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George
Lucas Behind New Tuskegee
Airmen Film
 (AP) - The black airmen whose lives
will be the basis of a George Lucas movie know the picture will
highlight their record of successfully escorting thousands of U.S.
bombers in World War II. They also feel it should tell of the trials
they encountered stateside, like seeing German prisoners of war being
treated better and afforded rights that were withheld from black
American citizens.
Now that "Red
Tails" is in preproduction, some of the airmen say they are excited
their story is coming to the big screen but torn over how much it
should devote to each of their two historic fights -- against Adolf
Hitler abroad and Jim Crow at home.
Lt. Col. Eldridge F. Williams, 91, wants the film to recount the
discrimination they had to overcome in their own country. Williams, who
served in the military from August 1941 to November 1963, said a white
doctor's false diagnosis of an eye condition kept him from achieving
his dream of being a pilot, though he became a navigator.
"I think the story that has not been told is stories like mine in which
the home battle that was waged ... shall we say, helped open the door
so that the unit could enter combat and demonstrate its capabilities
and be successful," he said.
Col. Herbert Carter, who also was with the airmen in the '40s, said the
racism the men encountered should definitely be mentioned but not
dwelled upon in the Lucas film.
"So many want the movies to focus in that sense and that's bitter
history that has been thoroughly emphasized and publicized," the
88-year-old said in an interview.
He said the real story is how they blew apart the notion that blacks could not fly planes in war.
Producer Rick McCallum said both elements are addressed in a script by
John Ridley that "balances difficult and painful issues with what is,
at its heart, the story of men with a dream to fly and serve their
country."
Lucas hopes to begin shooting by year's end or early 2009, McCallum
said. The movie's title refers to the color of their fighter planes'
tails, which were distinctive and allowed U.S. bomber crews to know
they were being escorted by the aggressive Tuskegee Airmen.
"It is a story of incredible adventure and enormous courage," said the
producer, who's scouting locations for "Red Tails" in Prague, Czech
Republic, and Italy. "I think the story will speak to anyone who has
ever wanted to succeed at something others told them was impossible."
At first called the "Tuskegee Experiment," the first aviation cadet
class began with 13 students at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, about 40
miles east of Montgomery, in July 1941. Black people weren't allowed to
fly in the military at the time and the "experiment" was to see whether
they could pilot airplanes and handle heavy machinery.
Over the next four years, the airmen went on more than 15,000 combat
trips throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Nearly 1,000 pilots were trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field before
its 1946 closing, after which the men from the all-black units were
sent to an air base in Ohio. President Truman's 1948 order to
desegregate the country's armed forces eventually led to a racially
mixed military.
The men have been the subject of several documentaries and books. But a
1995 HBO movie "The Tuskegee Airmen," starring Laurence Fishburne, was
the film that jump-started much of the attention the airmen have
received in recent years, said Christine Biggers, a park ranger at the
Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.
The HBO movie "was about 50 percent Hollywood, but it gave a good
overview and got the word out. People all over the world saw it and it
whetted their appetite to want to know more," Biggers said.
Lucas plans for the movie to be based on the historic record that
brought the Tuskegee Airmen fame, drawn from their own accounts.
Carter was one of several airmen who were invited to Lucas' Skywalker
Ranch a few years ago to record their oral histories, which will be
used in developing the film.
Carter tells of the constant adjustment of being respected as a soldier
on base, then having that dignity snatched away once off-base, where
they were "just another Negro in Alabama in the eyes of the civilian
population."
But he said the real story is how they overcame an environment that
said "they didn't have the ability, dexterity, physiology and
psychology to operate something as complicated as aircrafts or tanks."
The black airmen's response was "train me and let me demonstrate I
can," Carter said. "We said the antidote to racism was excellence and
performance and that is what we did.
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