Word: carl
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...certain novelty arises when Carl's leg is shattered in an accident. The Navy wants him to retire. Instead he orders the leg amputated, thinking a prosthesis will be less of a handicap to him on duty. We may never have seen courage expressed in quite that way, but it's also an excuse to bring a sobered-up Billy back to help Carl prove to a review board that he can return to active service. This, naturally, he does, presumably with the thanks of a grateful nation...
...Inspired (a word that is bound to make realists queasy) by the real-life story of a man named Carl Brashear, who is played by Cuba Gooding Jr., the film is feverish in its desire to reduce his experiences to a compendium of clichés. Carl is, to begin with, the son of a black sharecropper. He joins the Navy in 1948, when the military is officially desegregated yet still confines men of his race to the galley. But he sees Navy divers being heroic and decides to join their ranks...
...Diving school is commanded by a godlike lunatic (Hal Holbrook) who never leaves his tower office but knows what he hates, which is a black man striving for élite status. All but one of Carl's barracks mates move out rather than sleep in the same room with him. Day-to-day training is under the command of Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro), a drunken, brawling redneck who, if he can't drive Carl out of school, would just as soon kill...
...that's just the beginning. In need of help with his book learning, Carl wins the support of the dubious local librarian (an appealing Aunjanue Ellis). Can love and marriage be far behind? Not in this movie. Will Carl attain his goal and Billy's reluctant respect? Why are we bothering...
...Carl Morris, Kyle Cremarosa, Sean Meeker and the rest of the wideouts, for their part, have specialized in making Ivy League defensive backs look foolish and turning short passes into long gains...