I usually don't like to see Robert De Niro playing anything outside of a dramatic role. I don't think he should ever attempt comedy, even though I think he is a great actor. I thought he was masterful in The Mission. (I wish he desired God in real life like he did in that movie; he would be here in Divine Administration helping us to produce our first film). I also liked him in The Deer Hunter–a film that took me back to my steel-working friends and family in Pennsylvania. What two great films; he showed honor in both of them. His role as prejudiced, alcoholic, and tough-as-nails Master Sergeant Navy Diver Billy Sunday, was also very well done. Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays Carl Brashear, a black man, striving to be the first navy diver in the early 50s–the same time Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player. To be a first at anything is difficult, let alone being black.I identified a lot with Cuba's character in my trying to bring Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation to the world.
In the film, Brashear was determined to do what he thought was God's will. He had a sense of his own destiny and had the courage, regardless of the obstacles against him and the unnecessary hatred, to stick it out to the end. He became the best–even better than his instructor. He earned respect of his fellow divers by his steadfastness and determination. He indeed was a man of honor. Despite the prejudice and sometimes cruel behavior of Billy Sunday, he also was a man of honor; this is why in the end Brashear won Sunday's heart and loyalty.
You see, men of honor recognize and know each other. Lesser men, like the character of navy officer Hanks (David Conrad who played the wimpy part well), ride on the coat tails of greater men and often find a lesser purpose in life by becoming their enemy and speaking out publicly against them.Admiral Hyman Rickover of the U.S. Navy knew those types of men when he said, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people". It isn't much of a life, is it–riding on the greatness of another man or woman–but so many do it. In the movie, the officer Hanks did it by hiding behind his higher rank. Others do it by hiding behind their money, computers, or high paid attorneys. They are not men of honor. As a matter of fact, there is a scene where Hanks didn't even know what Brashear was talking about when Brashear said, without giving the story away, that he had to attempt a seemingly impossible undertaking because it was the navy's highest principle. Hanks had to ask what that highest principle was; Brashear, by telling him it was "honor" was also letting him know it was something Hanks lacked.
It's strange how so many in high positions–in the military, government, and religious institutions–don't even know why they're there. Every time Cuba got up from being knocked down, it reminded me of so many other great men–men like Hurricane Carter, Nelson Mandela, Generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, Jackie Robinson, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Steven Biko, Fathers Oscar Romero and Dietrich Bonhoeffer–and great women–Eleanor Roosevelt, Corrie ten Bloom, Rosa Parks, Dian Fossey, Dorothy Day, Rosa Luxenburg, and Audre Lorde. Abraham Lincoln, a farm boy, lost several elections but still persisted and eventually won the presidency.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out hatred, prejudice, and ignorance. It seems that anytime anyone tries to buck the status quo or the so-called "norm" those who exhibit these ugly dio (evil) traits seem to swarm together like locusts to devour every righteous soul, every eagle-spirit, every poet, social activist, or freedom-fighter who tries to be the first to say something different or do something a different way. This is why true civilization has not yet come to this planet. If you have to ask what honor is, you really have no idea of who God is. And, if your life consists of attacking other people who think differently than you, and you say you have honor, you probably can't even spell the word let alone walk its meaning. For true men and women of honor this is a great movie; for those without it they'll probably still wonder how that "black man" succeeded in his God-given destiny.
~Van of Urantia*MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America
