Movie Review: The Luft Gangster: Memoirs of a Second Class Hero
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
We give all this praise to war veterans and current members of the military, as we rightfully should, but we seem to forget about other parts of our military. We don’t seem to talk about African Americans or women in the service, or even a little thing like all the medical workers taking care of all of our service members oversees. The new documentary, The Luft Gangster: Memoirs of Second Class Hero attempts to address these oversights.
Following around ninety-three-year-old Alex Jefferson, Luft Gangster is the story of Jefferson’s experience in World War II, dealing with racism while growing up in Detroit, and basic life in the 1940s and 1950s. It is a simple story, especially the war elements that could probably be found in many other documentaries but Luft Gangster has a lot more going for it.
The film succeeds because of Alex Jefferson. He’s so likable, funny, charming – it’s pretty amazing that he’s ninety-three years old. Jefferson delivers incredibly interesting and vivid stories about the war. Even more so, the documentary provides some nice footage of Jefferson accepting awards and giving advice to a Northville, Michigan middle-school class.
Hearing the startling stories of racism that Jefferson endured, it never ceases to amaze what a different world this use to be. With such a likable guy who has lived such a positive life, the documentary provides very little coverage of his life outside the military and what he’s really been doing since then.
Luft Gangster delivers so much knowledge and is so smart about describing war life and the different types of battalions and army groups, it’s a film really meant to seen been by middle school or high school classes. For a documentary providing stories from the 1940s and 1950s, you shouldn’t expect much archival footage, but the footage included of war action and war life is sensational, even if it is grainy and hard to see at times. It all speaks to director Mike Rott going above and beyond when making the film.
There’s a great scene in the middle of the film with Jefferson describing how poor the 2012 film Red Tails was in its depiction of African American in war and the racism they endured. If you want a proper and enjoyable story about this subject, you should really seek out The Luft Gangster: Memoirs of a Second Class Hero above the rest. It’s a positive film about a remarkably positive man.
Alexander Wolff
