Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Men of Honor

By Steve De Weerdt


Robert Deniro and Cuba Gooding Jr. pair up for motivational message of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear (Gooding Jr.) and Master Chief Leslie William "Billy" Sunday (Deniro) In the movie Men of Honor.

Honor Inspires

Carl Brashear is a person making an attempt to turn out to be the 1st African American Navy diver.

The story in the final analysis revolves around two "men of honor"; their kinship, their individual and joint failures and victories. Carl Brashear is determined to be the first African American Navy Diver in a time where racial discrimination is strife. Leslie Sunday is his envenomed trainer, determined to see him fail. Fate, challenges and conditions eventually draw these two men together in a tale of turbulence and at long last victory.

Carl Brashear, born in 1931 to sharecroppers, signs up with the Navy and, after viewing the heroics of Billy Sunday, the Caucasian son of a sharecropper, decides to get to be the Navy's very first African-American diver. At the Bayonne, N.J., divers' training camp, Sunday is his instructor, and Brasher must prevail over hazing verging on the murderous. With Sunday and the camp's commanding officer dead set against Brashear's graduating, his physical ability and steely purpose, which he got from his dad, see him through and through. Carl and Billy's paths cross again when each desires rehabilitation one from a trauma, the other from resentment. Their women look on with shock and thwarting.

The final scenes of the movie are Carl stands up in the fresh diving suit after may tribulations, and-with obvious eager discomfort- takes a few clumsy steps forward. Everybody assumes that his prosthetic leg will snap (which he got from an earlier diving accident), but Sunday steps forward and starts shouting orders at Carl (identical to their first session at diving school years before). Carl struggles, but continues moving forward till he has reached the 12th step.

Captain Hanks, realizing that no more can be done, declares that the Navy will be reinstating Carl Brashear to full diving duty.

Carl and Sunday salute each other, and then meet with their wives as a celebration of this crucial triumph.

Credits at the end reveals that Braschear was the 1st African-American amputee to assume Navy diving duty, and those 2 years after his reinstatement Carl was promoted to Master Chief. Carl went forward in his naval career for another 9 years before finally taking retirement.

End-to-end in the movie he faces confrontation from those who don't want him to come through. With just a 7th grade education and finally a prosthetic limb, Brashear is motivated to become the first African American Navy Diver.

With a marvelous and moving closing scene, Men of Honor delivers the message that regardless the obstacle, success is possible.




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