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.
Chuck says:
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion were faced with a seemingly impossible task. Dispatched to Glasgow, Scotland in February 1945, the 885 women in the group were charged with sorting and delivering a massive backlog of mail. It had been brought to the attention of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt that letters written by the loved ones of servicemen were not being delivered and missives from troops were not reaching home. This contributed to low morale in the soldiers while causing undue stress and worry for their families and friends.
Upon arrival, the women, and their commanding officer Captain Charity Adams, were shown airplane hangars filled with rotting mailbags, some of the letters and packages within having sat there for over two years. In total, it was estimated there were 17 million pieces of mail. Some had only first names as the addressee, others simply had nicknames. Envelopes with troops’ I.D. numbers and nothing else were found, while multiple missives with common names like “John Smith” only added to the confusion.
The all-black battalion were set up for failure. Having to endure multiple incidents of overt racism, they were forced to work in a dilapidated old school that had no heat or adequate quarters. They were told they had six months to complete this seemingly impossible task. They finished it in less than 90 days.
This is a fantastic story and deserves a worthy film be made of it. Unfortunately, Tyler Perry’s “The Six Triple Eight,” isn’t it. Mawkish and heavy-handed, the movie is a throwback to the simplistic fact-based features made in the 30’s and 40’s, those in which the characters were drawn in broad strokes and the sentiment was applied with a trowel. There isn’t a moment in the movie that isn’t telegraphed or handled with tact, while some questionable choices come off as ridiculous rather than poignant.
Taking a page from “Schindler’s List,” Perry begins the film with a blood-stained letter being taken off the body of a dying pilot in San Pietro, Italy in December of 1943. This envelope is the throughline of the movie, as we will see it travel, get mislaid and finally discovered amidst the millions of other pieces of mail logjammed in Western Europe. It’s been written by Abram David (Gregg Sulkin), a young Jewish pilot who has penned the letter to his girlfriend, Lena King (Ebony Obsidian), back in Bloomfield, Pa., He dies in action and, of course, she never gets the letter. She eventually joining the Army, only to be assigned to the 6888th. Guess who finds the letter in a rundown Scottish school over two years later?
Again, this approach may have worked in a WW II propaganda film, but it just doesn’t hold water here. Neither do the broadly drawn characters nor a ham-fisted approach to the romance between King and David. Scenes in which he appears in hallucinations to her during moments of intense stress come off as laughable. The sentiment produced in these scenes is on par with what you might expect from overearnest actors in a high school play. Even the usually reliable Kerry Washington comes off as wooden as the officious Captain Adams.
To be sure, Perry’s intentions are sound, as all these women endured, and their incredible accomplishments should be recognized. However, this broad, simplistic approach does them a disservice. The lack of genuine sentiment in “The Six Triple Eight” results in a weak tribute to the women who pulled off a Herculean task.
1 1/2 Stars
