Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoMen of Honour
December 14th 2006 12:04
Okay, I'll be honest. I only picked this up because it had De Niro in it. I figured, 'hey, it's got De Niro, and I know it'll at least be entertaining'. How would I know that, you may ask? Well, it's a biopic concerning the real-life struggle of Carl Brashear, the first African-American US Navy Diver. I always tend to find biopics easy to watch.
Carl's story is an inspiring one. He faced racism (thankfully, downplayed so as not to be the most prominent factor in this movie), opposition from his peers and superiors, and fought against his own honourable discharge from the navy after an accident nearly severed his leg clean through.
It's good to see Cuba Gooding Jr in something that didn't go straight-to-video (IE. 'Snow Dogs'), he's a charismatic guy, and he does well in the lead role. De Niro plays Master Chief 'Billy' Sunday, who 'trains' Brashear to be a Navy Diver. The term 'trains' being subjective, as the Navy (and Sunday) don't want Brashear to succeed.
I couldn't help but feel a little 'meh' by the end of the film. I never thought I'd ever say this, but too much time of the film was spent focusing on De Niro's character. This was Brashear's story, and I feel that in a story like this the main character should feature in nearly every scene. This aside though, it's generally an okay film. It aint boring, and the story is really quite something when you consider that it's true.
| 65 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog