Men of Honor
 Theatrical release poster | ||
| Starring |
| |
| Directed by | George Tillman Jr. | |
| Produced by | Bill Badalato Robert Teitel | |
| Written by | Scott Marshall Smith | |
| Editing by | John Carter Dirk Westervelt | |
| Studio | Fox 2000 Pictures State Street Pictures | |
| Music by | Mark Isham | |
| Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox | |
| Released | 11} 10, 2000 | |
| Runtime | 129 minutes | |
| Country | United States | |
| language | English | |
| Budget | $32 million | |
| Gross | $82.3 million | |
Men of Honor (released in the UK and Ireland as Men of Honour) is a 2000 American drama film directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is inspired by the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, the first African American master diver in the United States Navy.
Plot
Carl Brashear left his native Kentucky and the life of a sharecropper in 1948 by joining the United States Navy. As a crew member of the salvage ship USS Hoist ↗, where he is assigned to the galley, he is inspired by the bravery of one of the divers, Master Chief Petty Officer Leslie William "Billy" Sunday. He is determined to overcome racism and become the first black American Navy diver, even proclaiming that he will become a master diver. He eventually is selected to attend Diving and Salvage School in Bayonne, New Jersey, where he arrives as a boatswain's mate second class. He finds that Master Chief Sunday is the leading chief petty officer and head instructor, who is under orders from the school's eccentric, bigoted commanding officer to ensure that Brashear fails.
Brashear struggles to overcome his educational shortcomings, a result of his leaving school in the seventh grade, in order to work on his family's failing farm. He receives educational assistance from his future wife, a medical student who works part-time in the New York Public Library in Harlem. Brashear proves himself as a diver by rescuing a fellow student whose dive buddy abandons him during a salvage evaluation. Unfortunately, due to the racism of the commanding officer, the student who fled in the face of danger is awarded a medal for Brashear's heroic actions. Likewise, during an underwater assembling task where each student has to assemble a flange underwater using a bag of tools, Brashear's bag is cut open on purpose. Brashear nevertheless finishes the assembly and graduates from diving school, earning the quiet and suppressed admiration of Sunday and his fellow divers. Sunday is later demoted to senior chief by the commanding officer for standing up for Brashear and allowing him to pass.
The paths and careers of Brashear and Sunday diverge. Brashear rises quickly through the ranks, even becoming a national hero in the 1966 Palomares incident for recovering a missing hydrogen bomb and for saving the lives of Navy crewmen. Sunday continually loses his composure around officers who disrespect his accomplishments until he is finally demoted to chief petty officer and relegated to menial duties. He becomes a brooding alcoholic displeased with his lowered rank.
The two eventually meet again after Brashear's left leg is so mangled in the Palomares incident that he feels that his only chance to return to active duty and relatively normal life is for the leg to be amputated and replaced with a prosthesis. Until this time, no Navy man had ever returned to full active duty with a prosthetic limb. Sunday again trains Brashear and aids him in his fight against the Navy's bureaucracy and an antagonistic Navy captain (Brashear's and Sunday's former Hoist executive officer) in order to return to full active duty and fulfill his dream of becoming a master diver. They succeeded in getting Brashear reinstated.
In the epilogue, it is noted that two years later, Brashear becomes a master diver. It is added that he does not retire from the Navy for another nine years. He then served as a civilian employee for the government at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia, and retired in 1993 with the grade of GS-11.[
Historical accuracy
While the film portrays a Wisconsin recruit as the only white recruit to remain in Carl Brashear's bunk, the actual individual was a Brazilian diver named Alberto José do Nascimento, who was also dark-skinned. Alberto also helped Brashear save a fellow recruit who was trapped underwater during a training exercise.
Legacy
USNS Carl Brashear
USNS Carl Brashear ↗ (T-AKE-7) is a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship of the United States Navy, named in honor of Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl Brashear (1931–2006), one of the first African-Americans to become a US Navy Master Diver, despite having lost a leg in the 1966 Palomares incident.
The contract to build Carl Brashear was awarded to General Dynamics's subsidiary National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) of San Diego, California, on January 11, 2005. Her keel was laid down on November 2, 2007. The completed ship was delivered to the Navy on March 4, 2009.
At 684 feet in length and a crew of 123, it has a 14,000 range at twenty knots. It can carry
- Max dry cargo weight:
- 5,910 long tons (6,005 t)
- Max dry cargo volume:
- 783,000 cubic feet (22,000 m³)
- Max cargo fuel weight:
- 2,350 long tons (2,390 t)
- Cargo fuel volume:
- 18,000 barrels (2,900 m³)
- (Diesel fuel: 10,500) (Jet fuel: 7,500)
- Wikipedia article: USNS Carl Brashear (T-AKE-7)
See also [ Movies with Impact ]
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Men_of_Honor ]
External links
- Men of Honor at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Review Men of Honor at the Internet Movie Database
- Men of Honor at All Movie Guide
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root