Proud

This movie had good intentions and a good story to work with. The director and screenwriter of this movie failed miserably and created a dull, boring filmstrip that made me feel like I was back in Mr. Hartford's 8th grade Social Studies class -- way back in 67.

What a waste, will somebody please take this story and make a real movie out of it - the story deserves it.

Every time a scene had potential, all we were left with were a few clichés, combined with black and white footage that they probably got from The History Channel to show the action. Shameful.

Ossie Davis was the only bright light in this dull fest. The other acting was incredibly dull - it fit in with the movie well and whomever played the Captain set a new low standard for line delivery.

However, if you are willing to accept all the numerous flaws in this movie and aren't concerned with being awed or entertained, but want to learn about the USS Mason, it is worth a watch.

The story of the USS Mason and its crew is well worth telling. So, the subject matter for this film was not the issue. My reason for giving it a mediocre score has a lot more to do with the final portion of the film--one that was handled in a sloppy and heavy-handed manner.

The film begins with an old man (Ossie Davis) sitting down with his grown grandson and his friends and talking about the old days. Soon, he begins talking about his experience as a crewman on the USS Mason--one of only two black-manned ships that saw action during WWII. He explained that back in the day, the armed forces were not integrated and black guys in the Navy could only serve as cooks or orderlies. However, someone had the idea of having ships manned with black crews--black crews that had an all-white officer corp in charge. It's funny, but this is the same way the film "Glory" went--but that was 80 years earlier--you would have hoped that times would have changed!

What follows is a prolonged flashback scene--with actors portraying the crew of the Mason. This is by far the best part of the film and showed their bravery as well as the crap they had to put up with due to race prejudice. Their story is inspiring and I wish more of the film was devoted to it.

The final portion of the film is set in the present--and shows the efforts of the old man and his grandson to get the US government to recognize the contributions of the Mason's crew. This was a nice epilogue BUT it was ruined, for me, by the silly characters and writing- -particularly the character of the son. His actions and dialog made no sense whatsoever and was embarrassingly badly handled. What had been an inspiring story was made trite due to the writing and acting here. It's a shame. Perhaps there is a documentary out there on the subject--as this semi-ficitonalized story just seemed very poorly written at times and the dialog made me cringe towards the end. The men of the Mason deserve a better tribute than this.

As with most who have commented on this movie, it just left me deflated. The story itself is what I was interested in, unfortunately it was told with bad acting, blandness, and a disjointed flow. After the first 15 minutes one gets a sense that the movie was put together in a hurry. The film also splices in some stock footage which appeared to be more of an attempt to flesh out budget constraints than to add significance to the historical nature of the film.

I was hoping to use this film as part of a history lesson, but with some of the flaws already mentioned, I would have lost a bit of credibility.

I would however, like to see this story re-made with the dignity it deserves.

This is an independent feature telling the story of average men, caught performing heroic acts in a time of war. These men served their country, performed numerous duties to help a convoy succeed in its mission to bring supplies to England. Men had died during this trip across the Atlantic, not to mention getting caught in one of the worst storms in this century, dubbed "the storm of the century during wartime".

These men were supposed to have received commendations for their numerous acts of bravery. The Commander of the convoy, Alfred Lind, wrote those recommendations (ultimately found in naval archives), but they were never given. Why? This was the only ship in the Navy that had black sailors serving on it, which was sent into combat during World War II (the other 11,000 black sailors served in menial jobs). Those same men that served their country couldn't even buy a hot dog on the pier.

Those recommendations were written because the men deserved them. They were never awarded because it was during a time when the color of a their skin somehow disqualified them.

Our society still has a way to go. Hopefully this story helps pave the way for future generations to achieve color blindness.

A story about most interesting times told in a most uninteresting way.

The movie feels more like a political propaganda than anything else. Awfully primitive characters, boring lines full of tearful speeches and excessive use of voice-over just add to the effect. Characters are so simple and so wonderful, always smiling, clean and nice, so perfect in every way that it's almost a parody. There is hardly anything happening in the movie. No twists in the plot, no surprises. Characters are either good or bad, like in a child book. No room for dilemmas. Nothing to think about, no challenges for the viewer. Everything is obvious.

Racism is bad, patriotism is good - that's basically the entire movie. I'm not kidding, it's all.

It's as if the script was written by 12 years old idealistic American boy. It's not a movie, it's a commercial.

So, if you didn't know before that racism is bad and hate movies to make you think or give you hard problems to ponder about, then by all means watch "Proud".

In any other case stay away. It's a complete waste of time.