Men of Honor - Movie Review Example

Men of Honor: A Film of Personal Struggle The making of a good movie involves a script that includes the classic struggle between good and evil that is painted in the colors that are recognizable to a contemporary audience. Men of Honor, a 2000 Twentieth Century Fox film from director George Tillman Jr. is a movie that secures these basic concepts to its story and continually elaborates on the common theme. The film, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert De Niro, tells the story of Navy diver Carl Brashear who is disadvantaged by his race in a racist Navy.

Determined to become the Navy's first master diver, Brashear confronts Billy Sunday, a racist Navy diving instructor in the segregated south of the early 1950s.From the beginning of the film we see Brashear struggle with the elements and his race as he plows a field in the hot sun with his father. As a means to escape, Brashear joins the Navy with the hope of bettering his station in life. He confronts the chores of Navy kitchen duty while working to become a black Navy diver. Eventually given the opportunity to become a diver, he is confronted by the Navy instructors bent on proving him incapable.

The ongoing torment from Billy Sunday and the Commander, played by Hal Holbrooke, can't hold Brashear down. He conquers every obstacle placed in front of him. After he becomes a diver, his career seems to be cut short when his leg is amputated after an accident on a Navy ship. Brashear again struggles to regain his strength and the fortitude to carry the weight of a Navy Scuba outfit. This time, Billy Sunday is his biggest supporter as we see Brashear overcome the final obstacle of a physical handicap.

Though the film is based in racism, its inspiration comes from the need to overcome any hardship. Much of Brashear's torment came from a racist feeling in Sunday and his classmates, yet we see the struggle in terms of a fight against the elements and ourselves. There is a memorable scene where Sunday makes Brashear's diving test almost impossible to pass. The diver fights for his life and the need to accomplish a task before it at all costs. The film goes beyond racism and into the realm of personal human struggle.

The fortitude that Brashear shows in this film is truly inspirational. We identify with Brashear, not because he is black, but he is the oppressed underdog. The viewer wants him to overcome. There is a dislike for Billy Sunday, not just because he is racist, but because he lacks the capacity to grant the simplest dignity to all men. The film is rich with the suspenseful emotion of wanting the oppressed to overcome the hate and break the chains that hold them back.In conclusion, this movie makes me realize the depths of our personal strength.

Though the director has taken certain artistic liberties, it is based on a true story that was probably no less horrific. When I watch Men of Honor I don't see it simply as a struggle of race against race, but as an ongoing fight that we must maintain to protect our own dignity. It is the story of how far the oppressor will go and to what lengths the oppressed can go to overcome them.Works ConsultedMen of Honor. Dir. George Tillman. Perf. Cuba Gooding. 2000. DVD. Twentieth Century Fox.