“The Six Triple Eight” is a new WWII movie streaming on Netflix. It was written and directed by Tyler Perry. He was inspired by the article “Fighting a Two-Front War” which appeared in WWII History magazine. It tells the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion which was assigned the task of sorting a huge amount of mail to and from G.I.s.
The movie begins with a quote from Mary McLeod Bethune. “We are anxious for you to know that we want to be and insist upon being considered a part of our American democracy, not something apart from it.” The opening scene is combat scene in Italy in 1943. If you are like me and wondering what the hell a combat scene is doing in a movie whose characters were far from the action, be patient, it fits. American soldiers leave their trench to attack a German unit that has also left their trenches! Okay, here’s where I thanked God the movie was not a combat movie. A fighter plane crashes in the middle of no man’s land. Before the pilot dies, he asks a soldier to see that a letter he wrote to his girlfriend gets mailed.
Flashback to 1942 Pennsylvania. Lena (Ebony Obsidian) is being wooed by a cocky white boy named Abram (Gregg Sulkin). Even though this is the north, there is still overt racism toward the mixed race couple. Abram enlists in the army to be a pilot. For months, Lena waits for a letter from him, but the only letter she gets is one informing her of his death. Wait! He’s the dying pilot! The undelivered letter will act as the framing device in this movie.
Lena decides to serve her country after she graduates from high school. She and some other recruits take a train to Georgia. As soon as the train crosses the Mason-Dixon Line, segregation kicks in. At Fort Oglethorpe, Lena meets an African-American soldier named Hugh (Jy Reeves). He provides the romantic interest, although he will have to compete with the spirit of Abram who makes a few appearances.
At boot camp, Capt. Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) tells them they will have to be better than the whites. That was certainly true. Lena becomes the example of black women not being able to do that. Adams fumes as white WAC units get sent overseas. Adams has the obligatory scene where she goes to her superior officer to make her “we just want a chance to fight” speech. He, of course, is a racist who pish-toshs the idea. It’s time for some intervention. This starts with Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon!) taking an interest in the backlog of mail. Voters are upset that they are not hearing from their boys. Then add Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah!) telling her friend Eleanor that the solution to the mail problem would be the 6888th.
They are shipped overseas on a leaky boat and given terrible accommodations once in England. The blatantly racist Gen. Halt (a lot of thinking went into that name). He wants to shut the battalion down and even sends them a white chaplain who gives a sermon claiming Adams is evil! But Adams stands up for her girls and they get the job done. And they deliver one particular letter written by a guy named Abram.
The movie starts off poorly with a ludicrous attempt to force combat into a low budget film. Then it settles into a romance dogged by racism. And finally, it gets around to telling the story of the 6888th by concentrating on Lena and Capt. Adams. There are lots of similarities to “Tuskegee Airmen”. Northern blacks encountering segregation in the Jim Crow south. Racist white officers that can’t believe blacks are competent. Concentration on a core group of characters, except “The Six Triple Eight” does not have a variety of women. There is one comic relief lower class black who plays the Tripp (from “Glory”) character. She complains that the uniform was not made for “big titty” women like her. The cast is decent and the cameos (which include Sam Waterson as FDR) are memorable. Washington is excellent as the feisty Adams. Dean Norris embarrasses himself as the cartoonish Gen. Halt, but it’s hard to imagine a Tyler Perry not having that character. There are several other hiss-worthy whites in the film.
It is also similar to “Tuskegee Airmen” by having the leader of the unit have to fight racist superiors who want to pull the plug on the experiment. Like that movie, Eleanor Roosevelt appears as a champion of the 6888th. If you have seen “Tuskegee Airmen” or “Glory”, this movie will be very predictable and it doesn’t need a spoiler alert to warn you that the unit will end up earning white respect.
How accurate is it? Adams was the first African-American officer in the WACs and the highest ranking black female by the end of the war. She was given command of the 6888th in December, 1944 when she was 26 years old. The unit did encounter racism in basic training. They were shipped to England on the Ile de France liner. They did not have to march past Gen. Halt as soon as they came ashore. Halt is a fictional character. They paraded for Gen. Lee three days after they landed. Lee was a supporter of better treatment of African-Americans. It was ironic that the 6888th got poor housing, since Lee was infamous for living in luxury. The women worked in the cold. Adams encouraged the women to date white men. There was a problem with a white chaplain, who Adams had removed. She did tell a superior “over my dead body” when he threatened to replace her with a white lieutenant. She did set up a beauty parlor to boost the morale of her women. It is odd that the movie showed the parlor, but did not explain what it was for. In the movie, Halt is justifiably upset when he sees it. When the actual general threatened to court-martial her of insubordination, she did counter it was a threat to file charges for racism. The general backed down. They were given the huge task of delivering 17 million pieces of male, so the movie does not exaggerate their problem. Seeing that the mail got to its intended destination was a priority for troop and home front morale. Their motto became “No mail, low morale.” Adams set them to work in three shifts 24/7. They improved the process to the point that they were able to process 65,000 letters each shift. They finished the six month mission in only three months. The movie does a great job showing how important letters were in the war. Mail from home was indeed a big factor in troop morale. The inclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune accurately reflects those two women’s roles in the success of the 6888th. They did lose three women to a jeep accident, not an unexploded bomb. I could find no evidence that white soldiers appreciated their efforts. I hope it is true. Overall, the movie seems to be accurate with the racism piled on a bit.
“The Three Triple Six” is a decent movie that honors a unit that deserved a unitpic. It is nowhere near as good as “Glory” and not even as good as “Tuskegee Airmen”, but what do you expect from Tyler Perry. The plot is a plug-in, but you have to give credit to the sincerity of the film. If you like Hallmark Christmas movies, you will find the vibe is similar.
GRADE = C
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