You wouldn’t think that a true story about a World War II unit that specialized in sorting mail would prove to be particularly arresting.
When he’s killed in the war not long after being shipped overseas, Lena impulsively enlists and is sent to a training camp in Georgia.
Along the way, they’re treated with condescension and racism by white soldiers and officers.
At one point, Lena, still grieving Abram, becomes incensed by the dismissive way her co-workers treat the mail of deceased soldiers.
The Six Triple Eight relates a little-known story that fairly demanded to be told, and does it full justice.
You wouldn’t expect a true story about a mail-sorting unit from World War II to be so powerful. When you combine that with the fact that the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the first and only unit of color in the Women’s Army Corps to serve overseas during World War II and that they accomplished the seemingly insurmountable task of sorting 17 million pieces of mail in less than three months, you have Tyler Perry’s inspirational novel The Six Triple Eight. The film, which had a limited theatrical run before being made available on Netflix two weeks later, is the most recent in what seems to be an endless string of obscure true stories that have been adapted from history to striking cinematic effect.
Perry’s screenplay, which was inspired by an article written by Kevin M. Hymel for WWII History Magazine in 2019, primarily centers on two real-life people: the unit’s leader, Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), and its member, Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian, BET’s Sistas). She is pursuing a dangerous friendship/romance (the movie doesn’t go there) with a white boy named Abram (Gregg Sulkin) in Pennsylvania prior to the war. Lena rashly enlists and is sent to a training camp in Georgia after he is killed in the war shortly after being shipped overseas.
One scene that illustrates the ugly social conditions is when a white officer orders the Black women who are sitting in front of an army base movie theater to move to the back. Adams, however, who commands her unit with unwavering military poise, will not accept it. Not being able to serve abroad is what aggravates her the most, so she is overjoyed when they are abruptly ordered to Europe.
She is less excited when she learns that their task is to sort the millions of pieces of mail that have been left unopened and undeliverable to soldiers and their families back home—enough to fill multiple airplane hangars. Although the military believes that female soldiers of color are best suited to handle this issue, it has caused a significant morale issue despite initially appearing to be a relatively minor one when it comes to conducting a war.
Eventually, the women work tirelessly to complete their task and devise creative new ways to track mail that was previously thought to be undeliverable. They encounter racism and condescension from white officers and soldiers along the way. At one point, Lena, who is still mourning Abram, gets angry at her coworkers’ contemptuous handling of the mail of fallen soldiers. Additionally, an unsent letter from Abram to Lena is found in the kind of scene that was probably made up for the movie (sorry if that isn’t the case), with heartbreaking outcomes that are to be expected.
Since The Six Triple Eight is a Tyler Perry film, its emotional beats aren’t very subdued. As if to remind us that we are watching a WWII film, there are also plenty of scenes where the women are jitterbugging enthusiastically. Oprah Winfrey gets a distracting cameo in the film’s awkward historical scenes with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (Sam Waterston and Susan Sarandon, the latter sporting buck teeth and a lot of makeup). One such scene is a meeting with civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.
However, the real-life story ultimately has such emotional impact that you can’t help but cry even when you know you’re being blatantly manipulated. For example, there are scenes where family members are shown crying as they receive letters from loved ones who are serving abroad, Lena discovers Abram’s grave amid a sea of white crosses, or a group of white soldiers appear to confront the women of the 6888th before saluting and applauding them. Perry skillfully and shamelessly tugs at the heartstrings in a manner that would have made Frank Capra proud. A typically moving Diane Warren ballad, performed by H, is also included at the end. A. R.
Additionally, the performances were excellent. Washington gives a powerful performance that subtly lets tiny bursts of emotion show through, Obsidian gives a warm, winning performance, and the female supporting cast never plays a false note. At the end, we are treated to images and videos of the actual people, such as a video of the unit traveling to Europe, an interview with Derriecott King at the age of 100, and a clip of Michelle Obama honoring two of the unit’s surviving women. We also discover that Adams was the first Black woman to have her name co-adopted for Fort Gregg-Adams.
The Six Triple Eight does a complete justice to a little-known tale that justifiably had to be told.
