Movie Review: Devotion

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent war film. 

This film tells the story of a real-life hero, Jesse Brown, who was a naval aviator during the Korean war. He was the first African American naval aviators and broke many racial boundaries. This movie does a wonderful job painting a portrait of this great man. This is especially true during the scenes that show him dealing with racial prejudice and biases from people, who do and don't realize they are treating him differently. Through Jonathan Majors' wonderful performance, you can always see the pain that this treatment causes him, yet he always holds himself with the utmost dignity and respect, never letting what anyone else says, effect how he feels about himself. While he recognizes himself as a flawed man, he also recognizes himself as a man deserving the respect that he is not always given. Yet the character never feels too perfect, to not feel human and relatable to us. While I never met the real man and can't tell you how close this representation is to the real person, I can say that the character here always felt like a real human being. His relationship with his white commanding officer is especially well handled. The two are great friends and you can feel the warmth between them in every scene, even those where they have disagreements. This is where much of the heart of the film lies, and it works wonderfully. Not only do Johnathan Majors and Glen Powell have wonderfully chemistry, but the script looks at this relationship in a very intelligent way. The commanding officer always tries to stand up for his friend, whenever he experiences any racism. However, he is not always much help and can even make things worse. Jesse prefers to stand up for himself and fight his own battles his own way. This creates a wonderful dynamic that allows us to relate to both characters and fully understand why it might cause some conflict between friends. This is not an action movie by any means, only having two real action sequences. However these action sequences are truly wonderful and exciting. They are wonderfully paced and have a great sense of suspense.   

This movie can be broken into two parts. One is before our characters see conflict and the other is when they are fighting. I admit that the first part felt kind of padded out with scenes that weren't necessary and didn't really add much to the story or the characters. If these scenes were left it, it would have created a tighter constructed film. Unfortunately they can affect the pacing and feel of this first part. This film also has a problem that is common in war movies. There are quite a few characters in the main group and to give time to the main two characters, the rest come off as kind of bland and clichéd.

None of this can take away from the pure emotional punch this movie delivers in its last act. I don't want to go into much more detail (for those who don't know the true story), but the ending of this film is quite powerful and more than makes up for any flaws it had along the way. 

If you are a fan of war movies, I can highly recommend this one. 

Overlooked Classics: The Steel Helmet (1951)

There have been many movies over the years about World War 2, but very few about the Korean War. However The Steel Helmet stands as not only a great film about the Korean War, but a fantastic war movie on any level. 



Samuel Fuller (the movie’s director, writer and producer) was a veteran of World War 2 (he would later make a World War 2 film that was essentially autobiographical called The Big Red One). He felt previous war movies were often dishonest and naïve about what soldier’s went through, and that the full brutality of war had never yet been depicted on screen. Since this film was made on a rather small budget of $100,000, this brutality was not shown through excessive violence or massive battle sequences (in fact there were only 25 extras (all students from UCLA) and they played both American and Korean soldiers), but rather through the characters’ psyche. The characters were filled with thoughts of hopelessness and desperation. To show soldiers at war as this beaten mentally was something that had not been seen in almost all previous war movies.



The film was not only shot on a low budget but in only ten days of shooting. This may have helped create the real, gritty, and natural feeling of this film that is so different from any big budget Hollywood studio film from this era. This is not an action movie by any means, nor is it an inspiring story of how the U.S. army can defeat powers of pure evil leaving good victorious. Rather it is a film about the mental hardships that those who fight in wars face every day. This film leaves me with more respect for those soldiers fighting overseas for my country. What they have gone through is something I could never imagine, and the mental pain they push themselves through is incredible. I am not a veteran, so I cannot say how real this film represents that mental torture, but I can say to me it feels unbelievably real.



This movie was a center of great controversy when released. It was considered by many to be anti-American. This was because throughout this movie the characters were always unsure exactly what they were fighting for or even who their enemy was. The main cast included a black soldier (James Edwards) and a Japanese-American soldier (Richard Loo). A prisoner of war tests their allegiance by bringing up Jim Crow laws and Japanese internment camps. There was also an American soldier (Steve Brodie) who was a clear racist. This sat uneasy with some who felt Fuller was trying to make America look like a racist country. Fuller denied this saying he was just trying to be brutally honest about history and what happened in war. All the decisions that created this controversy help make the film even more powerful and shocking to audiences then and now. The movie has a feeling of brutal honesty that few movies can capture so well.

A review in Variety stated "Lippert Pictures has what would seem a sure money film in 'The Steel Helmet.'" (To read the whole review click here.) This turned out to be true as the film earned over $2 million at the box office and made big studios take notice of the film's director.

-Michael J. Ruhland