Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 127 minutes
Release Date: December 6th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Netflix
Director(s): Tyler Perry
Writer(s): Tyler Perry / Kevin Hymel (article “Fighting a Two-Front War”)

When they start putting rings in Crackerjack boxes?

Things did not start off well for Tyler Perry’s The Six Triple Eight. What should have been a statement scene of war full of explosions and fire is delivered with some of the worst computer effects I’ve seen in a long time. The smoke and flames are rendered in a way that ensures we know neither are actually there—actors and objects moving freely without any real inkling of physically interacting with those elements. All I could do was cross my fingers in the hope that the rest of this drama would leave the theatrics behind in the knowledge it simply couldn’t achieve the authenticity necessary for them to be successful. Thankfully, besides one more detonation, Perry realized his budget needed that reprieve.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the opening scenes post-battle were much better, though. Those abysmal five minutes are followed by fifteen minutes of dreadfully rendered melodrama to set the stage for Lena Derriecott’s (Ebony Obsidian) decision to enlist in the army. We get clunky race conflict between her and a fellow classmate of hers and her white Jewish beau Abram (Gregg Sulkin). There’s the saccharinely old-fashioned sprouts of romance despite these would-be lovers’ obviously augmented economic and social chasm. And, of course, the inevitable tragedy that befalls them to flip Lena’s world upside down. It’s soap opera-level histrionics, the likes of which has marred most of Perry’s work, all to finally get us where the film’s real story lies: Europe.

Boot camp pushes us in the right direction despite its constant use of over-the-top fantasy to get Lena through the difficulties of training because we finally get to meet the star of the show in Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington). To say that Washington and Milauna Jackson’s Captain Campbell are on another level compared to the rest of the production is an understatement because it all buckles beneath soaring scores and manipulative tension whenever they’re not on-screen. That isn’t to say their characters aren’t forced to endure similar moments of ham-fisted narrative cliché, only that they have the gravitas to overcome the script’s limitations and deliver the grounded emotions necessary to honor this important chapter in American history.

Saying that inherently diminishes Obsidian, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, and others’ roles, but only by comparison. These young privates do well to carry things when needed and to humanize the struggle they face as women, Black women, and women soldiers during World War II. It’s just tough to see them shine when they’re constantly berated by a white cast built to abuse, demean, and sabotage them in pursuit of dialing up the messaging to “incendiary” and providing a scene of manufactured “respect” that made me laugh out loud. It’s one thing to give us a scene where the white military gives Adams and her girls their flowers upon fully understanding their job’s impact. It’s another to collect the specific white men who demonized them the most to do it. Perry couldn’t have rendered it heavier handed if he tried.

Parading Susan Sarandon and her fake teeth around as Eleanor Roosevelt for a brief subplot that could have been completely replaced with a throwaway line acknowledging that she spearheaded this campaign to deliver the almost seven million pieces of mail locked in air hangers does the film no favors. And getting Oprah Winfrey to play Mary McLeod Bethune in a two-minute cameo solely so Dean Norris’ racist General Halt can wear a look of disgust whenever he dares let his eyes fall upon her reads as a power move on Perry’s part rather than a desire to add anything. An off-handed mention of writing to Bethune to get into the army by a couple of Lena’s new friends does more to honor her.

But that’s the silliness we expect from a Tyler Perry film. It comes with the territory and wishing he would tighten things up to turn this two-hour film into a more streamlined ninety-minutes is a fool’s errand. We can only approach it as is and understand that, despite its shortcomings, The Six Triple Eight is a crucial piece of history told in an affecting way. Learning about the out-of-the-box thinking needed to fulfill their task, the constant barrage of treachery faced from the men they were helping, and the fearsome integrity and leadership of Adams is worth the mess. Lena’s search for closure might even make those first twenty minutes less eye roll-inducing too … might. Just because it all should be better, though, doesn’t mean it’s not still enough.

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(L-R) Milauna Jackson as Lt. Campbell, Kerry Washington as Major Charity Adams and Ebony Obsidian as Lena Derriecott King in THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT. Cr. Bob Mahoney / Perry Well Films 2 / Courtesy of Netflix.