In the new Hollywood drama Men Of Honor, any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
That is disturbing and surprising, since the film is supposed to be at least inspired by U.S. Navy diver Carl Brashear's heroic true-life story of fighting racist pigs and overcoming incredible odds to succeed.
Brashear, now in retirement and credited as a consultant on the film, was a black man in an ugly white man's navy in the 1950s and '60s. It was an era in which segregation was alive in the U.S. military and as malignant as a tumour.
Expected to be happy with slinging hash in the galley or serving as a deck hand, Brashear forced the Navy to let him train to become the first African-American deep sea diver.
The movie, directed by George Tillman Jr. of Soul Food fame, tells that story in an over-the-top, fictional, Hollywoodized version. Brashear's name is used along with some incidents from his life, but precious little else. It is as if Men Of Honor were an American fable, a 20th century Grimm fairytale.
The filmmakers, who seem to distrust the audience's intelligence, rashly invent characters and situations and thrust the most awkward dialogue into the mouths of some fine actors.
Even Cuba Gooding Jr., Robert De Niro and Charlize Theron nearly drown in the excesses as the clunky, predictable plot gets less and less believable.
Gooding does bring a pious dignity to the role of Brashear, but it's not enough. De Niro is inconsistent as the master diver Billy Sunday. In his own words, the alcoholic Sunday would rather "drown the nigger" than train him to become a diver.
Incredibly, this character is a total fiction. Billy Sunday never existed. Take him out of this movie and the story would instantly be radically different. Which means that most of what we see is not just poetic or dramatic licence but a ridiculous lie.
That is sad, considering that the real-life story -- or some version of it -- could have made for compelling story-telling.
The movie, which played as a gala at the Toronto film festival, is also saddled with some unfortunate elements that damage it even as a work of fiction.
Mark Isham's score is awful. The music is used blatantly to warn audiences how to feel and what to expect in every scene, with no subtlety whatsover. Rookie screenwriter Scott Marshall Smith's screenplay, as directed by Tillman, is in harmony with that approach, trotting out every cliche imaginable.
That said, there is still something compelling about Men Of Honor, regardless of how poor this effort is. Brashear's real life is inspirational and that notion somehow survives.
He certainly battled racism. Despite the official co-operation of the U.S. Navy in making the movie -- something that usually waters down criticism -- the filmmakers never shy away from showing how a black man risked his life dealing with white rednecks, bigots and even lunatics who populated the Navy during segregation. That is one truth that survives.
(This film is rated AA)
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