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Based on a true story, Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) was an Afro-American who wanted to be a deep sea diver for the US Navy. At his time, racism was far more common than now in US. No Afro-American had ever been accepted by the Navy Dive School in Bayonne, New Jersey, let alone graduated from it. Carl would die for being a deep sea diver. With his persistence, he graduated even though there were enormous pressure and obstacles, from his fellow trainees, from training officer Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro), and from the head of the school, Mr Pappy (Hal Halbrook). While the US Navy was trying to retrive an H-bomb from the bed of the Mediterranean Sea, Carl was almost killed with a Soviet submarine bypassing. He managed to escape and then found the bomb. While he was on the deck watching the bomb being retrieved by a crane, the crane collapsed. He tried to avoid his fellow navy men from being killed by the falling crane, and he was strucked and he lost his leg. He did not want to retire, and he even paid the price of sawing off his wounded leg. He still had to face Lt. Hanks (David Conrad) who was a racist and had the power to retire Carl. Again, with his persistence, he got his job back, and did not retire until he served in the US Navy for another 11 years.

This film reveals the problem of racism in the navy, even though the President had ordered equality in the military. In the film, we saw that the Whites and the Blacks were not allowed to swim together. In reality, I am almost sure that Blacks were bullied by Whites at that time. The good side of this film about racism is that instead of getting even by using violence, Carl used his persistence to make his dream come true. That was a smart move because that was the only way, however slim was the chance, that he could realize his dream to be a deep sea diver.

The film also portrays the drifting lives of the families of American soldiers. For some, the soldier would be away from the family for months because of new missions. Some have to move almost like once a year and live in a different city every time. This is a stress to both the spouses (like Carl's wife Jo by Aunjanue Ellis) as they have to worry about their loved ones in missions, and also to the kids who cannot see their parents for a long period of time or have to leave their friends whenever they move when they grow up.

I wonder how closely the story follows reality. The fact that Carl was almost killed by a submarine and then not longer later lost his foot in an accident is hard to believe. Also, the dramatic scene that happened in the court at the end of the film is also a bit too dramatic to be true (such as a diving suit being pushed into the courtroom in the middle of the hearing). Apart from these two incidents, the story is pretty real-life.

Both Gooding Jr. and De Niro had won Oscars and no doubt they also did a very good job in this film. Chalize Theron's role is a negligible one. Too bad for people who like Charlize.

All in all, I believe that Men of Honor is a good film and is worth the time to watch it. The messages that it brings are conveyed naturally without the feel to the viewers that the producer is forcing some values to the viewers. I would like to recommend any person who likes to watch good films to watch it.

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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