'Devotion' a handsomely produced, anti-white savior drama

Posted November 22, 2022 5:00 am

Dann Gire

In J.D. Dillard's handsomely produced period Korean War movie “Devotion,” Jonathan Majors plays Jesse Brown, the first black aviator to pass the Navy's basic training program. Courtesy of Sony Pictures

“Devotion” - ★ ★ ★

Ever since I began writing about Hollywood's white savior syndrome in 1986, I have seen only one movie that rejected the genre's implicit white supremacy themes: “Bring It On” (2000), in which inner city black cheerleaders reject an offer of financial “help” from their white suburban peers so they can stay in the state cheerleading championship.

J.D. Dillard's handsomely produced period Korean War movie “Devotion” becomes the second.

It not only rejects the genre's racist themes, it bluntly calls out well-meaning white people - acting on the purest of motives - to stop their savior nonsense.

In case audiences don't get the message from the actions in “Devotion,” a black character spells it out to a wannabe savior white character: “It was never your job to save him!”

Navy fighter pilot Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), right, becomes friends with fellow pilot Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the first black aviator to pass the Navy's basic training program in "Devotion." Courtesy of Sony Pictures

“Devotion” tells the fact-based social justice story of the conflict-fraught friendship between a white Navy fighter pilot, Tom Hudner (Glen Powell, dialing back his swaggering ego as Hangman in “Top Gun: Maverick”), and Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the first Black aviator to complete the Navy's basic flight-training program.

Hudner tends to dominate the movie, but Brown supplies its soul with Majors' raw and committed performance, capped by a blistering moment before a mirror in which he repeats the vilest racist insults hurled at him by his white comrades, steeling himself for whatever new assaults he might yet encounter.

In the historic drama "Devotion," Navy fighter pilot Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), right, tries hard to protect his friend and fellow pilot Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) from racist attacks, but Brown prefers to settle things himself. Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Understandably, it takes a long, long time for Brown to accept Hudner's sincere offer of friendship. That's cemented when Brown introduces Hudner to his child and wife (a forceful supporting performance from Christina Jackson).

Set in 1950, “Devotion” features razzle-dazzle aerial sequences breathtakingly captured by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, with Chanda Dancy's ingenious score employing musical instruments to approximate the sounds of airplanes in battle.

Jonathan Majors plays Jesse Brown, the first black aviator to pass the Navy's basic training program, in "Devotion. Courtesy of Sony Pictures

These elements easily compensate for the movie's leaden, James Cameron-grade dialogue and the use of so many war movie conventions that we start to feel the lengthy running time of 2 hours, 19 minutes.

Stick around for the closing credits during which we see the actual Brown and Hudner and discover that the parts we thought might be artistic license turn out to be pleasingly true.

Starring: Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson

Directed by: J.D. Dillard

Other: A Columbia Pictures release in theaters in English, French, Korean dialogue. Rated PG-13 for language, violence. 139 minutes

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