Today’s movie is a biography with a scene that happens on
March 25. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.
MEN OF HONOR
Carl Bashear grows up in an African-American
sharecropper’s family in Kentucky who have hard times since he goes to school
at the insistence of his father instead of working. He joins the navy and works
as a cook. He is impressed by the bravery and dedication of Master Diver ‘Billy’ Sunday and determines to
become one himself. After two years he is accepted to the Navy’s Dive and
Salvage school, where he finds Sunday is the chief instructor, who unbeknownst
to Brashear is under orders to fail him because he is an African-American.. Brashear does well in the technical aspects
of the course but nearly fails the academic portion until he meets his future
wife, an aspiring doctor, who helps him. Brashaer experiences racism first
hand. For example when he rescues a student after a training accident, a fellow
student who fled the scene gets a medal instead of Bashear. During his final
exam, to assemble a flange underwater, his tool bag is cut spilling his tools
all over the bottom. However, he finds the tools and completes the assignment,
earning the unvoiced but obvious admiration of Sunday and his heretofore
hostile fellow students. Sunday is demoted for allowing Brashear to pass and
with his hot temper gets demoted further when he fights with those who
disrespect him. When an atomic bomb is lost off Palomares, Spain Brashear finds
one of them but his leg is partially crushed as it is brought on board on March
25, 1966. [1:30:40 to 1:31:31:55] He has the leg amputated so he can wear a
prosthesis and return to duty. The same officer who opposed Sunday now stands
in his way, but a review hearing he establishes his fitness and returns to
duty.
A good biopic. Not too overly romanticized. Plenty of
exciting moments. The story of this
American hero is well worth watching.
The Reminiscences of Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate Carl
M. Brashear by Carl M. Brashear (U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD, 1998)
at page 83 gives the date of his accident.
Director - George Tillman, Jr.
Producer - Bill Badalato, Robert Teitel
Screenplay - Scott Marshall Smith
Released - November 10, 2000
Runtime – 2 hours 9 minutes
Starring -
Robert De Niro as Chief Petty Officer Leslie William 'Billy'
Sunday
Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Senior Chief Petty Officer Carl
Brashear
Charlize Theron as
Gwen Sunday
Aunjanue Ellis as Jo
Brashear
Hal Holbrook as Captain
'Mr. Pappy'
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.
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