I HAVE COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT TYLER PERRY'S 'THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT'

You wouldn’t think that a true story about a World War II unit that specialized in sorting mail would be a particularly interesting one. But throw in the fact that the unit in question, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, was the first and only Women’s Army Corp unit of color to serve overseas in WWII, and that, faced with the impossible task of sorting 17 million pieces of mail in six months—they managed to do it in less than three—and suddenly, the film represents the latest in a seemingly endless series of little-known true-life black history tales.

Soldiers, We Have Been Ordered to Provide Hope.

Almost a full century after the end of World War II, new stories about the quiet heroism of everyday individuals involved continue to come to light, the story of the 6888 being among them. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion contributed to the war effort in a unique way: by sorting through a three-year backlog of mail that hadn’t been delivered to American soldiers far from home. In the face of discrimination and a vast, unfamiliar country divided by global conflict, these 855 women brought hope to the front lines. 

Despite the importance of their responsibilities, the battalion was put in segregated housing and relegated to poorly maintained buildings often lacking light and heat. Through sheer will and ingenuity, they remained undeterred, creating a community of their own, complete with a mess hall, hair salon, and refreshment bar. And within 90 days, they had accomplished their mission—in half the time allotted. 

Decades later, the 6888th Battalion’s efforts have finally received the praise they deserve. In 2018, a monument to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was dedicated at the Buffalo Soldier Monument Park at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. And President Joe Biden presented the 6888th with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022.

Now, Tyler Perry is tackling the war and their story with his Netflix film The Six Triple Eight, starring a time traveling Olivia Pope...I mean, Kerry Washington.

*SPOILERS FOR THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT FROM THIS POINT*

I Realize the Magnitude of This Situation.

Perry’s script is based on Kevin M. Hymel’s 2019 article "WAC Corporal Lena Derriecott and the 6888th Central Postal Battalion" for WWII History Magazine, and largely revolves around two real-life figures: Lena Derriecott King (played by Ebony Obsidian), who served in the unit, and Major Charity Adams (played by Kerry Washington), who led it.

Lena is a woman from the Philadelphia area who joins the Army hoping to become a nurse after her potential boyfriend is killed while serving overseas. King was a real person, as was her suitor, a man from her neighborhood named Abram. In the film, King’s mother, a caterer at a local synagogue, disapproves of the match, worried about the discrimination her Black daughter could face dating a white Jewish man. After Abram goes overseas, King writes a number of letters to him that all go unanswered—foreshadowing her later work with the 6888—until she finds out that he's died.

In one of the most dramatic scene in the film, King’s colleagues find a letter Abram wrote to her that never got delivered, and King says the discovery made her realize why their work organizing the mail was so important.

Major Adams's role is far less sentimental; She's desperate for the women she leads to be treated with equality and respect, and initially regards the job as insulting grunt work—and that may have well been the intent at first. But seeing the effects of this work through the eyes of Lena, she comes to understand its importance as well.

Now, this being a Tyler Perry movie, The Six Triple Eight isn’t particularly subtle in its emotional beats. Kerry Washington's Major Adams gives three rousing speeches within her first ten minutes of screen time—all three, in some form or another, about how much adversity they'll face and how many people are rooting for them to fail.

The film also features some awkward historical scenes involving Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (played by Sam Waterston and Susan Sarandon wearing a lot of makeup and buck teeth), and a meeting with civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune which provides an opportunity for Oprah Winfrey to make her requisite cameo.

And you can be sure that there are plenty of scenes featuring women exuberantly jitterbugging, just in case you forgot this was a War War II movie.

Attention! Soldiers, I Am Captain Charity Adams!

Both Perry and Washington clearly recognize the story's importance, emphasizing repeatedly that the women of the 6888 have been overlooked both in real time and historically. However—and it does feels harsh to say—Perry seems to have had no idea how to structure this story. One of the early distractions is that the film seems to struggle to find a sure focus. We start on Lena (our audience surrogate), with quick glimpses of her maybe boyfriend at war. Then once we enter the base we flip back and forth between the Roosevelts and the Battalion and various citizens anxiously checking the mail.

The Six Triple Eight‘s one strength is its amazing cast. Kerry Washington delivers a strong performance and is the real standout here. And it’s a miracle that Washington was able to conjure a performance that singlehandedly saves the premise of the movie. Only her scenes as Major Charity Adams seem to drive home what The Six Triple Eight should’ve been all about—the feat of sorting through a backlog of correspondence between American soldiers and their loved ones while a racist military awaits their failure.

But what we see of Major Adams is what she has to endure. What’s missing (by no fault of Washington's) is who she is, the person behind the mask she had to put on in order to stand against systemic racism and sexism. There's only one scene of the character as a human—during which she's drinking and gossiping about man-troubles. Otherwise, she's not so much a character but a stand-in, possibly for every Black woman Perry's ever met. She's a symbol of every black woman whosever simply tried to get a job done but is too busy dealing with racist and sexist bullsh*t to do that job. And if you've ever existed in the world as a Black woman, you probably know this feeling well.

The dialogue often leans toward melodrama—one of Perry's ticks as a director. On one end, you have Lena dramatically throwing her body over her would-have-been boyfriend’s grave. On the other, you have each and every bad white person in the movie being so cartoonishly awful, it’s almost funny. (And it shouldn’t be.)

These are minor absurdities compared to the wildest Perry movies (Looking at you, Acrimony). But it's no less frustrating watching the filmmaker struggle to tamp down his own eccentricities. The film's ending—despite the tear-inducing footage of the real 6888 Battalion being some of the most powerful footage onscreen—feels abrupt. And as a result, the story feels incomplete. The climax feels missing. The momentum feels lost.

The standard real-life-photos-and-info postscript leading into the end credits, for example, repeats so much information from the story we’ve just seen that it almost implies that the audience must not have been paying attention to the actual movie. More egregious, Lena’s journey seems to have been purely motivated by her memories of a wholesome white guy, which, for me, feels reductive when compared to the real life person's own telling of her own story.

We Have the Most to Prove.

I've always had a complicated relationship with Tyler Perry, the filmmaker. This is Tyler Perry’s forth 2024 release following Netflix's Mea Culpa film and eight episode series Beauty in Black, and Amazon Prime's Divorce in the Black film—and a fifth could potentially emerge from his Atlanta compound before the year's end—all part of what Perry dubs "work ethic." And clearly this is a considerable amount of work for one person in one year. But all of these projects (and yes, I have seen all of them), including The Six Triple Eight, feel like a first draft.

I'll always commend Perry for telling predominantly black stories with predominantly Black casts. I've probably seen every non-Madea Perry film—Temptation, The Family that Preys, A Fall From Grace, etc—as they are unabashedly my preferred cheese; A glass of vino and I am sat. So, I completely understand the allure of Perry. However, with this film, and this story, throughout it's entire runtime, I couldn't help but wonder how the story would've played out in different hands; How would Ava DuVernay have handled The Six Triple Eight? Dee Rees? Steve McQueen (who recently released a WWII movie of his own)?

This is no Blitz. But grading on the Perry curve, The Six Triple Eight respects its subjects—and its audience—as much as it can. It's a moving story, to be sure. And despite some interesting creative choices, you can’t help but be touched by the unwavering spirit of these 855 Black women. However, in the end, I found the article on the brave Battalion much more riveting and much more tear-jerking than the film the article's based on.

3/5 ★: An earnest, yet soapy, effort.