As I said before, the movie centers largely on the squad of pilots: The leader "Easy," the reckless ace pilot "Lightning," the religoius "Deacon" ("Deke"), the young "Junior," (Who doesn't like his nickname and prefers to be called "Ray Gun,") and the self-explanatory "Joker."
Now, the movie focused more on Easy, Lightning, and Junior in terms of development, with the other pilots seeming less three dimensional by comparison, but the character development the movie does show is done very well. Unlike the standard trope of the leader and the reckless ace constantly agruing, Easy and Lightning get along pretty well, as even though Lightning does go against orders, whenever he does so he manages to exceed expectations. As a result of this, the scenes where they do get into fierce arguments are much more serious in tone.
At the same time, Easy isn't a perfect leader himself, as he has a drinking problem that gets worse and worse as his stress builds up, to the point where he's drinking on duty, and Lightning confronts him about this. I also found him really relatable to myself, as he makes a pretty boneheaded decision that ends up in disaster, and that's the point where his drinking gets really bad as he beats himself up over it, like I tend to do (Minus the drinking, but who knows if that'll change?)
There's also a romance subplot between Lightning and an Italian girl he meets off duty named Sophia, which felt kind of out of place, although historically it made sense, as plenty of American soldiers fell in love with European girls, and athough we as the audience are likely meant to see this as a big anti racism message, the film doesnn't get preachy about it, focusing more on the relationship while barely mentioning the fact that it's interracial.
Without giving away much of the plot, the film's first half is mostly about the bureaucratic struggles to give the Tuskegee Airmen the right to fly more important missions than what they were normally given, and the second hhalf deals iwth them proving themselves as a whole, while the squad we focus on in particular deals with this step up. The squad gets thinner, the story gets more serious, and overall, it conveys the tale of the Tuskegee Airmen quite well, while at the same time giving us specific relatable characters with their own story.
