The Six Triple Eight (2024) – Worthy war drama
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Genre – WW2 Drama
Time: 2 Hour 10 minutes
Platform: Netflix
Director: Tyler Perry
Cast: Kerry Washington. Ebony Obsidian. Milauna Jackson
WW2 has millions of untold stories which are still being revealed. While the war was usually viewed through the lens of “Allied Good vs Axis Evil”, there are very few films on the “internal evils” practiced by the Allies – racism by the Americans against their own “colored” troops, Colonial troop from France, Britain, being used in the heaviest fighting, etc. Its only in the 21st century that with the passage of time and the acceptance of “the wrongs done” that some of these stories starting with French colonial troops (Days of Glory – 2006) being written out of history , to the current one ,The Six Triple Eight, are being told. (There is still no film on the huge Indian contribution to the Allied cause; 2.5 million men and women served in uniform and they too have been mostly written out of history; politics triumphing over honor ).
The combat record of American (and British , French) black troops both in and behind the front line was excellent as they had to prove themselves worthy against the many prejudices. The most famous example is that of The Tuskegee Airmen who had to battle white prejudices about being equal of whites while using technically advanced equipment such as fighter planes. When it comes to women, the story gets further compounded as they had double pressure and prejudices, just because they were women.
The Six Triple Eight tells the story of one such battalion, the 6888 Postal Battalion. It was felt that since they were women, they were unsuitable for combat (while the Soviet Union was already seeing female tank aces, female fighter aces, female snipers with 300+ “kills’ and so on) and had to prove that they could sort out the mess created by non-delivery of 17 million mails (letters, packages and so on).
Captain Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) is the feisty leader, who rigorously trains the women from various social backgrounds, ranging from poor to university graduates. She keeps pestering her white bosses for a mission worthy of them as they too are part of WAC (Women’s Auxiliary Corps) whose function is to take over non-essential jobs, thus releasing the men for fighting roles. Lena Derricout (Ebony Obsidian) is from a relatively privileged background, still unable to forget the kind white Jewish boy who died in the first few weeks of the war. Lieutenant Campbell (Milauna Jackson) is Adams’ able assistant who has much to prove as all “the girls” as ‘her charges” too.
Based on lobbying the White House by mothers who aren’t receiving mail and a black civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey), the women are sent to Europe to sort out the mess created by mails not reaching the front lines and home. They are deliberately not given proper accommodation and housed in a broken-down school in Glasgow. Thus begins their story of an uphill struggle sorting out the accumulated mails and sending them onward to their proper destinations.
The story is told in a straight forward manner though we get a feeling that we have seen this in other films dealing with racial prejudice in America, especially in the US Armed Forces (The Tuskegee Airmen 1995, various Vietnam movies). Still, this is an uphill struggle that is worth watching.
Following WW2, and demands from returning veterans, the American Armed Forces were the first to be integrated in the early 1950s with no more separate black and white units. The civil rights for integration continued well into the 1960s.
At times the film’s pace flags, and some of the events seem repetitive; it IS a mirror of the treatment meted out to the black troops that it was felt that without “white oversight” they could not and would not do a good job. The Six Triple Eight proved otherwise.
The true story behind the film is available at this link
Script – 4 out of 5
Story – 4 out of 5
Direction – 4 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 4 out of 5
That was a quick turnaround KV! Saw this on my Netflix feed as well and felt it was promising. As always a detailed and engaging review!
Its one of the last untold stories of WW2. I binge watched it.
Another outstanding review!
I need to have two virtual sub-folders in my Netflix watchlist –
1) Watch right away (recommended by Rammesh) and 2) All others, later !
A powerfully written opening paragraph. Perhaps the saying should be extended:
“History is written by the winners… and the winners choose their own cannon fodder”
Racism/discrimination in the U.S. military is a long, sordid subject and is sure to come up in the Senate confirmation hearing next month, on the nominee to head one of the world’s largest armed forces (almost 3 million)…. thought that’s a bit off-topic.
Minor point: “There is still no film on the huge Indian contribution to the Allied cause; 2.5 million men and women served in uniform and they too have been mostly written out of history; politics triumphing over honor”…. you obviously mean India… but it did make me look up some numbers on the other ‘Indians’ :
(AI-generated, copy/pasted):
According to available information, approximately 44,000 Native Americans served in World War II, representing a significant portion of the Native American population at the time, with many volunteering for service after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Key points about Native American service in WWII:
High enlistment rate:
Native Americans had one of the highest voluntary enlistment rates among all demographics during the war.
Code Talkers:
Notably, many Native Americans, particularly Navajo, served as “code talkers” utilizing their languages to create unbreakable military codes.
Diverse tribes:
Soldiers came from various tribes across the United States, including the Comanche, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Hopi
Very few related films on this topic, with the notable exception of ‘Windtalkers’ in 2002 and the sub-chapter on films on Iwo Jima – the tragic tale of Ira Hayes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Hayes
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Thanks…. Robin
Hi Robin
Even if told more than 60 years later and that too shoddily in totally masala film The Windtalkers, the story was still told . Barring the odd Hindi film from the 1950s and 1960s , most notably Hum Dono and Usney Kaha Tha, most Indian films remain tightlipped about the Indians who served honorably . The why can be best explained by this incident.
Victoria Cross Winner (later Lt. Gen) Prem Bhagat asked no less than Mahatma Gandhi about his divided loyalties – he could recognise the dangers of the Axis but joining the British Army was as good as accepting that their policies were right. Gandhi told him that “post Independence, India would require a professional Army and its better that it be filled with Indians with experience” – Source : Leadership in the Indian Army – Major General V.K.Singh.
The absolutely shoddy Lalkar (1972) had Rajendra Kumar replying to his kid brother Dharmendra “we are not fighting for the British; we are fighting for our nation since the Japanese have attacked us” -Do check out the chapter in my book “Lights Camera War”.
Dear Rammesh,
That was a lovely anecdote about Mahatma Gandhi, one I had not come across earlier.
I promise – I WILL read (again) the chapter on ‘Lalkar’ from your book. It is currently MIA (again!) on my shelves, but shall be found by tomorrow.. currently lost somewhere in the shelves.. Knowing that you are writing about Rajendra Kumar and aware of your acidic pen, that will be fun!
Though I do confess to not having gathered up the courage to have seen ‘Lalkar’ – still recovering from PTSD of watching him lose his leg in ‘Arzoo’. 🙂
Sorry, would not want him in any military capacity. Hapless fellow could not even put a bullet in his own chest efficiently. Had to wait to deliver some solemn advice to Sunder and Radha before ‘Adios!’
(Apologies for going off-topic!)
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Robin
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Cheers… Robin
Whilst on the topic of Code Talkers, I was fortunate to meet a Navajo code talker at Kayenta, during my 2015 US holiday. It was one of those serendipitous events . The hotel we stayed in had lots of stuff – books, videos , memorablia – on the code talkers. The staff only said ‘some code talkers came around this area”. Next morning I was fortunate to meet one man who had tons of stories ; unfortunately we were on a schedule to go onwards to Monument Valley and he was being pulled by his wife to go to another place.