Today I am going to explain An American biographical War film called Devotion. It retells the comradeship between naval officers Jessie Brown and Tom Hudner during the Korean War.
The story starts with Lieutenant Tom Hudner a naval fighter pilot who was deployed to Rhode Island during the Korean War. He entered the locker room and heard a loud mumbling coming from the restroom. Ensign Jesse Brown appeared in front of him and asks if he is the new transfer guy. He introduces himself. Later Tom meets the other guys in Fighter Squadron 32: Carol Mohring, Bo Lavery, Marty Goode, and Bill Koenig, led by Lieutenant Commander Dick Cevoli. Who shows them intel that Stalin and the Soviets tested their own nuclear bomb and it won’t be long until they strap it to a bomber? Basically, he warns about the fog of war. Later he assigns Tom as Jessie's wingman for practice.
Jessie was known for taking risks while flying. he wanted to check the depth of tom hence he took a detour while up in the sky. He asked tom to follow him. While in the air he nosedives around a residential area in a reckless act. Tom was surprised a bit but followed him. Upon asking Jessie told him that a man's true character could be judged only at 2000 feet up in the air. It was some kind of test that tom passed with flying colors. Later tom offered him a drink to know each other better but Jessie refused by saying, he doesn't drink.
Commander Cevoli had the squad over to his house for a little get-together. Tom tells Lavery he signed up with the Navy right after hearing about Pearl Harbor. He graduated one month after the war ended. Lavery says life doesn’t turn out like you plan, “I mean, did you ever think you’d be in a squadron with a colored aviator?” Tom dodges the question and moves to the food.
Jessie arrived at his home and waved at his neighbor who was not very kind to him. Later he spent some quality time with his wife and daughter Pem who was three years old. After some time two police officers knocked at Jessie's door as his neighbor had complained that the music was loud. Jessie was used to this kind of behavior hence he didn't mind much.
The next day Commander Cevoli briefs the team. A recon plane had washed ashore with bullet holes underneath. It's a declaration of aggregation by Russians. The team no got a new set of planes, dubbed infamously as Widow Maker. The engine is one of the most powerful things these pilots will fly behind. Throttle it too much, it will spin over. There will be enough torque to flip a house. The pilots must go easy.
On the way home, Tom sees Jessie on the side of the road with car trouble. He offers him a ride home and starts chatting. He tells him I was called to adventure, I didn’t want to take over my father’s grocery stores. Jessie always wanted to fly with the best pilots, so he joined the Navy. At Jessie's residence, Daisy offers Tom a drink inside the house but Jessie declines it by saying Tom must have plans. Tom takes the hint and graciously declines the offer. Daisy tells Jessie to play nice, but Jessie was not sure about Tom yet.
The next day pilots check out the widow makers in person. They all run drills and get used to flying the new type of plane. They get the news they are shipping out. Daisy boosts Jessie’s confidence before he leaves home. The next day, Jessie hides in the bathroom stall. After everyone left the room, he stares at himself in the mirror. And says numerous degrading comments to himself. Basically to boost his morale and courage.
Now the date is April 1950 ship USS LEYTE was ready to onboard planes and pilots. Tom was on his plane. Everyone watches as he makes his landing. He does it without trouble. Next, it was Jessie's turn. All of the Black crew members on the carrier come up to see. Jessie was flying too high. Tom says he needs to get his nose up. The flag man guides him up, but Jessie misses the carrier. He comes back around a second time and feels the pressure. He lands the plane this time without much difficulty. Everyone has passed their carrier quals, and Tom passed with perfect scores.
They were shipping out tomorrow, and Commander Cevoli tells them to get their affairs in order. Tom gives Jessie a lift home, and this time Jessie invites him inside. Daisy offers Tom a drink and asks him to keep an eye on Jessie. Tom nods. Jessie enjoys his evening with his family at the beach.
The next day on the carrier, the team runs down the hallways, up the stairs, and to their planes. But it was just a drill in which they failed. Cevoli says they have to do better. The team returns to their quarters, but Jessie was asked to interview with Life Magazine for a positive story to ease the public’s anxiety about another potential war. Jessie wanted to be treated like any other pilot, this interview made him, uneasy as the interviewer wanted to bring the color angle. After this below deck, one of the army guys asks piolets if Jessie juggles too. Tom in rage goes nose-to-nose with the army guy, but Jessie cools it. Tom wanted to teach that guy a lesson, while Jessie who was used to this kind of behavior calms him down.
the next day Commander Cevoli needed a volunteer for a task that no one wants to do. Tom volunteers but Jessie nudges Mohring to do it, and Tom lets him. Mohring completes the tasks on the plane but can’t make the landing. He tottles the plane and hence its get crashes into the ocean. Everyone was troubled by Mohring’s death.
Tom was going on and on about what Mohning did wrong but Jessie didn't like this. He says in the academy everyone told me what to do. If I have done what they told me then I would not have been a fighter pilot. They took my test ten times, they held me underwater and poured ice on it. They through me with rocks in my backpack. they didn't care if I died in the pool, they were convinced that a black man can never be good enough to ride a fighter plane. If I did what they asked me to do then I would be dead by now. Jessie was successful in convincing Tom that sometimes we have to do what we were told not to do.
The next day the pilots and their ship sail to France where they dock after a few months. Commander grants them shore leave and asks them to behave nicely, as they were foreigners in a foreign country. Jessie roams around the beach and does some shopping for Daisy. later he saw some sailors gathered around the lady who was none other than famous movie star Elizabeth Taylor. one of the sailors makes a derogatory comment about Jessie and says I am not with him. Elizabeth nicely invites him and others to her casino party later that evening. Jessi was thrilled with this invitation, he informs this news to his crew. They were certain that this is some kind of a joke. They have even bet money on this. Later Jessie took the boys to the casino where they wear denied access at first. But Jessie was adamant, he spoke in fine French and convinced the security that they were the real guest. French guys reluctantly allowed them.
At the party, Jessie played gambling with Elizabeth and won the match against the same army guy who hackled him a few months back at the dock. The boys drank and danced, Tom sports a beautiful French lady and flirts with her by doing some magic tricks. the army guys from earlier show up and a fight starts because the guy thinks he had a shot with Elizabeth back at the casino, but Jessie messed it up for him.
Cevoli briefs the team. The North Koreans have taken Seoul. If they take the rest of the southern peninsula, they could take Japan, and then America can’t contain Communism.
The ship sets sail for Korea. There may be one hundred thousand Chinese already in North Korea. The mission is to take out two bridges over a major river along the border, hoping to slow the Chinese from sending in more troops.
This time Cevoli flies with the team. But Tom confirms that Cevoli’s plane has a mechanical issue with his landing gear. Due to this Cevoli passes the command to Tom. They fly over and are met with enemy fire. They destroy one of the bridges, but Jessie disobeys orders and returns to finish the job. He blows the second bridge taking an unnecessary risk.
In Korea, the army guys are now on the ground, freezing their behinds off and waiting for the Chinese to attack. It’s an uneven fight, for every marine, there were six Chinese.
Tom hands his mission report to Cevoli. He states exactly what happened. Jessie confronts him about it and says discipline for me is different from discipline for anyone else. Tom understood it and asks the team to write their accounts to clear Jessie. Tom walks in on Jessie, repeating to himself in the mirror every hateful word anyone has ever said to him. Tom tells him that he got the other guys to give testimony that the mission was complicated and Jessie did the right thing. But Jessie knows a piece of paper won’t help him. Tom asks him what he wants him to do and Jessie replies, “just be my wingman. Forget the lifesaver and get in the damn water.”
On deck, Jessie gets some fresh air. He’s joined by a Black crew member. He tells Jessie that they all heard he had some good flying the other day and wanted to let Jessie know they saw him. They all pitched in and bought him a watch in Caan. Engraved on the back is “Above All Others.” Jessie is touched by this gesture.
On the runway, Jessie runs into a friend from the past whom he calls, Alabama. Alabama is with the search and rescue unit.
Daisy receives a letter from Jessie. He hid her birthday gift and gave clues for her to find it. She finds the gift, earrings, in Pam’s closet. He closes his letter with “lovingly and completely yours. I’ll love you forever.”
Cevoli and the team are briefed. The army is fighting in an unspeakable hell. For every marine, six Chinese are hiding in the woods. It gets below minus thirty at night. The boys are holding on by their fingernails, and air support would greatly help, but it is a dangerous mission.
On the ground, the marines pray and finally advance their vantage point when the pilots arrive. They give them hell, but once they leave the area, tom notices Jessie’s plane is leaking fuel. It’s oil. Jessie needed to take the plane down easily because he won’t last much longer. Cevoli calls in search and rescue. Jessie releases all of his missiles so they won’t end up in the enemy’s hands and lands hard. Tom can’t see him moving. He decides to crash-land his plane to rescue Jessie. The other pilots try to talk him out of it, but he takes his plane down after releasing his missiles.
He runs to Jessie who was wedged between his seat and the control panel. Both men try to lift it off him, but they can’t.
Search and rescue got Cevoli’s mayday call, but it was too dark to land. Alabama overhears and tells them he’s on his way.
In the freezing cold, tom gives Jessie his beanie cap to keep him warm and later he tries to extinguish the fire on Jessie’s engine with snow. But he fails. Later Alabama arrives here with a rescue chopper. He and tom try hard to get Jessie out but he was wedged. Jessie becomes weaker and weaker and asks Tom to tell Daisy that he’ll always love her. Tom starts beating the plane with all his might to free Jessie but stops once he realizes that Jessie has passed away.
Tom and Alabama leave after seeing this but Tom promises to come back. Jessie’s body was never recovered.
Back on the carrier, Tom is checked out by the doctor. Cevoli leads the other pilots on a funeral flight to say goodbye to Jessie.
Daisy receives a letter from the war department. She breaks down. Time passes, and Daisy flies to Washington, where President Truman gives the Medal of Honor to Jessie Brown and Tom Hudner. After the ceremony, Tom speaks to Daisy about being afraid of this day. Daisy tells him she appreciates what he did. Tom says Jessie’s last words to her and apologizes for not saving him. Daisy says that wasn’t your job. I wanted you to be there for him, and you were.
Tom and Jessie's families remained friends for the rest of their lives, and their descendants remained close. Hope you liked the video. Please check out my blog regularly as I will be more active there. Thanks for watching. Take care.
