Sometimes you just want to watch a tidy little biopic, and for those times might I suggest Men of Honor (2000)? Based on the life of Carl Brashear, the first Black Master Diver in the US Navy, this film is absolutely stacked with the turn-of-the-millennium A-listers and up-and-comers.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays Brashear, Robert DeNiro plays his slightly less racist than everyone else Master Chief Billy Sunday, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Brashear’s love interest/aspiring doctor Jo Brashear, Charlize Theron plays Sunday’s alcoholic bombshell wife Emma Sunday, and Hal Holbrook plays the extremely racist commanding officer of the dive school Mr. Pappy. There’s even a young Holt McCallany as one of Brashear’s racist fellow dive students, and Michael Rapaport as Snowhill, the only white dive student who wasn’t a total piece of shit to Brashear.
Carl Brashear’s story briefly touches on his early childhood as the son of Black sharecroppers in Kentucky, trying to eke out a life for themselves under the oppressively racist Jim Crow south. This oppression only serves to strengthen young Carl’s determination to succeed, and by 1948, he enlists in the Navy, only 4 months before the military was desegregated by President Harry S. Truman. Initially, Carl is assigned to the galley on the US Navy salvage ship USS Hoist. Working in oppressive conditions as a cook, he impetuously dives into the ocean on a day when white sailors were allowed to swim and beats one of the best swimmers on the crew who attempts to pull him back on the ship. He’s disciplined for his insubordination, but then released when his commanding officer recognizes him for being one of the strongest swimmers he’s seen. This plants the seed of where the plot will eventually whisk us away to, as Carl’s determination to become a Navy diver is further reinforced when he witnesses Billy Sunday’s bravery while trying to save a fellow diver after a helicopter crashes into the ship.
The film then traces Brashear’s at times arduous, yet determined climb up the ranks of the Navy, passing dive school despite the orders of Mr. Pappy to fail him, and then culminates in 1966 when Brashear becomes a national hero for his bravery in the aftermath of the Palomares accident, when a B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear warheads collided with a KC-135 tanker during refueling. Brashear was serving on the USS Hoist (this time as a diver, not a cook) and was severely injured when his leg was crushed in an accident on deck as he pushed a crewman out of harm’s way. His injury ultimately requiring his leg be amputated, but Brashear refuses to let a measly missing leg slow him down, and you guessed it, he becomes the first Navy man to return to active duty after losing a limb.
All of these things are true and really did happen, more or less as depicted in the film. There is the usual amount of condensing the timeline to fit into 120 minutes, but it’s still a pretty accurate depiction of Brashear’s boundary-breaking career. The costumes are mostly uniforms, obviously, but the costume team is actually pretty interesting to dig into. Costume designer Salvador Pérez Jr. worked closely with costumer Harold Crawford, who describes his process of working on Men of Honor in this short clip:
I really enjoyed this film, even if it’s not in my usual historical wheelhouse. I thought the story was tightly and expertly crafted, the actors were all excellently cast, and the costumes, while not having a ton of the typical frock flick fare, were beautifully done.
Have you seen Men of Honor (2000)? Tell us what you think in the comments!
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