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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 12909
Released: April 10, 2001 |
| Our Price: Too low to display |
| Used Price: $0.17 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
One of those rare films that grabs you by the gut and never lets go, Men of Honor was inspired by the life of Carl Brasher (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an African American who dared to dream of becoming a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Despite a bigoted training officer (Robert DeNiro) and a tragic shipboard accident, Carl never gives up and achieves the impossible in an incredible finish that will leave you cheering.
Description of Men of Honor:
Men of Honor presents a great role model for younger viewers, yet it's rated R due to abundant use of the F word. With appropriate discretion, parents should allow their preteen and teenaged children to see this rousing if altogether conventional biopic inspired by the life of Carl Brashear. Played with gravity and gumption by Cuba Gooding Jr., Brashear was the first African American to become a master diver in the U.S. Navy, despite the lingering effects of segregation, opposition from Navy brass, and the amputation of his left leg following a tragic on-duty accident. Robert De Niro adds marquee value and salty bluster as Billy Sunday, the drunken, redneck (and fictionalized) Master Chief who watches, with gradual admiration, as Brashear attains his ultimate goal through sheer force of will.
This is all quite uplifting on its surface, but in attempting to hit the requisite highlights of an inspiring biography, director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) reduces Brashear's achievement to a succession of clichés, forcing Gooding and De Niro to battle sentiment with their noteworthy performances. As Sunday's neglected wife, Charlize Theron is completely extraneous; Hal Holbrook's diving-school commander is a ranting caricature; and newcomer Aunjanue Ellis barely registers as Brashear's wife (in part because their obligatory romance is handled with an utter lack of finesse). There's no question that Brashear's efforts are heroic and worthy of recognition, so Men of Honor serves its basic purpose. Still, one can't help but wonder if Brashear's story would be even more impressive with a more authentic treatment. --Jeff Shannon
Men of Honor Reviews:
Incredible Movie 
2008-07-26 - "Men of Honor" is an inspiring movie that is based on the actual events of a real-life military hero. What's more, the movie looks spectacular in high definition. I hightly recommend you buy this movie in Blu-Ray format, as it is one movie that will remain timeless and classic for years to come.
We are stepping beyond racial equality
2008-06-30 - An essential film on the history of the US Navy and the integration of the first blacks ... in the kitchens, and then the integration of the first Black as deck personnel and later as US Navy Diver. It was not easy. But we must note that the dedication on the sleeves of the DVD is absurd. It says "History is made by those who break the rules." In fact the ostracism against this first Black diver goes against the rules that come from the Commander in Chief, the President of the US who ordered the integration of US armed forces. In fact some officers who are living in their racist traditions can actually give an order to drown the black diver and this black diver is graduated because the training officer decides to disobey the order from this commanding officer because it goes against his code of honor for which all US soldiers, sailors or pilots or whatever are equal in front of the flag, the national duty and the constitution. History in this case is made by those who decide to disobey orders from bigot officers, in other words to abide by the real constitutional rules. The film is slightly romantic in a way when it shows how this Black man is really doing more than his share of good and courageous acts and is often side-tracked and rejected, even for a medal he actually deserves that is yet given to some other white diver. Effective in its emotionality but yet only emphasizing the human side of things and not the political back-side of them. It sure cracks down on the Washington pencil-pushing bureaucrats who write the rules and regulations of US armed forces though they hardly know what real field courage can be because they never had, nor looked for, the opportunity to meet with a death-bringing mission. It is true that today the racial problem is no longer so much to be accepted when Black as to be respected as having the same stamina, courage and spiritual force as the whites or any human being, in other words we are no longer dealing with tolerating them with a smile but with accepting them as being equal, hence as having the possibility to be better. From toleration to possible superiority.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Men of Honor 
2008-06-19 - This is a great movie with a superb cast. Blu-ray brings it more to life than DVD did.
mary ann
2008-06-05 - Outstanding movie- Cuba Gooding Jr. Does a great job. Well worth the time and money
Superb Acting and a Good Story
2008-04-29 - Although some of the things shown in the movie were not true and the character of Billy Sunday was a composite of several people and not a real person, the important basic facts were true and remarkable. Carl Brashear did in fact lose a leg from a shipboard accident and did come back from that tradegy to become a master diver with an artificial leg. And he faced a lot of racism. The man had super-human determination. He actually wrote 100's of letters to even get admitted to diving school, as told in the movie. He is a true hero and this is a very inspirational movie. I had never taken Cuba Gooding, Jr. very seriously, probably because of having seen him in light comedies before this. He proved himself more than capable of handling a difficult, dramatic role. He is still not a matured actor and has a way to go to be as good as more seasoned actors. In spite of that, he really pulled off this role very well. De Niro does a wonderful job too as the unrelenting trainer. Yes, there are some things in the movie that seem a bit contrived, but it didn't bother me because I knew I was watching the story of a great hero. Even though some facts were distorted, it does not diminish in any way the remarkable achievements of Carl Brashear.
