Men of Honor

Men of Honor (released in the UK and Ireland as Men of Honour) is a 2000 American drama film directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is inspired by the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, the first African American master diver in the United States Navy.

Plot
Carl Brashear leaves his native Kentucky and the life of a sharecropper in 1949 by joining the United States Navy. Carl promised his father that he would never quit and fight for what he wants. As a crew member of the salvage ship USS Hoist, where he is assigned to the galley, he is inspired by the bravery of Master Chief Petty Officer Leslie William "Billy" Sunday who free dives to rescue a diver knocked overboard without an air line. Sunday develops an air embolism which prevents him from ever diving again. Brashear is determined to become the first black American Navy diver, even proclaiming that he will become a master diver. He eventually is allowed to attend Diving and Salvage School in Bayonne, New Jersey. He finds that Master Chief Sunday is the head instructor; Sunday is under orders from the school's bigoted commanding officer, Mr. Pappy, to ensure that Brashear fails. The other students, led by Dylan Rourke, refuse to bunk with Brashear.

Brashear struggles to overcome his educational shortcomings, a result of his leaving school in the seventh grade in order to work on his family's farm. He receives assistance from Jo, a female medical student who works part-time in the New York Public Library. Brashear proves himself as a diver by rescuing a fellow student when his dive partner, Rourke, abandons him during a salvage exercise gone wrong. At Mr. Pappy's instruction, Rourke is awarded a medal, taking credit for Brashear's actions. After learning his father has died, Brashear encounters Sunday and the rest of the class at a bar. When Sunday asks if Brashear thinks he is better than him, the two don diving gear that fills with water to see who can hold his breath longer. After four minutes, Sunday's nose starts to bleed and the students drain his suit, leaving Brashear the winner.

For their final evaluation, each student must assemble a flange underwater using a bag of tools. At Mr. Pappy's direction, Brashear's bag is cut open to impede his passing. Brashear must take time to locate and gather his tools as the water temperature drops. Hours after the other students have finished, Brashear completes the assembly and graduates from diving school. Sunday is later demoted to senior chief by Mr. Pappy for allowing Brashear to pass.

The paths and careers of Brashear and Sunday diverge. Sunday continually loses his composure around officers who disrespect his accomplishments until he is finally demoted to chief petty officer and relegated to menial duties. Brashear marries Jo and rises quickly through the ranks, even becoming a national hero in the 1966 Palomares incident for evading a Soviet submarine, recovering a missing hydrogen bomb and severing his left leg below the knee while saving the lives of Navy crewmen. Brashear feels that his only chance to return to active duty and a relatively normal life is for the leg to be amputated and replaced with a prosthesis. Until this time, no Navy man had ever returned to full active duty with a prosthetic limb.

Brashear reunites with Sunday, who helps him train and fight against the Navy's bureaucracy and the antagonistic Captain Hanks (Brashear's and Sunday's former Hoist executive officer) in order to return to full active duty and fulfill his dream of becoming a master diver. After Brashear passes his readiness evaluation, his reinstatement hearing is held before the Chief of Naval Personnel in Washington. Hanks brings in the latest Navy technology, a 290-pound copper diving suit and tells Brashear he must walk 12 steps to qualify for reinstatement. Knowing his prosthesis cannot bear the extra weight, Brashear stands and takes all 12 steps with the full weight of his body and the suit on his right leg. Hanks declares that Brashear is reinstated to full active duty.

The epilogue notes that Brashear becomes a master diver two years later, and was active for another nine years before retiring.

Cast

 * Robert De Niro as Master Chief Leslie 'Billy' Sunday (based on Boatswain's Mate First Class Harry M. Rutherford)
 * Cuba Gooding Jr. as Boatswain's Mate Second Class (later Master Diver) Carl Brashear
 * Chris Warren Jr. as Young Carl
 * Charlize Theron as Gwen Sunday
 * Aunjanue Ellis as Jo Brashear
 * Hal Holbrook as Camp Commanding Officer 'Mr. Pappy' Captain USN.
 * Michael Rapaport as Gunners Mate Snowhill, Brashear's barracks mate.
 * Powers Boothe as Captain Pullman
 * David Keith as Captain Hartigan
 * Holt McCallany as Machinist's Mate First Class Dylan Rourke
 * David Conrad as Captain Hanks
 * Joshua Leonard as Petty Officer Second Class Timothy Douglas Isert
 * Carl Lumbly as Mac Brashear, Carl's Father
 * Lonette McKee as Ella Brashear, Carl's mother
 * Glynn Turman as Chief Floyd
 * Joshua Feinman as DuBoyce
 * Lindsay Thomas as Girl in Bar

Production
The film features the classic US Navy Mark V diving equipment used by the Navy from 1915 until 1985. The equipment was custom made by DESCO, who manufactured the gear for the Navy along with three other makers. The helmets used were actually commercial helmets (which have larger glass windows or "lights") on Navy breast plates, allowing greater visibility of the actors. The divers wore equipment weighing about 200 lb.

Reception
The film opened at the third position at the North American box office behind Little Nicky and Charlie's Angels, which was on its second week at the top spot.

Men of Honor was met with mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it currently has an approval rating of 42% based on 106 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The critics consensus states, "De Niro and Gooding Jr. manage to turn in performances that make this by-the-numbers inspirational movie watchable." According to Metacritic, which compiled 30 reviews and calculated a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "an old-fashioned biopic" but criticized Theron's appearance in the film, calling it "professional but unnecessary to the picture".

Historical accuracy
While the film portrays a Wisconsin recruit as the only white recruit to remain in Carl Brashear's bunk, the actual individual was a Brazilian diver named Alberto José do Nascimento, who was also dark skinned. Alberto also helped Brashear save a fellow recruit who was trapped underwater during a training exercise.

Soundtrack
Mark Isham's soundtrack was released as an album in 2000.