For twenty-five years now, Tyler Perry has been a part of bringing to life works that speak specifically about Black women on stage as well as screen. With “The Six Triple Eight,” Perry who used his success to put up a production studio on a former U.S. Army base just outside Atlanta seems to have found a story that caters best for his strengths and interests: the history of how 855 brave African American women during Second World War came to be known as the first such unit deployed abroad.
Major Charity Adams (played by Kerry Washington) led the 68th Central Postal Directory Battalion through adversity from both directions. For one, these women had to deal with prejudice from their own people and later faced threats of German attacks while stationed abroad. In as much as they were members of the Women’s Army Corps, they did not directly participate in killing Hitler or even carry guns but nevertheless were assigned a crucial task sorting out the piles of letters between American soldiers serving in Europe and their families back home.
Black women are the ones who ensured that mails reached white troops. Impressive in its subject and suggested scope, Perry’s sweeping film demonstrates how this achievement affected the morale of troops despite the oppositions it encountered from suspicious superiors. Being another take on “Hidden Figures”, this film also pays tributes to others that have made way for more accomplishments in different fields hence Perry’s most important work so far; only surpassed by “For colored Girls” done nine years ago.
Perry’s latest movie, which is based on a true story, was a big move towards progress for him. This was also helped along by the involvement of Susan Sarandon and Oprah Winfrey who played smaller but significant roles in the film as Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune respectively. However, the movie still comes off as slightly amateurish with its blunt conversations and a weird habit where actors show emotions through their eyes brows while Washington’s strength is displayed by how much her character appears to be holding back.
In the opening battle scene set in Italy, Perry’s intentions as well as his limits are clear from the start: A solider gets shot and flips into the trench behind him until his body crumples up, while other soldiers are blown several feet straight up by bombs exploding next to them. It doesn’t quite measure up to the brutal D-Day opening of “Saving Private Ryan,” but that’s one helluva way to begin a picture with an American plane crashing down via CG.
Abram David (Gregg Sulkin), although burnt beyond recognition due to immediate impact, is being pulled out of the jacket by a crying soldier from a fallen pilot while holding a blood-stained letter going to his loved one back in the States. Thus Perry brings us back to Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian) who will let us enter into the story of hundreds of characters and as many reasons for enlisting as there were individuals who enlisted. Before Abram left, he had asked his Jewish girlfriend, who was black, to marry him. Perry does not forget that such interracial relationships were not welcome in small town America during the 1940s; Mary Kathryn their racist blond classmate snips this at them.
On the news of Abram’s demise, Lena decides to follow suit. Boot camp was tough on bright young woman, but nothing compared to the white people around her and other black members of WAAC. Reporters hover looking for an opportunity to ridicule the military for incorporating black women among its soldiers with male colleagues openly disrespectful, led by Gen. Halt played by Dean Norris. This makes Adams, as commanding officer of the 6888th Women’s Army Corps Battalion in Europe during World War II, all the more hard-nosed.
Johnnie Mae provides comic relief in a way that is both endearing and uncouth (Shanice Williams from “The Wiz Live!”) as she often speaks her mind which includes struggling into a tight uniform that was made for a skinny white girl’s body not a Negro woman with curves according to Adams. Such details show how little consideration the U.S. Army had toward African Americans who chose to become soldiers just as echoed throughout the film when Adams fought against numerous indignities in order to achieve justice.”
When Adams is told to have the 6888th sort mail and deliver, she must make do without being given strict orders or having any of the resources necessary for this (not even proper housing). While at it, she has to find an ingenious way in which she will ensure that multiple warehouses holding over seventeen million letters were processed (which are like a dozen buildings looking large as soundstages at Tyler Perry Studios). Then within six months, they should prove themselves. It is a massive task, one that seems almost impossible to accomplish; and if women fail, men like Halt would have more ammunition in their arsenal to dismiss women of color as ignorant or worse incapable of serving.
Perry often dwells heavily on instances of prejudice, which can be construed as reducing everything these women achieve. On the other hand, what could be more dramatic than standing up against bullies? After the initial few thousand pieces come back from their incorrect destinations, ideas from her team pour in including innovative ones on how to match up recipients and correspondences even when addresses are illegible, incomplete or partly-persuaded by rodents. Despite the fact that the 6888 aren’t actually fighting at the front line does not mean it’s safe back here they still have air raid drills and a horrifying instance with a UXB (or unexploded bomb) too.
The movie has a cast big enough to set off a dozen or so careers, and yet, one performance stands out: Washington’s Adams, who is pitted against conceited white officers. In one Aaron Sorkin-like scene she uses the phrase “with all due respect,” as if it were some kind of weapon and then insolently exclaims “Over my dead body, sir!” After almost two hours of push back and resistance Perry’s script finally addresses this issue with several cathartic scenes that see the women being appreciated for their efforts- including Michelle Obama leaving positive marks on an end-credits archival footage.
This war film by Perry is a non-combat movie that is best seen on big screens like “Apocalypse Now” and “Patton.” These moments in the film will make you rise to your feet and applaud it but this pride may not last for long. However, Netflix is going to put the movie into theaters for two weeks only (on Dec 20) as it qualifies for an Oscar. This however brings about more views on streaming services like Netflix which could be great news for Perry. It also teaches us how much of American history remains untaught and largely untold while reaching a bigger potential audience than its director’s usual following.
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