Devotion 2022
This seemed like a sappy movie about pilots in the same vein as Midway, and the reviews were not stellar, so I skipped it during its theatrical run, but it seemed like a good choice for an in-flight movie. The in-flight movie experience probably makes movies seem worse than they really are, and I had to play the movie with subtitles to make out the dialogue. There is a decent story at work here, but difficult to make into a compelling movie. The central character is Ensign Jesse Brown, the first black pilot to make it through Navy flight training. Much of the movie is told via his eventual white wing man, Tom Hudner. Both of these pilots missed World War II, but are sent to Korea flying Corsair fighter/bombers. As a race pioneer, Brown is a pretty big deal in the media and among his black shipmates, but still has to deal with a lot of racism. He is also shown as a loving husband. It's a great story, but it feels like it has been done a lot of times before. Taken from Hudner's viewpoint, Hudner has a lot to learn about Brown's challenges and how carefully he must pick his battles. I still don't feel like we get to know Brown as much as we should, but it is critical not to overdo the already generous helpings of sentimentality. It is a good movie and seems to tell the story pretty accurately. There were pioneers in all walks of life breaking barriers like Jesse Brown did, and those are important stories, but they do kind of run together.
Written: 13 Jul 2023