Men of Honor Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Men of Honor - Movie Review Example Determined to become the Navy's first master diver, Brashear confronts Billy Sunday, a racist Navy diving instructor in the segregated south of the early 1950s. From the beginning of the film we see Brashear struggle with the elements and his race as he plows a field in the hot sun with his father. As a means to escape, Brashear joins the Navy with the hope of bettering his station in life. He confronts the chores of Navy kitchen duty while working to become a black Navy diver. Eventually given the opportunity to become a diver, he is confronted by the Navy instructors bent on proving him incapable. The ongoing torment from Billy Sunday and the Commander, played by Hal Holbrooke, can't hold Brashear down. He conquers every obstacle placed in front of him. After he becomes a diver, his career seems to be cut short when his leg is amputated after an accident on a Navy ship. Brashear again struggles to regain his strength and the fortitude to carry the weight of a Navy Scuba outfit. This time, Billy Sunday is his biggest supporter as we see Brashear overcome the final obstacle of a physical handicap. Though the film is based in racism, its inspiration comes from the need to overcome any hardship. Much of Brashear's torment came from a racist feeling in Sunday and his classmates, yet we see the struggle in terms of a fight against the elements and ourselves. There is a memorable scene where Sunday makes Brashear's diving test almost impossible to pass.