The Six Triple Eight

Bluesky

“Why did you sign up?” they ask each other. They’re fresh recruits. They haven’t yet figured out that among soldiers, as among prisoners, there are some questions one doesn’t need to answer. Lena (Ebony Obsidian) is perceived as a little odd, as quiet and removed, because she doesn’t talk about it. Some of her comrades want to go to college. For others it’s about patriotism. Johnnie Mae (Shanice Shantay) admits that she’s there for the men. For Lena, there has only been one young man, her Abram (Gregg Sulkin), but that’s too painful to think about.

Lena’s grandmother has taken her decision to join the army halfway through World War Two very much in her stride, assuring Lena’s mother that the teenager is in no danger because so little opportunity is afforded to African American women that she’s unlikely to get anywhere near combat. Indeed, the initial plan seems to be to train the squad up as a token gesture and keep them in the state of Georgia – a place where they are warned not to assert themselves, never mind fight, and are expected to sit in a separate carriage from white people on the train. But Lena’s commanding officer, the formidable Captain Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), is determined to get them a real assignment. Equally determined to see them fail, General Halt (Dean Norris) assigns them to a mission he believes to be impossible: identifying and correctly rerouting more than 17 million pieces of soldiers’ mail.

Tyler Perry’s film, which includes an Oscar-nominated song, is based on the true story of the 6888th Battalion, the only unit of Black women sent from the US to Europe in the course of the war. Whilst a mail-sorting mission may not sound like the most important of tasks, those who have served in militaries will know well how important it is to have that lifeline to home, and early on in the film we see how damaging it is to a mother to spend two years not knowing whether her son is alive or dead. Receiving mail is essential to morale, without which armies don’t tend to get very far. As for the scale of the task, between the smirking top brass (presented in a rather heavy-handed way, but with some justification) and the sight of multiple hangers all said to be stuffed full of mail sacks, it’s clear that the women are going to struggle.

When you’re looking for somebody who might make it through such a struggle, of course, the smart approach is to turn to those who are used to having the odds against them and have learned to get on and get things done regardless. Watching the women set about their task is duly inspiring. They will, however, have additional hurdles to overcome. The film follows the story of the raw and deeply troubled Lena in parallel with that of the steely Captain Adams (who existed in real life) – an individual who, for all her courage, finds herself pushed close to breaking point.

It’s great material for the actors, who make the most of it. The underdogs take on a challenge aspect of the story plays out in a formulaic way, but with Black women still under-represented in this sort of fare, it has value. Much more interesting is what Perry and co-writer Kevin Hymel deliver in the details. Opening shots in the trenches show us faces so stained by dirt that skin colour is hard to discern, thus serving as a reminder of why this moment in history forced the US to begin to do things differently, as well as changing the thinking of those who served in Europe – even if it would still take decades for this to lead to major change. We also see how colourism factors into the relationships between the young women, as well as affecting how they see themselves, until it, too, is worn down by proximity and awareness of external threat. Then there are subtler things like the briefly referenced requirement that the women shave their legs, a seeming effort to maintain their belief in a fixed notion of femininity lest gender lines also blur and they start to think of themselves simply as human beings, with all that that implies.

Easily delivering on the big emotional beats, The Six Triple Eight is a natural crowd pleaser. It’s also a richer, more rewarding piece of work than its generic positioning suggests – at least for those who care to look.