Movie Review

Proud (2004) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393616/

I’m not sure how much sense this will make to most of our country today, but I hope it makes more sense than the movie’s scriptwriters and director did. The message and lessons of Proud are far better than the movie itself, though I would watch it again.

Proud is a movie about the DE-529 USS Mason’s crew and the story continues through to President Clinton’s visit to DDG-89 USS Mason in 2003. It is the true story of one of only two Negro crewed U.S. naval ships to serve in combat during World War II.

It is a story of segregation in our military, the Mason was the Navy’s equivalent of the Tuskegee Airmen with it’s all Negro crew. Those sailors fought hard for every one of us, they fought through very overtly ugly bigotry that permeated our society then and seems to be again now in many ways.

This is a story of family, of country, and of patriotism in its truest glory.

My wish would be that everyone watches this, especially those who doubt their place in our society. So many of our countrymen fought to remove this stain of segregation that is now being asked for. These few men sacrificed everything for us, because they believed in us, in our innate ability to overcome everything with hard work and good hearts.