Review of Men of Honor (2000) by Anna V — 10 Apr 2009

Carl Brashear (Gooding Jr.) decides to leave his lifestyle in native Kentucky in 1948 and the life of a sharecropper by way of joining the United States Navy. As a crew member of the salvage ship USS Hoist (ARS-40), 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 (De Niro). He is determined to overcome racism and become the first ever African 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. However, he finds that Master Chief Sunday is the Leading Chief Petty Officer and head instructor, who is under orders from the school's eccentric commanding officer to ensure that Brashear fails.

Brashear struggles to overcome his educational shortcomings, a result of him leaving school in the 7th grade in order to help his family's failing farm. He receives educational assistance from his future wife, an aspiring doctor, who works part time in the Harlem (New York City) Public Library. Brashear proves himself as a diver by rescuing a fellow student whose dive buddy abandoned him during a salvage evaluation that turns into a near disaster. Unfortunately, due to the prevailing racism of the commanding officer, the student who fled in the face of danger is awarded a medal for Brashear's heroic actions. After many more challenges ? both mental and physical, including an underwater assembling task where each student had to assemble a flange underwater using a bag of tools, but Carl's bag is cut open. Yet, Carl, determined and confident, completes his challenge and successfully completes the diving school earning the quiet and suppressed admiration of Master Chief Sunday.

The paths and careers of both Brashear and Sunday sharply diverge as the former rises quickly through the ranks, even becoming a national hero in recovering a missing atomic bomb and for saving the life of a Navy crew, while the latter becomes a brooding alcoholic and is reduced in rank from Master Chief to Chief Petty Officer. The two eventually meet again after Brashear loses his left leg in the atomic bomb incident and must fight the US Navy in order to return to full active duty and fulfill his dream of becoming a master diver. They are successful and Carl becomes a master diver.

Tagline: History is made by those who break the rules.

Great movie, touching from the beggining till the end. This man's (Karl, played by Cuba Gooding) strenght is inspiring. I will remember him everytime I am feeling that I am having difficulties.