Gisselle’s Men of Honor review

Men Of Honor is a film about a black sharecropper’s son named Carl Brashear who joined the U.S. Navy after World War II. His dream was to become the first black navy diver. Not only did he become the first black navy diver, but the world’s first black Master Diver. His father told him that things will get rough and assures him it will be hard, he also tells Carl to not come back home for a long time. Carl had to suffer blatant racism and the loneliness he had to face during training at the dive school. This is the story of the U.S. Navy’s first black Master Diver.

My analysis- It was around Christmas time when I first saw the movie. Lenny and Zoe showed us this great movie but we never finished it. Couple of months later, I had finished the movie, I didn’t expect some of the scenes to get to me but they did. The most iconic scene for me was when the dive students had to take an underwater test in order to graduate dive school. Master Chief Master Navy Diver, Billy Sunday, was very cruel to Brashear. Making Brashear’s life in the school even harder for him, especially when Brashear was taking the test. Everyone was telling Brashear to give up and that he will never graduate due to his skin color not because of who he is. During the test, Sunday sabotaged Brashear’s tools needed to complete the test. I thought he did that because the commanding officer was looking over at them to see if Sunday was obeying orders. He even told Sunday to not let Brashear come up to the surface. The commanding officer wanted Brashear to freeze to death. Brashear was underwater for over 9 hours. Since his tools and parts were all over the bottom, he had to look for them. Brashear was determined to complete the test, he refused to go up even when he was shivering. Again, the commanding officer ordered Sunday to let Brashear freeze to death.

But Sunday refused. Though Sunday would lose his position and rank, He started to bring Brashear up but not before Brashear finished the test. What got to me was Sunday’s change of heart. He looked down at Brashear because of his race, but in the end he saw him as an equal in diving. Which proves even the most ignorant and stubborn people can change.

Brashear’s hard work did pay off and it saddened me his father was not around to see his victory and future. Brashear is an inspiration and legend to divers of color. He went through hell and back just so my fellow classmates of color could be given the opportunity to dive. BTW, Cuba Gooding Jr. did a great job playing as Carl Brashear.