Movies: Devotion

Sony’s new Korean War U.S. Navy pilot movie debuts before Thanksgiving

Devotion opens on November 23. The war movie, like I, Tonya, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, Richard Jewell and Sully and 2016’s rare, sterling Green Book, is based on true stories (and a book of the same name by Adam Makos). Like those movies, the film wraps itself around a wronged individual in history. But, like those pictures, it’s not a social justice—which means pseudo-justice—monstrosity. The story of friendship between two American Navy fighter pilots depicts man as a hero. It’s framed within the tale of two men with stark differences—one’s an academy pilot, the other’s not; one’s from the Deep South, the other’s not; one speaks a foreign language, one’s married, and, significantly, one’s black and so on—who share a single virtue: integrity.

Their loyalty to values and, eventually, to one another, fuels the true to life plot. Jesse Brown, America’s first negro Navy aviator, and his fellow fighter pilot, bond while training in Rhode Island. Devotion takes time to fully dramatize the meaning of its title. As the action moves to the Mediterranean Sea, an encounter with a movie star precedes their part in a historic American military battle at the Chosin reservoir. The “frozen Chosin” is where the United States Marine Corps were entrenched and frostbitten while holed up fighting tens of thousands of Communist Chinese troops.

The Chinese outnumbered the Americans six-to-one in this “police action” or “conflict”—America refused to call the Korean War a war and it’s still an active, undeclared and unresolved war to this day—and pilots Tom and Jesse made a difference in that battle. Making efforts to communicate, earn respect and trust and go by their own judgment, even when this means defying government orders (as Gen. MacArthur ultimately did), the men bond with their band of pilots on board the aircraft carrier. They fight to fly as passionately as they fly to fight the enemy.

Devotion, directed by J.D. Dillard, features Jonathan Majors as the American negro fighter pilot in an outstanding performance and Glen Powell (who appeared as a Navy pilot in this year’s Top Gun sequel and portrayed astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures) as the white fighter pilot. The cast is good. Aerial scenes are breathtaking, more so because the film depicts American war history. The more you know about the Korean War, the first U.S. war in which the armed services were racially integrated and the first (and, so far, only) military conflict between America and Communist China, the more likely you’ll gain value from Devotion.

The movie is emotionally stirring. The dogfight and flying scenes are thrilling. Everything—especially the airplanes, ships (in particular, the aircraft carriers) and a helicopter—comes off as realistic. Models, props, visual effects and production design by Wynn Thomas, as well as the musical score and cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt add authenticity to Devotion, which is superior to Top Gun: Maverick in crucial ways. It would have had a stronger climax with a sharper focus on the battle of Chosin. As it is, the jaded press audience was stunned into total silence by the courage and defiance of these young American men. Devotion rightly stresses that Americans fight to thrive, enjoy life on earth; that Americans value life—not being meek and humble—as against striving to sacrifice and die. America’s enemy, the People’s Republic of China, fighting the U.S. to help North Korea invade and enslave South Korea, is made explicit. That’s not the sole reason why Devotion’s good. but it makes Devotion, which is more conceptual and complex, and not as sensory-driven, more honest than Top Gun: Maverick. Honesty in honoring those who devote their lives to defending America matters. In this sense, Devotion shows and tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth.