' about what tactics they should use, which is the cause of much of their tension.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: The filmmakers went through great pains to make the movie accurate, going as far as interviewing the surviving members of the squadron, and even getting access to their journals. That over-the-top bit with one pilot disabling an Italian destroyer? [[Reality Is Unrealistic|It happened.]]

* [[Sitting Duck]]: The German aircraft at the airfield that is treated to an impromptu air raid by Easy, Lightning, Joker, and Junior.

* [[Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure]]: Used to attack a German train at the start of the film. [[Subverted Trope|Lightning protests that it would be smarter (and safer) to attack the train head-on instead]], due to the presence of [[Anti-Air]] gunners on the train.

* [[Stereotype Flip]]: In an [[Ironic Echo]] to a previous scene, some of the black pilots are walking past the Officers' Club, where Lightning had previously gotten into a brawl with a large group of racist white officers. A very redneck sounding pilot walks out and shouts at them, seemingly trying to taunt them. He's a grateful bomber pilot wanting to share a drink with the men who saved his crew.

* [[Where Da White Women At?]]: Lightning is implied to be quite the ladies' man while stationed in Italy. After the film's first battle, he spots a beautiful Italian woman hanging laundry as he flies overhead, and proceeds to seek her out on ground later.

** Actually a subversion, as his skin color has surprisingly little effect on how their relationship develops, and even her ''mother'' doesn't seem dismayed by it.

* [[X Meets Y]]: [[HBO]]'s ''The Tuskegee Airmen'' meets ''[[Pearl Harbor]]''.

* [[Yanks With Tanks]]: We briefly see ships of the US Navy shelling a beach, with infantry from the Army landing ashore. Most of the film, obviously, centers on the US Army Air Forces, and in particular the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/332d_Fighter_Group 332d Fighter Group.]

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]

[[Category:Film]]