African-American boxing champion Muhammad Ali was notorious for refusing to fight for his country, justifying himself with the often-quoted sarcasm, “No Viet Cong ever called me.” That’s half of American history, and it’s an important history. “Dedication to The Last” tells the story of a black pilot so determined to defend – and die for the United States if necessary – that he was willing to endure institutional fanaticism to become Jackie Robinson Heaven: Jesse Brown, the first pilot of color to complete the Navy’s basic training program.
A square-but-satisfying social justice drama set against the backdrop of the Korean War, “Dedication” impressed on the largest screen possible at the Toronto Film Festival two months before its theatrical release on November 23. Featuring elements of “Green Book” and “Red Tails,” the film is more than just a black stunner. It also celebrates the white officer who had Brown’s back, Tom Hodner, who treated the bond these two men formed as something extraordinary in itself. Director J.D. Dillard dazzles with airborne sequences, but the core of the film centers on the friendship between Brown (“Da 5 Bloods” star Jonathan Majors) and the white wingman played by Glen Powell, the “Hidden Characters” actor who recently appeared in Top Gun: Maverick.
In this all-encompassing-minded movie, it doesn’t seem to matter that many of the young pilots assembled for the film’s stunt mission are women and people of color – meaning that the battle for equal treatment in the US armed forces has long been fought and won. In “Dedication”, this struggle is still actively underway. Brown keeps a book in which he wrote every insult and title thrown at him. Most days, as a brutal kind of motivational exercise, he stares at himself in the mirror and shouts them back at the face he sees there – right into the camera at one point. This is his shield, the way he stresses any new disdain other pilots might throw at him.
“Dedication” takes place in the 1950’s, but this mirror spectacle will undoubtedly resonate with contemporary audiences as well. Today, we’re talking about “micro-assaults,” which is one way these barbs still appear. Before the civil rights movement, however, at a time when apartheid was widely practiced in the United States, Brown would have taken such bigotry with full force. Guys like Hudner were the exception: someone fit enough to offer a flight to a fellow black pilot, or step in and throw the first punch when less agreeable soldiers try to provoke a ruckus.
Many black men served in the U.S. Army before Brown, although national politics kept them separate from white soldiers, and Jim Crow rules still apply. “Did you ever think that you would be in service with a sailor of color?” asks one of the other pilots, which might be Joe Jonas (the vaguely defined white supporting characters all blurry together). Hudner does not share their disgust with the new situation. Mostly, he just longs to work. Hudner enlisted when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but the war ended a week before he graduated, which meant he missed “The Big Show” (the pilot talks about the air battles of World War II). Despite offering plenty of “loyalty” through Hodner’s eyes, Dillard occasionally turns away from that perspective to share Brown’s experience, and each time he does so, the film gets more exciting: the scene where Brown meets Elizabeth Taylor at Cannes Beach, For example, or an important interaction with a black sailor of lower rank, presents him with a symbol of men’s admiration.
Integration was a difficult process across American society, as those indoctrinated with notions of their own superiority tried to hold on to their power for as long as possible. Revisiting these on-screen dynamics is always ugly and potentially motivating to many, which is one reason storytellers prefer to focus on progressive cases like Hudner, who shows no outright racism when he meets Brown at the base of Quonset Point in Rhode Island.
Although they are both talented pilots, Brown is having trouble adapting to the fighter plane the Navy introduced in the 1950s, the Vought F4U Corsair, whose massive engine prevented vision. This late-game change adds a level of suspense to the film’s airborne sequences – few of which, like the early lighthouse run, are simply there to give audiences a taste of the same exhilaration that these guys experienced in the cockpit. While flying is exciting, landing on an aircraft carrier can be nerve-wracking. Not everyone survives this test.
After bonding in the sky, Brown called Hodner and introduced the white man to his wife (Christina Jackson) and child — “to see what the man is fighting for,” Hodner puts it. Despite this gesture, Brown takes almost the entire film to accept his partner. why? Hudner may have been ahead of his peers, but much of his support comes easily—that is, without personal risk. Brown makes this clear after citing his disobedience to a direct order in the film’s most electrifying sequence, a headstrong fight that was immediately followed by the bombing of a Korean bridge.
This is where Dillard’s decision to tell the story primarily through Hudner’s eyes pays off: The audience has seen much of the unfair treatment Brown has faced before, both in life and in other films, but there are still some lessons to learn. Hudner about being effective. ally. The movie’s big ending mirrors “Top Gun: Maverick” in some ways, as Hudner puts his life on the line to save his friend. Brown has already proven his sincerity; However, through Hudner’s actions, the country is able to show the same respect for this pioneering black pilot.
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