The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)

Directed by Robert Markowitz. Starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Allen Payne, Andre Braugher, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Courtney B. Vance, Christopher McDonald, John Lithgow, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Mekhi Phifer, Ed Lauter, Ned Vaughn, Tim Kelleher, William Earl Ray, Graham Jarvis. [PG-13]

Respectable bit of largely-fictionalized history that’s worth telling—the exploits of the groundbreaking all-black aerial combat unit during World War II. The first half shows the pilots in training at the base in Tuskegee, AL; the second follows the squadron’s wartime action in North Africa and Italy. Fishburne is too old to be playing a wet-behind-the-ears cadet, but his screen presence compensates; the only one of his fellow cadets to get a characterization that isn’t either one-note or overly hokey is Payne, but he’s not around for the back end. Straightforward direction is on the pedestrian side, the script isn’t allergic to clichés and corny touches, and too much of the aerial footage is mundane (incorporating obvious rear-projection and authentic grainy combat footage), but it’s still a diverting piece of square-jawed melodrama. Originally aired on HBO before being given a very limited theatrical release. Vivica A. Fox has a minor role.

60/100