Honorable mention
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 8, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Twentieth Century Fox Cuba Gooding Jr.
(second from left) stands up to the challenge from Robert
De Niro (far right), a master chief who is certain that
the rigorous Navy diving program is no place for him in "Men of
Honor." The movie, from the director of "Soul Food", opens
nationwide on Friday.
By Sarah Monson
Daily Bruin Contributor
Navy diver Carl Brashear’s duties include more than just
salvage work. Although divers are not typically considered fighting
men, fighting is all he’s ever done since joining the
Navy.
“Men of Honor,” opening Friday, is a film depicting
the true story of Brashear and his struggles to overcome the
obstacles placed before him in order to succeed.
It is also a film about firsts.
It’s about the first African American to be admitted into
a Navy Diver program. It’s about the first African American
to become a Maser Chief Diver in the Navy. And it’s a film
about the first one-legged African American Master Chief Diver to
be re-admitted into the Navy after a crippling injury.
Not only that, but “Men of Honor” is also director
George Tillman Jr.’s first big studio film.
“I felt like it’s time for African American
directors to show African American characters as the leads, but do
it in such a way that it is marketable to everybody,” said
Tillman in a recent interview.
 Twentieth Century Fox Cuba Gooding Jr.
meets his dive school instructor’s troubled wife, played by
Charlize Theron, in the new movie "Men of Honor."
Tillman, who garnered success in his first film, “Soul
Food” (1996) decided that he didn’t want to limit the
exposure that his films get solely based on the fact that they have
all black characters.
Introduced to the script in 1997, both Tillman and his partner,
producer Bob Teitel, knew they had found something special in
Brashear’s story.
“Once we met him we knew we were going to make this movie,
but Carl had been hearing this for 19 years,” Teitel
said.
Brashear, who lives in Virginia, had been propositioned many
times for his awe-inspiring story of his life. With Tillman and
Teitel, however, the movie version of his story became a
reality.
The story of “Men of Honor” follows Brashear, played
by Cuba Gooding Jr., through his life, going from a poor
sharecropper’s son in Kentucky to a husband, father, and
revered Navy man.
Brashear is constantly oppressed and relentlessly sabotaged in
the Navy, and it seems as if no one will give him a break. In
addition, Brashear experiences an accident aboard a ship during a
salvaging assignment, which leaves him with a severed leg.
According to Teitel, not even film magic could capture the
horror of that accident.
“When (Brashear) was hit he flew up six or seven feet in
the air. We couldn’t recreate that,” he said.
Other things about Brashear’s story were also altered for
the sake of the film. For instance, the final scene in the
courtroom in which Brashear is forced to walk 12 steps wearing a
diving suit weighing 240 pounds with only one good leg and a
prosthetic didn’t really happen.
Rather, the true story is worse. Brashear was forced to walk the
12 steps five times in that suit. The truth of the situation proved
to be much more dire than what Hollywood could pack into a two hour
film.
Surprisingly, years of grappling with the Navy and its
traditions have not left Brashear bitter.
“This man (Brashear) feels no bitterness towards the
Navy,” Teitel said. “He was determined and nothing was
going to get in his way.”
Not even Billy Sunday (Robert DeNiro), who is a racist, hateful,
alcoholic and violent villain.
Touted as the best Master Chief Diver in the Navy, Sunday is the
bane of Brashear’s existence.
Although based on a true story, DeNiro’s character is a
composite of two men that Brashear encountered in the Navy.
Made for only $32 million, the movie required many actors,
including DeNiro, to accept pay cuts. They were willing to accept
less pay because they believed in the production so much.
Though a movie exposing blatant racism might be considered
something the Navy would want to keep quiet, Brashear’s story
is nevertheless successful in “Men of Honor.”
“Everybody knows Carl, he’s a hero in the
Navy,” Teitel said. “There was no way that they were
going to deny this man his story.”
FILM: “Men of Honor” opens Friday in theaters
nationwide. For more information, visit www.menofhonor.com.
