The generational impact and enormous and lasting magnitude of World War II is such that nearly eight decades after VJ Day, there are still “new” stories to be told in the movies, stories that went largely unnoticed at the time and only in recent years have received their due.
Such is the case with writer-director Tyler Perry’s “The Six Triple Eight,” which pays tribute to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Women’s Army Corp unit of color to serve overseas in World War II. About as far removed as he could be from the “Madea” shtick, Perry delivers a rousing and well-filmed story that doesn’t shy away from cornball aspects but soars on the wings of the inspirational true-life stories that wrote this important chapter in American history.
Based on a 2019 article in History magazine by Kevin M. Hymel, “The Six Triple Eight” faces a bit of storytelling challenge at its very core, as this is the story of the hundreds of brave and determined women who … sorted mail. Hardly the stuff of action-movie heroics, but in the scene-setting buildup, Perry does a fine job of outlining the vital nature of this task.
In 1945, front-line troops and their loved ones back home were going months and months without receiving mail, due to a backlog of some 17 million pieces of correspondence. With traditional supply lines exhausted to the breaking point with more urgent concerns, it’s left to the Six Triple Eight to train for and perform the seemingly impossible task of processing rows of warehouses and hangars filled with mail within six months.
Thanks to Perry’s sure-handed and straightforward direction and the performances by a first-rate cast led by Kerry Washington and Ebony Obsidian, with a number of star-power supporting performances helping to bear the load, “The Six Triple Eight” will remind you of “Hidden Figures,” another powerful film about Black women who had to overcome institutional racism and sexism as they performed an invaluable service that was vital to the course of 20th century American history. (Rather fittingly, “The Six Triple Eight” was filmed largely at Tyler Perry Studios — which was built on a former Army base outside Atlanta — with other scenes shot in England.)
After a harrowing and moving World War II battle sequence filmed in dark and blood-stained visuals, we shift to a series of scenes in Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, in 1942, where 17-year-old Lena Derriecott, a real-life figure played beautifully by Ebony Obsidian, is happily involved in a friendship-verging-on-romance with the jaunty and handsome Abram (Gregg Sulkin), a white Jewish boy, despite the disapproving looks and comments of the locals. You can tell by Abram’s unbridled enthusiasm about becoming a combat pilot that he won’t be returning home — and sure enough, he’s shot down and killed not long after being shipped overseas.
A heartbroken Lena joins the Army “to fight Hitler,” but she’s sent to a training base in Georgia where we meet a number of stock characters who will be Lena’s comrades in the 6888th Battalion, which is led by Kerry Washington’s Maj. Charity Adams (also a true-life figure). Washington rattles the screen with her forceful performance as Maj. Adams, a formidable figure who expresses herself with passionate eloquence as she butts heads with the likes of Dean Norris’ Gen. Halt, a bloviating racist who does everything he can to ensure the Triple Eight fails once the battalion arrives in Birmingham, England, in February 1945 and is tasked with sorting through those warehouses filled to the ceiling with sacks of mail.
Writer-director Perry can’t resist some hokey tropes, e.g., Lena’s Noble Dead Boyfriend appearing from time to time to offer words of encouragement when she’s feeling overwhelmed by the challenge at hand. There’s also quite a bit of stunt casting, though I kind of loved seeing Oprah Winfrey as iconic civil rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune, Sam Waterston as Franklin Roosevelt and a nearly unrecognizable Susan Sarandon playing Eleanor Roosevelt.
“The Six Triple Eight” also manages to make those mail-sorting sequences interesting and cinematic, especially in a scene where the hiss-worthy Gen. Hart inspects the operation and Maj. Adams explains some of the ingenious methods the battalion has devised to determine the origins and destinations of the often tattered letters — and then essentially tells the general what he can do with himself when he threatens to shut down the whole thing.
“The Six Triple Eight” is a Frank Capra-esque feel-good story about heroes who are no longer forgotten.