Movie Reviews

Men of Honour

23 Feb 2001

If "Men of Honour" can be believed, Carl Brashear has probably gone through life thinking, "Man, this is like something out of a movie!" Even back in the sixties - when Brashear was making history as the first black diver, then as the first amputee diver in the U.S. Navy - many of the scenes and plot developments in this film were already standard movie clichés.

Like several others ("Glory", "Hurricane"), here is another film based on a true story about a heroic African-American facing white prejudice. True enough, it's an inspiring story, but it is far too simply told. Cuba Gooding Jr plays Brashear as someone who, for all his spirit and confidence, could teach the Dalai Lama a thing about tolerance. With the perfect hero, surrounded (in the main) by perfect jerks, his life story now seems littered with standard characters. A poor father (Hal Holbrook) who tells him to be strong, as powerful music swells in the background. A good-hearted sailor (Michael Rappaport) who becomes his only friend in the Navy - and suffers for it. A beautiful woman (Aunjanue Ellis), who helps him to succeed and finally marries him. A conceited, highly-ranked officer (David Conrad) who wants to throw Brashear out of the Navy. One can only assume that writer Scott Marshall Smith, in his research, noticed these characters (and their strangely familiar scenes) and thought, "What a stroke of luck. There's a movie in here!"

But then there's Billy Sunday, the heavy-drinking, racist redneck who bullies Brashear through diving school. Robert De Niro (top-billed over Gooding) is foolproof casting as such an explosive character, but surprisingly, he doesn't play it as De Niro. Instead, he reminds us of what a versatile actor he can be. Sunday is not your usual villain. In the end, he is quite the opposite. It is De Niro's best serious role in a few years.

Director George Tillman Jr smothers on every emotion and dramatic moment, knowing full well that subtlety is unnecessary. This is old-fashioned drama: another film in which a man earns respect from his intolerant colleagues, not by proving himself equal to them, but by proving himself a lot better.