Devotion: Story of Jesse Brown in the Korean War

[Waltz41]

Most people are aware of the story.....this looks like it could be pretty good.  Nice to see they already have Corsairs, Skyraiders, Bearcats and Migs that will be flown for the movie.  Keeping my eye on this one.

 

Devotion

[TLeo]

The book was excellent, so I hope the movie does it justice. 

[USMCR79]

My Friend Joe Stone is the prop/uniform advisor!!

 

Bill

[B-17Guy]

I read this book when it came out and felt it was one of the best books I had ever read.

My immediate feeling was that if this was done right, it would make a heck of a movie.

Looking forward to it!
John

[USMC_COLLECTOR]

Read the book right before seeing the movie. After watching the movie I was very impressed at the accuracy and to be quite honest, the movie was spectacular. Korea is one of my favorite areas to teach people about because of how little it is talked about. All in all a spectacular movie and a sad story. 

[Waltz41]

That's good to hear.  I am hearing/seeing mixed reviews.  Some seem legit with their critiques, others are BS.  Like one said that there wasn't a ton of flying and the movie itself really focused on the human relationships.  Oh, I'm sorry, you thought it was just a story about Corsairs?!?!?

 

Looking forward to getting out to see this asap!

[gwb123]

CNN story of the background of the movie:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/25/us/brown-hudner-devotion-korean-war-cec/index.html

[Charlie Flick]

I saw the film and must say that I had mixed opinions about it.  I would grade it as a B- film.  On the positive side the aircraft were just spectacular.  They appeared to me to very authentic and period correct.  Flying vintage aircraft is hugely expensive, of course, so it was nice to see these old birds back in the air on film.  There were some obvious CGI effects but I went into the film fully expecting that.

 

The uniforms, aviation gear and sets also appeared to me to be well done.  I have not read any critiques of the film by collectors but I am sure that there were some goofs, as there are in every Hollywood film.

 

Some of the aviation tactics seemed improbable to me.  For example, the Corsairs all went into combat without dropping their external fuel tanks.  While the drop tanks look tough I think any military pilot attacking a defended bridge would be considered suicidal if he failed to drop those tanks as they were designed to do and took a chance on a single incendiary or tracer round hitting the tanks and turning the aircraft into an immediate avgas fireball.  Also, those tanks adversely affect the aircraft's maneuverability so leaving them hanging there while trying to fight the aircraft would be a large mistake.  The only time I saw the tanks dropped were when the aircraft were preparing to crash land.  OK, it's Hollywood, not a documentary.  I get it.

 

The movie was widely marketed as a war film.  It turned out to be more of a commentary on race relations in the Navy in the early 1950s, with a war thrown in.  It was focused the friendship of two aviators, one black and one white, and the very real struggle of Ens. Jesse Brown.  If you are looking for a naval aviation film about the Korean War then find a copy of The Bridges of Toko-Ri.  It seemed to me that this film had more of a 21st Century attitude about it which I found somewhat intrusive.

 

I applaud any time that Hollywood decides to do a war film so I was happy to see this one make it to the screen.  However, Wikipedia reports that ticket receipts were miserable and the film was a failure from a commercial standpoint.  "It received positive reviews from critics and audiences but was a box-office bomb, grossing $21 million worldwide against a $90 million budget."  

 

Regards,

Charlie

[Charlie Flick]

[Matt_X]

Distribution in the movie theaters around here Christmastime was very limited.  Maybe I missed the week it was showing in town?   This may have contributed to low box office sales.

 

My reaction to watching it on the small screen was very similar to Charlie's above.  It wasn't bad, and the acting was fine.  Giving it a B- is  fair.  The land battle scenes (Chosin)  were minimal - thankfully - and could have been dispensed with entirely.

 

Discussing the film with a buddy from the CMP matches, the film tried to stay with story from the book of the same title.   He explained "In the book, the marines on the ground was a major sub-story line. The book followed several of the marines and their lives and stories."  Since the movie doesn't have that sub-plot, those scenes were unneccessary.   The producer and director would have been better off focusing on the title story, which is summarized in the New England Historical Society's webpage about the painting Devotion.   see https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-story-of-jesse-brown-and-tom-hudner-narragansett-bay-aviators/

 

The rest of the film is well shot and generally visually believable.  However even so, it felt like the director lifted scenes and even camara work right out of any number of B films we've seen before.   The scenes with planes flying through valleys reminded me of Star Wars.  Some of the stuff was clearly Hollywood which Charlie has already mentioned so I won't belabor the point. 

 

It's entertainment, and as entertainment it was fine.  As a possibly a hook to interest people in history (the real stories) its OK.   I generally don't like things being simplified or dumbed down for historical interpretation, but for fictionalized drama I try to be more forgiving.  Nonetheless I think time spent better representing what operations (such as briefing) as we;ve seen in some old war films, would go just as far as the fictional drama to bring us into the lives of the people portrayed.

At least on the moderate size TV at my neighbors, the CGI wasn't too distracting.    For someone totally immersed in the subject matter and material culture, I can't promise the film will draw you in enough to keep the issues from being distracting.

 

One thing I found interesting is the Navy's posting about Jesse Brown tell his story a bit differently, and that's why there often is more than one book on a subject that may be worth reading.  :)

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/people/trailblazers/jesse-brown.html