The Six Triple Eight (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – 855 women joined the war to fix the three-year backlog of undelivered mail. Faced with discrimination and a country devastated by war, they managed to sort more than 17 million pieces of mail ahead of time.

My Take – While we have seen multiple stories about WWII, this latest Netflix feature isn’t the usual hoopla of major battles and violent sequences. Instead, it represents the latest in a seemingly endless series of little-known true-life tales plucked from history to powerful cinematic effect.

A similarly stirring, if slightly less glamorous untold story about the U.S. Army’s 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the first and only Women’s Army Corp unit of color that served overseas during the period, who were tasked with the clearing of an immense backlog of mail to and from US troops fighting in Europe, all the while as they faced widespread institutional racism and sexism.

And in the hands of writer-director Tyler Perry, best known for the widely successful Madea series and a bunch of forgettable thrillers, the story ends up being his best and most substantial feature to date. Based on Kevin M. Hymel’s 2019 article in WWII History Magazine, the film makes for an emotionally resonant experience that successfully weaves together the grave and complex horrors of war with a poignant love story, showcasing the resilience of the human heart in the face of unimaginable adversity. It’s an important story to tell, and is told respectfully.

Yes, it comes with as many hurdles as one would expect from a Tyler Perry flick, mostly as he tends to stretch himself beyond capacity, allowing his ambition sometimes exceeds his grasp, but it’s a good enough take that by large stays faithful to reality when exploring the adversity faced by the Battalion and its leader, Major Charity Adams, played by the excellent Kerry Washington.

Sure, it is not technically perfect in comparison to most WWII films, but it makes a strong effort to be good, compensating for its shortcomings with an incredible plot and credible performances. But most importantly, it does what it absolutely must do, illuminate an important and inspirational chapter of history, while making sure these heroic women are given long-overdue cinematic accolades.

Set in 1942, the story mainly follows Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian), a young African American woman, who along with Abram (Gregg Sulkin), a young Jewish man from an affluent family, make for an interracial couple. Given the decade, the couple often experience snickering and get scoffed at by their peers and family, but that doesn’t stop their growing love for one another. As Abram departs to partake in the ongoing war as a pilot, they promise each other to stay connected via written letters, only for Lena to learn sometime later that Abram has died in battle.

With a new found determination to fight Hitler, Lena ends up enlisting in the Women’s Army Corps. Though boot camp is tough on the bright young woman, it’s nothing compared with what she and the other Black members of the Women’s Army Corps get from the white people around them. Reporters circle, looking for a chance to embarrass the military for accepting Black women into its ranks, while male colleagues are openly disrespectful, with General Halt (Dean Norris) setting a contemptuous example from the top. The dynamic forces Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), as commanding officer of the 6888th, to be all the more strict.

Elsewhere, when it’s brought to the attention that the soldiers fighting in Europe aren’t getting their morale-bolstering mail, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey) convince U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (Sam Waterston) to do something about it. And since, the regiment of African American women have been festering away at the fort in Georgia awaiting, in vain, for orders that will get them meaningfully employed. They are assigned the task.

Posted to Europe, they are unaware of the sale of their project until presented with half a dozen enormous hangars full to the brim of rotting envelopes, packages and their fair share of rats. Given only six months to deliver, Charity Adams, Lena, and their 855 colleagues are determined to make a difference, even whilst the bombs are never far away. But failure would give men like Halt ammunition to dismiss women of color as ignorant — or worse, incapable of being of service.

While we can immediately recognize director Perry’s ambitions as well as his limitations in the opening battle scene, set in Italy, which depicts the horrors of war, it’s a hell of a way to open the film, climaxing with the CG crash of an American plane. Honestly, his screenplay struggles in the film’s first act, delivering exposition in awkward chunks and introducing many characters with drab contrivance.

The groundwork is awkwardly laid but once it’s finally in place, the cast is free to build a satisfying, inspirational monument to the heroes this film celebrates. He showcases the obstacles these women must overcome to reach their end goal and doesn’t let up on telling us. Even small victories are sidelined to showcase the extremities of racism and sexism during that time. And of course, being a Tyler Perry film, it isn’t particularly subtle in its emotional beats.

But the real-life story ultimately exerts such emotional force that even when we know we’re being shamelessly manipulated, like the scenes depicting family members tearfully receiving mail from their loved ones overseas, Lena finding Abram’s grave among a sea of white crosses or a group of white soldiers seeming to confront the women of the 6888th, only to wind up saluting and applauding them, you can’t help but get choked up.

The performance are also good all around. Ebony Obsidian brings a warm and winning turn, along with the likes of Sarah Jeffrey, Kylie Jefferson, Pepi Sonuga and particularly Shanice Shantay, who make for a fun and supportive friends group. Dean Norris convincingly embodies General Halt, making his character thoroughly detestable, while Sam Waterston, Oprah Winfrey, and Susan Sarandon are effective and lend credibility to their roles.

Yet, one performance stands head and shoulders above the others: That would be Kerry Washington’s forceful turn as Adams, who holds her own against arrogant white officers. On the whole, ‘The Six Triple Eight‘ is a compelling WWII tale bolstered by Kerry Washington‘s commanding performance.