The Second World War is perhaps one of the most saturated genres of storytelling. Stories of every kind are set during those vicious six years within the mid-20th century. Stories of triumph, tragedy, violence, peace, home, away, persecution, and perseverance. One that has been made continuously unknown to those who do not know to seek it out: the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. But thankfully, that situation has now changed thanks to Tyler Perry’s film, The Six Triple Eight. 

The movie was released back in December, and has a wonderfully talented cast, including the likes of Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Ebony Obsidian, Susan Strandon, Dean Norris, and Sam Waterston among others, and was directed by Tyler Perry. However, despite the massive amounts of talent that worked on the film, it can come off at certain increments within the film that the writers are sacrificing quality for principles. The message of the film is extremely clear, but it seems that the importing of that message came at the expense of good writing, which should take the top priority of any developing film. But the critiques shall come within the review, so let us get to that (spoilers ahead).

The film begins with an American unit in active combat against the Germans during 1945. The Americans who are encased within the hell of battle are deprived of any communication with their loved ones, for their letters to and from loved ones are not being delivered. That in turn, is creating a significant decrease in the morale of the soldiers. Seemingly, there is something majorly amiss within the postal services for the U.S. Army.

Flash then to one of our central characters, Lena Derriecott (Ebony Obsidian) and her quaint life in the United States. A complete juxtaposition with the horrors of warfare it is, and such is indeed a common contrast within war movies, so it prepares us to know exactly how Derricott’s life will change after a few scenes. Her life is going quite well until her Jewish boyfriend, Abram David (Gregg Sulkin), goes into the war as a pilot, and promises to marry her when he comes home alive! 

He doesn’t.

The death of Abram David is what inspires Derriecott to join the army, wanting to fight back against the Nazis, who robbed her of her love. She is sent off to boot camp. Simultaneously, as that story unfolds, we begin to understand what the battalion will get sent to do, when we see a meeting with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Strandon), Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey), a lady named Mrs. Gray (Nina Jones), FDR (Sam Waterston), and General Halt (Dean Norris). Mrs. Gray tells the gathering that she is worried about the livelihood of her deployed son, who has sent her no communication for a number of months, nor, she says, have her letters made it to the front. This opens the eyes of President Roosevelt to the issue that is going on with the US Army’s postal situation; so he sanctions something to be done about this outrage!

Well, that task falls into the hands of the 6888 Battalion. When they finish the boot camp, Lena Derriecott, along with several other women like Delores Washington (Sarah Jeffrey), and Johnnie Mae Burton (Shanice Williams), head off to England with their superior, Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), and are tasked with resolving the mail issue.

This, unfortunately, is where the movie begins to fall off, and the writing becomes repetitive. After all, there is really only so much you can do with an hour and a half of mail sorting. The women face discrimination by the White male generals and colonels, but with how incredibly well they do the work, they are able to make those who dish out the bigotry appear to be fools.

During that next hour and a half, we witness the characters sort the mail, and allow it all to be sent to the soldiers and their families. And, at the very end, the Battalion gets a crowd salute from a chamber of soldiers. However, in that entire third act (which is most of the movie), the only one who really grows or has an interesting story is Lena Derriecott. She eventually comes to release her grief for Abram, and accept the reality of a life without him. She finds a man who helps her through the mourning, Hugh Bell (Jay Reeves). He becomes the love of her life and she later marries him (as we see in a present recording of the real Lena Derriecott).

The story itself is important, and that was told adequately, but what should have taken precedence were the stories of the women themselves! They really didn’t delve too deep into the personal stories of the women themselves, with obvious exceptions to Derriecott, and a bit of Major Adams (whose standing ovation at the end was the best part of the film). Most of the women are one-dimensional, and essentially background noise, even when they are the ones active in the scenes. The film tries to be a drama, but only succeeds during certain instances during its runtime—principally in the instances that focus on Charity Adams and Lena Derriecott. The failure in that regard simply boils down to this: the topic does not make a very compelling drama. There really just isn’t a way you can make a blockbuster film about sorting mail very engaging, and balancing a mixture of drama and facts when the facts may not be suited to make a compelling drama can make a film like this—even with as much production talent as this one—fall flat. So the only true way this story could have been done real justice was with being a Tyler Perry directed documentary—or even a docudrama with an emphasis on the ‘docu’.

But all this said, individuals should simply watch the film for themselves and form their own opinions. The film is by no means unwatchable, and perhaps any other viewer shall turn off their televisions with a profound new perspective on the issues and story that the movie presented. But no matter what, we should allow the publicity this film gave to the 6888 Battalion to perhaps lead to more personal research on these women. For this story is one we can all learn from, and one that is unfortunately not given enough credence by modern memory. Do not let these stories die.