A story of courage and the desire to take your own space.
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| Image Credit: Netflix |
Tyler Perry's movie The Six Triple Eight, based on the article Fighting a Two-Front War by Kevin M. Hymel, which in turn is inspired by real events that happened during the Second World War, is coming to Netflix on December 19, 2024. The film tells the story of the 688th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the first and only battalion of African-American women sent to serve in Europe during the Second World War. The soldiers' task was to deliver letters that had been stuck for months to their recipients. There were tens of thousands of letters, ruined, stained with blood and mud, with the recipient illegible or who had changed location in the meantime. All of this had to be done within six months. The task was given to ridicule the battalion, made up of women and blacks.
The Six Triple Eight: a wavy work that manages to move
The film brings to the screen the true story of a group of African-American women who decided to enlist during the Second World War to fight personally for their country. It is the only African-American female battalion serving in Europe during the Second World War, the protagonist of a very important feat, managing to bring the letters sent but never arrived to the soldiers still alive and to their families. United in their determination, these women were true heroines, they worked hard, throwing their hearts beyond the obstacles, coming out of the shadows to which their colleagues, male and white, had relegated them. Their gesture gave hope and broke down barriers.
The Six Triple Eight is a wavy work that speaks of personal and universal feelings (love) and also of the great History through the lens of the small story.
December 1943 in San Pietro, Italy. A white soldier, the trenches, everything explodes. A bloody letter that will remain undelivered in an army warehouse for years. From the battlefield, we return to 1942, Bloomfield, Pennsylvania. Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian) is saying goodbye to her boyfriend, Abram David (Gregg Sulkin), white and Jewish, and for this reason, their relationship is not well regarded by her mother. His sudden death during the war pushes us forward to 1944, in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The young woman, to react to the death of the boy, enlists and meets Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), a major with a tenacious and courageous character. She is the soul and body of this battalion, she never retreats, she fights for her ideas, and does not let the leaders, men who think they have her under their thumb because she is a woman and because she is black, walk all over her.
The viewer is struck and is also tossed about by this story and by the various figures that pass through this first act. An attempt is made to merge the stories of King and Adams but it is not always possible: King is the center of the emotion desired by the film, her pain for David is fresh and violent, and the viewer cannot but be with her. The small King is not initially cut out for this job and yet her attitude leads her to be right for the role. On the other hand, there is Adams who is granite, almost cold, but she is more of a dutiful being, sure that this is her place and for her team, she would do anything, she trained them, she gave them the tools and she cannot accept that they are devalued.
A story of courage and desire to take their own space
The battalion must accept many things, male superiority, the racially charged phrases that their superiors, white, like the disgusting general Halt (Dean Norris), throw about the fact that black women are incapable of anything, not very intelligent, not suited to anything. The major is ready to act as a shield for her subordinates, even in the most difficult and painful moments, like a lioness she defends them and also defends their work that is no less important than that of others.
Adams is thunderous, and confident as she shouts orders and addresses subordinates and superiors, too bad she doesn't have many moments to show the woman she is. Throughout the film, the new ingenious methods for tracking down mail previously considered undeliverable emerge and they work tirelessly to complete their task. Along the way, they are treated with condescension and racism by white soldiers and officers. At one point, Lena, still mourning Abram, becomes indignant at the contemptuous way in which her colleagues treat the mail of deceased soldiers.
The Six Triple Eight: Conclusions and Evaluations
It tells a little-known story that deserves to be brought to the screen. The Six Triple Eight, a classic film with few flights of fancy and a few too many long stretches, is a film that strikes but that does not always fully do its job. In a mix of courage, emotion, struggle, and sisterhood, the viewer comes into contact with the battalion that gave a little peace to those who had none.
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