The Six Triple Eight
During WWII, the only US Women’s Army Corps unit of color stationed overseas takes on an impossible mission in Tyler Perry’s drama based on a true story.
An army captain (Kerry Washington) leads her historic battalion of all-female soldiers as they face a mission unlike any other: to restore hope to WWII’s frontlines by delivering over 17 million backlogged letters.
The Six Triple Eight, official orailer
When it’s brought to the attention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) that soldiers fighting in Europe aren’t getting their much needed letters from home, she convinces her husband (Sam Waterston) that something has to be done about it.
An army general admits that mail is not being delivered but explains that, despite assigning several units to the job, including a women’s unit, the task is a logistical nightmare, and they have to prioritize the actual fighting. Mary McLeod Bethune maintains, however, that the Black Women’s Army Corps is up to the task.
When the battalion arrives in Europe, they face a racist commanding officer who has the unit cross the ocean in a private vessel without a military escort, march through town immediately upon landing, and assigned to an abandoned, rat-infested school with no heating. Major Adams and her second-in-command, Captain Campbell, are given six months to turn the school into a post office and barracks and to clear a two-year backlog of undelivered mail, a deadline intended to ensure their failure. Despite the challenges, the unit completes the task in just 90 days.
The Six Triple Eight stars Kerry Washington, Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Moriah Brown, Gregg Sulkin, Susan Sarandon, Dean Norris, Sam Waterston as Franklin Roosevelt, and Oprah Winfrey as Mary McLeod Bethune.
Witness the courage and determination of the only all-Black female battalion deployed overseas during World War II in this important and well-told film now showing on Netflix.
