Copyright (C) 2000 by Michael Segers, All rights reserved
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All
Washed Up
Men
of Honor
Robert
De Niro
Cuba
Gooding Jr.
Charlize
Theron
Aunjanue
Ellis
Hal
Holbrook
Directed
by George Tillman Jr.
Written
by Scott Marshall Smith
Rated
R for language; runtime: 128 minutes
At
least since the days of the McCarthy “witch-hunts,” there has been a more
than sneaking suspicion that the Hollywood establishment does not represent
mainstream American values. But,
when Hollywood takes to the bandstand, it can churn out a celebration of
too-noble thoughts. In fact, Men of Honor (opening Veterans Day weekend),
like this year’s earlier Remember
the Titans, is a pretty strong argument for Hollywood to avoid noble
thoughts.
Like
Titans, this film is based on the life of a real person, in this case,
Carl Brashear (Gooding), the first African-American to reach the U.S. Navy rank
of Master Chief Diver. The obstacles that he faced are all rolled into one
fictitious and absurdly named composite, Billy Sunday (DeNiro). On the surface, one cannot fault the basic idea.
But, the surface is the problem. The
film never dives very deep, just skitters along too much surface.
It
has the makings of a taunt military drama with the added tension of racism, say,
about a ninety-minute drama, threatening to cut off our oxygen at every tangle
in the air pipe or plot. The film
begins with an in-your-face bluntness, with the ugliest word in American history
(a word never uttered in all the racial turmoil of Remember the Titans)
sounding loud and clear in the first minute or two.
But,
after a very strong beginning, in which we first see Brashear through Sunday’s
eyes, director Tillman never decides which plot he really wants to develop.
So, we get a few minutes of the changing relationship between Brashear
and Sunday and then the changing
relationship between Brashear and his wife Jo (Ellis) followed by the hellish
relationship between Sunday and his wife Gwen (Theron).
Which is more important, the injury that Brashear suffers or the inner
wounds that Sunday endures? Somehow,
in stronger hands, perhaps, these divergent elements could work together, but in
the current project, they just get watered down.
When
Cuba Gooding, Jr. is good, he is very, very good, and in this film, he is
fantastic with a performance much more subtle than the film.
Much of his acting is confined to his eyes (which seem to burn through
the glass of the diving helmet), and the energy which propelled him through Jerry
Maguire seems wound up tight within his body, almost organic, driving him on
when he has every reason to collapse. DeNiro
resists the temptation to play DeNiro, giving his quirky characterization more
depth than just being a bad old boy who learns to behave.
The ladies, unfortunately, don’t have much to do except stand or fall
by their men. Theron, for whom this
is the fourth of her five films of this year, shows a bit more spunk than she
does in The
Legend of Bagger Vance, but she, like Ellis, doesn’t have much to work
with.
The
film, ultimately, lets us down, just as much as it lets down Brashear, who, I am
left feeling, deserves better than the stagey hokum into which the film
dissolves, rather wet hokum, to tell you the truth.
Cynthia Fuchs offers her
take on
this film with perhaps more insight than it deserves at Nitrate on Line.
So,
as we come to our usual conclusion, one part of which will be easy after Men
of Honor, and one part not. But, keep your feet dry and your heart
full of noble thoughts. And, at least as I am writing this, for real drama
with too few noble thoughts, keep your eyes on the current state of our ongoing
presidential election.