By Melissa Boyd (Whetstone Staff Writer)

I’m one of those people that doesn’t watch too many movies. I fall asleep in the first five minutes and I get the best sleep while everyone else is entertained by the movie.

However, I decided to go to the free BSU trip to the movies to see Red Tails. My boyfriend wanted to see it, the previews looked interesting, and it was free for me. There were really no downsides.

So, I decided to figure out what the movie was even about before we went. Directed by George Lucas (known for his Star Wars series), the movie reenacted the story of a group of black Army men during World War II. The movie was about the Tuskegee project, to see if black men were “capable” of serving in the Army as pilots, engineers and soldiers.

Reading about the movie, Lucas said no one in Hollywood would fund this movie because of its all black cast and the view of the white man as the “bad guy,” as they were either Nazis or racist Army men.

I was already intrigued. Lucas spent $54 million of his personal money to pay for the scenes, props, actors’ pay, and all of the movie’s costs. This was yet another piece of information that drew me into the movie.

Considering Wesley bought one-third of the available seats for opening weekend, the theater was packed. So much for Hollywood claiming the movie would not bring in any revenue from sales. Every available ticket had been sold and people continued to try and buy tickets as we stood in line to collect ours. I’d never seen the Dover theatre as packed in my entire life as a Delawarean.

Although I was the “cream in the Oreo cookie,” being one of a small population of white viewers, I felt welcomed to view the movie.

The movie itself was outstanding. I did not fall asleep. Instead, I was captured by the lives of these men. I cried at certain parts and laughed at others. My jaw clenched in anger sometimes, while my heart pounded at other times.

Then, I found out one of Wesley’s students had a grandfather who was a part of this “experiment.”

This brought the movie home for me. I had a lump in my throat as I thought of what her grandfather must have faced, in terms of fear, ridicule and racism.

So screw Hollywood. This film was worth more than the $54 million Lucas spent on it because it told a true story of racism and the fight to preserve. A five-star in my opinion.