Men of Honor Essay Example for Free

Men of Honor Essay Cosby, B. and Robertson, S. (Producers) Tillman, G. (Director). (2001). Men of Honor [Motion Picture]. United States of American: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation The movie begins by introducing Master Chief Leslie W. (Billy) Sunday (Robert DeNiro), a US Navy Diver, who has recently gone AWOL. The movie then flashes back 25 years, where an African-American boy named Carl Braschear is watching his father work the plow on their farm. Carl wants to quit school so that he will be able to help work and then prevent the farm from ruin. Carl’s father is against his son being like him and stuck working on a farm. As time passes Carl (Cuba Gooding Jr. ) decides to join the Navy. On the day Carl is leaving for the Navy, Carl’s father gives his son a custom-built portable radio as a memento of home, and tells Carl to be the best, even if it means breaking the rules. Carl winds up working in the kitchens on the USS Hoist in the South Pacific. He and the other African American officer’s joke about the so-called bright future the Navy promised them. Afterwards, Carl and his friends go up on deck where the white officers are swimming (the black crew members are assigned a specific day when they can swim). Carl, tired and hot, decides to jump in the water. The white officers try and chase him down, but Carl out-swims all of them. The ships captain meets with Carl and, impressed with the boys speed, decides to transfer Carl to the search rescue swimmers, a group assigned to rescue anyone who falls overboard on ship. A few days later, the ship is rocked by an apparent crash. Carl assists the others on deck in raising a Navy Diver from the sea floor with the wounded pilot. The Diver is Master Chief Sunday. Carl, having seen Sundays actions as heroic, is inspired and vows to become a Navy Master Diver. Two years later, Carl is reporting for Diving School. Despite the harsh treatments, Carl performs admirably in his training, assembling machinery and adapting to the diving suit with much greater results than a large number of his classmates. Unfortunately, Carl is falling behind in the academic requirements-scoring only a 37 on his first exam. If he fails again, Carl will be kicked out of the program. One weekend, on leave, Carl comes to a library in the hopes of getting a tutor to help him. He meets a young woman named Jo who is studying medicine. Carl stays the entire night at the library reading and learning more about the Navy program. Next morning, Jo is so impressed by his progress that she agrees to help Carl. After diligent studying Carl passed his next exam allowing him to remain in the navy dive program. The time has come and Carl has passed his final exam with a 94, Chief Sunday has been instructed by the Senior Officer at the training to school to do whatever is necessary to prevent Carl from passing the final test. Most of the other recruits are able to complete the project in about 2 hours. Carl remains in the water for 9 hours after having to find all of his components in the excruciatingly cold water; Carl Brashear has passed his final and essentially graduated with honors from Diving School. After waiting several years as a stand by divers, Carl finally is assigned to a ship allowing him to dive. An accident on the ship’s deck causes the lines to snap. Carl shoves several other deck hands aside, but his own leg is caught by the snapped wire. Carl realizes his diving days are over but refuses to give up, he request his leg be amputated. He begins the difficult process of learning to move and act with a prosthetic. Master Chief Sunday pays Carl a visit while in the hospital and encourages him to not give up and they will train together. Two months later, after completing all the difficult tasks Naval Personnel placed before him, he was reinstated to full diving duty. Carl became the first African-American amputee to be on active Navy diving duty, and be promoted to Master Chief. Carl continued in his Naval career for another nine years before finally retiring. Personal Reflection Men or Honor is a movie which offers the viewer a great deal of emotion. Even though I previously watch the movie some years before, I felt this would be the perfect movie based on our studies. Carl, the main actor in the movie was determined to succeed in life. Because of his father’s confidence and determination, Carl wanted a better life. Society consistently provides roadblocks for everyone even those with some type of disability. In each segment of the movie, my feelings bounced between crying and laughing. Each time Carl was faced with an adversity, I found myself getting mad Critical Thought This week’s discussion dealt with Individuals and Disabilities. Over the years, people who have a â€Å"disability have been subjected to prejudice and more. And the first way to diminish someone is through language, by using words or labels to identify a person as less-than, as the others—not like us, and so forth. Once a person has been identified this way, it makes it easier to justify prejudice and discrimination. One of many concepts which caught my attention this week was the importance of putting a person first before the disability. This allows the disability to be in the background while the focus is on the person. Often times, people with disabilities are fighting society to let them know they are not their disabilities. People are not victims due to their disability; people are victims of attitudes and discrimination.