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Originally, Men of Honour was simply called Navy Diver and no doubt all involved held high hopes that it would be an award-winning biopic. Unfortunately, Carl Brashear's life as the first African-American Master Diver went through that vaguely distasteful contemporary Hollywood Marketing makeover and the result is not quite so worthy of its subject and intentions. The film's hopelessly clichéd tagline reads, "History is made by those who break the rules"; the direction is shot through with sunsets 'n' slow-mo; and the script is peppered with foreshadowing dialogue ("don't end up like me son").

The plot devices follow a predictable arc: family poverty, a swiftly sweet romance, a shock accident, court hearing and, naturally, a grisly antagonist. It's with the last of these that the movie comes to life. We may have seen DeNiro spit nails countless times before, but his saltily intractable Master Chief is a terrific screen creation. Next to him, Cuba Gooding Jr really does shine as the endlessly persecuted Brashear. All-too brief cameos from Charlise Theron and Michael Rapaport lend sparkle too. But the film's message about how social attitudes toward race have changed is lost in a murky haze of Hollywoodisation. As one character declares, "some things just don't mix".

On the DVD: Men of Honour on disc underlines the Hollywood marketing message by including the Music Video ("Win" by Brian McKnight) used to promote the film among the extras. A commentary from director George Tillmann Jr, Cuba Gooding Jr ("this is my Rocky"), writer Scott Marshall Smith and Producer Robert Teitel is crammed with anecdote and explanation. Twelve deleted scenes include an alternative ending dropped thanks to that Tinsel-Town makeover, and the commentary continues for this plus three minutes of storyboards and animatics. There's also a 13-minute HBO featurette on the film's making, a half-hearted five-minute mini-documentary in tribute of Brashear, a trailer and two TV spots. This transfer itself is pristine in 5.1 surround and 2:35.1 ratio. --Paul Tonks

Release Date: May 21, 2002