The Six Triple Eight
Tyler Perry brings to light a little-known story of racism and sexism in World War II.
Post haste: Shanice Shantay and Sarah Jeffery (centre)
Image courtesy of Netflix.
It may seem like a small thing, but the receipt of a letter from a loved one during the Second World War was like getting a major kick of dopamine. It could turn anxiety into relief, worry into reassurance, horror into happiness. So, when Major Adams was tasked with the delivery of 17 million pieces of mail in six months, it fell into the hands of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-black all-female company of the Women’s Army Corps serving overseas during World War II. This was an assignment just as significant and just as overlooked by history as the number crunching performed by the African-American women in Nasa’s space race as detailed in Hidden Figures (2016). War invariably throws up innumerable stories undreamed of in peacetime, and this fact-based drama is as stranger-than-fiction as so many tales of heroic wartime endeavour.
Kerry Washington plays Major Charity Adams, who we come to learn was the only black woman in US history to have a fort renamed in her honour. She died in 2002, although Lena Derriecott, who served under her, gets to appear as herself before the closing credits, aged 100-years-old. This is the second film in as many months to address the racism inherent in Britain during the Second World War (cf. Blitz), and so the women of the 688th are fighting a conflict on two fronts.
The writer-director Tyler Perry is unafraid to stage manage the action in broad strokes (aided by a demonstrative score from Aaron Zigman), because he knows his audience. There are powerful performances, particularly from Kerry Washington as Adams, as well as Shanice Shantay as a coarse recruit (‘Johnnie Mae’) who only signed up so as to mingle with the opposite sex. There’s also an eye-catching cameo from a dentally transformed Susan Sarandon as Eleanor Roosevelt, while Dean Norris rather overdoes it as a hard-drinking, outsized bigot. Perry also packs his film with a fireworks display of visual clichés, including, would you believe, a spinning newspaper headline, almost (but not quite) pushing the film into parody.
What holds our attention is the central story of the young Lena Derriecott (Ebony Obsidian) who, like Private Benjamin, almost fails to make it through boot camp and has to really earn the respect of her commanding officer, Major Adams. The speeches are rousing and well-written, although they feel like they have been scripted, but in amongst all the acting there are some striking turns, particularly from Jay Reeves as a mild-mannered African-American soldier who has fallen for Lena at first sight. But it’s the heroic efforts of these remarkable women, under Herculean pressure, who are forced to find a way to bring all the correspondence and love letters to the men on the front line. This is the real story – and it’s as fascinating as it is moving. As Adams tells her troops, wannabe combatants turned postal workers: “There is only one way to eat an elephant – one bite at a time.”
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kerry Washington, Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Moriah Brown, Jeanté Godlock, Jay Reeves, Jeffery Johnson, Baadja-Lyne Odums, Gregg Sulkin, Donna Biscoe, Dean Norris, Sam Waterston, Oprah Winfrey, Nick Harris.
Dir Tyler Perry, Pro Keri Selig, Carlota Espinosa, Tony Strickland, Angi Bones, Nicole Avant and Tyler Perry, Ex Pro Kerry Washington, Screenplay Tyler Perry, Ph Michael Watson, Pro Des Sharon Busse, Ed Maysie Hoy, Music Aaron Zigman, Costumes Karyn Wagner.
Tyler Perry Studios/Mandalay Pictures/Intuition/Her Excellency Productions-Netflix.
127 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 20 December 2024. Cert. 12A.
