The film's cinematographer, Anthony B. Richmond, ASC/BSC ("A Walk on the Moon"), photographed key scenes involving Brashear and Sunday on this detailed, carefully- crafted principal set. Richmond reinforced the filmmakers' designs for the color palette, which moves from the warm tones of Brashear's youth in Kentucky to the grays and blues of the Navy. The latter's cool tones emphasize the character's loneliness and isolation.
Isolation is a way of life for all divers, as Tillman, Teitel, Gooding and the actors playing the trainees discovered when they made their own dive at the Seattle Divers Institute of Technology. The civilian training facility is run by former Navy diver Bruce Banks, who served as a consultant to the film, along with former USN Commander John Paul Johnston and Petty Officer Richard "Rags" Radecki, a former Master Chief diver who worked closely with Robert De Niro.
Says Tillman, "We all wanted to have the experience — being in the suit, breathing air piped in from a hose, trusting someone with your life. One of the scariest parts is the darkness; water at a certain depth is dark. How they get their work done is amazing."
Indeed, working with the divers made an indelible impression on Teitel, who comments, "These divers, especially the master divers, are like an exclusive club with the naval community. Other guys are in awe of what they do. There's a 'Top Gun' thing about them."
Gooding also found the diving a formidable challenge. "I never really thought about being claustrophobic until I was at the bottom of that river," states the actor. "Wearing those suits was like putting a bowl over your head — you could only see so far; everything else is black or dark green. You really get a sense of being confined."
But the training paid off. "By the time we filmed the underwater scenes at the end of the schedule," Gooding remembers, "I had been in the suit so many times that I became used to the 200 pounds of weight, the awkwardness, and the feeling of enclosure. I could pretty much just let go and have a good time with it."
Gooding also had to adapt to special prosthetics, created by effects producer Susan Zwerman ("Alien Resurrection," "Broken Arrow"). Zwerman developed seven prosthetics for sequences depicting an accident that almost tore off the character's leg, the limb's deterioration, and Brashear's elective amputation and eventual rehabilitation.
Carl Brashear himself was on hand to advise the effects team and Gooding, who closely studied his movements. "At first, to represent Carl's injury," Gooding explains, "I thought I should tend to one leg because of his prosthesis. But even with the prosthesis, Carl doesn't tend to one leg; he has a proud and regal bearing."
Following his accident, Brashear had to prove that even without the full use of both legs, he could still perform his duties as a diver and not jeopardize the safety of his team. Performing strenuous salvage work and operating deftly within the elaborate, massive diving gear provided one of his greatest challenges. The regulation Mark 5 suit weighs 190 pounds; the modified Mark 5, equipped with helium for lower depths, came in at 290 pounds.
Movie Database
In Theaters
