Other Titles • Men of Honor • The Diver (2000) • Men of Honour (2001) • Navy Diver (2000)
Synopses for Men of Honor (2000)
1.
Men of Honor presents a great role model for younger viewers, yet it's rated R due to abundant use of the F word. With appropriate discretion, parents should allow their preteen and teenaged children to see this rousing if altogether conventional biopic inspired by the life of Carl Brashear. Played with gravity and gumption by Cuba Gooding Jr., Brashear was the first African American to become a master diver in the U.S. Navy, despite the lingering effects of segregation, opposition from Navy brass, and the amputation of his left leg following a tragic on-duty accident. Robert De Niro adds marquee value and salty bluster as Billy Sunday, the drunken, redneck (and fictionalized) Master Chief who watches, with gradual admiration, as Brashear attains his ultimate goal through sheer force of will.
This is all quite uplifting on its surface, but in attempting to hit the requisite highlights of an inspiring biography, director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) reduces Brashear's achievement to a succession of clichés, forcing Gooding and De Niro to battle sentiment with their noteworthy performances. As Sunday's neglected wife, Charlize Theron is completely extraneous; Hal Holbrook's diving-school commander is a ranting caricature; and newcomer Aunjanue Ellis barely registers as Brashear's wife (in part because their obligatory romance is handled with an utter lack of finesse). There's no question that Brashear's efforts are heroic and worthy of recognition, so Men of Honor serves its basic purpose. Still, one can't help but wonder if Brashear's story would be even more impressive with a more authentic treatment. --Jeff Shannon
(15 votes)
2.
Carl Brashear lets nothing stand in the way of his dreams. The son of a Kentucky sharecropper, Carl leaves home for what he expects would be a better life. "Never quit ... be the best," his father had told him, and Carl takes those words to heart.
After he joins the newly-integrated Navy, Carl spends two years writing a hundred letters before the service accepts his application for its Dive School program. Carl's training officer, Billy Sunday, wants no part of Carl or his ambitions. Sunday, a celebrated Master Chief Navy Diver whose exploits as a troublemaker are as legendary as his accomplishments as a diver, relentlessly taunts and challenges Carl, expecting him to falter and quit. But Carl has other ideas. His goal is clear, his determination fixed. Nothing will stand in the way of his dream of becoming a Navy Diver. Not even Billy Sunday.
Years later, after Carl suffers a crippling injury, he and Sunday unexpectedly join forces. Never one to turn down an opportunity to flout the system, the rebellious senior officer helps Carl buck Navy bureaucracy, overcome the loss of a leg, and go on to make military history. By the time he retires, Carl earns the esteemed titles of Master Diver and Master Chief, the Navy's highest rank for an enlisted man.
(15 votes)
3.
So preaches Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro) to twenty trainees assembled on the pier of the Navy Dive School in Bayonne, New Jersey, on a chilly morning in 1952. He brags that three-quarters of them will fail the training. Of those who do pass, only three will live to reach retirement.
"Because diving is the most dangerous job in the Navy," states Sunday. "So who wants to quit right now?"
Certainly not Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a young black third-class sailor who has spent two years writing a hundred letters to get accepted into the Navy Dive School program of the newly integrated military. In addition to undergoing a punishing physical training program, Carl must study and excel in physics, chemistry, diving, medicine and mechanics. His goal is clear, his determination fixed.
A major obstacle is presented by Billy Sunday, a celebrated Master Chief Navy Diver whose exploits as a troublemaker are as legendary as his accomplishments as a diver. Medically disqualified from diving and removed from active duty, an angry Sunday has been transferred to his current position as training officer for the Navy Dive School. The Mississippi-born Sunday is certain that the rigorous dive program is no place for Carl, the son of a Kentucky sharecropper with a seventh grade education.
But Carl has other ideas. Nothing will stand in his way of becoming a Navy Diver. Eventually, even Billy Sunday is won over by Carl's iron will and exceptional diving abilities. Never one to turn down an opportunity to flout the system, the rebellious senior officer helps Carl buck a racist bureaucracy and overcome a crippling injury to go on to make military history. By the time he retires, Carl earns the esteemed titles of Master Diver and Master Chief, the Navy's highest rate for an enlisted man.
(15 votes)
4.
One of those rare films that grabs you by the gut and never lets go, Men Of Honor was inspired by the life of Carl Brasher (Cuba Gooding Jr.) an African American who dared to dream of becoming a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Despite a bigoted training officer (Robert De Niro) and a tragic shipboard accident, Carl never gives up and achieves the impossible in an incredible finish that will leave you cheering.
(15 votes)
5.
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
(15 votes)
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