Devotion

 

Devotion is a war drama bio-pic based on the 2015 novel Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos. It is a true story of an unlikely friendship amongst U.S. Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. It stars Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell and Christina Jackson.

The plot was slow moving and a bit convoluted in the beginning. I was worried I wasn’t going to feel any connection to the characters or the story but thankfully, as the film went on that sentiment grew. Where they missed the boat, however, was in not going deep enough on the true atrocities of racism during the 1950s. Being that the movie was only PG director was probably limited on how much could be said or shared. I would have preferred a stronger rating to truly give an honest picture of what it would have been for the first Black man to integrate the Navy as a fighter pilot vs the soft, kid friendly version that was portrayed.

Where it lacked in storytelling authenticity, it did make up for in the sets, the outfits and the aircrafts which helped to put you in the 1950s.

There was decent character development. It was stronger for Jonathan Majors’ character Jesse Brown than the rest of the cast. While the story lines didn’t go as deep for Glen Powell’s character Tom Hudner or Christina Jackson’s character Daisy Brown, there were still bits and pieces that they reveled in the script that made them all likeable. The chemistry amongst the cast was also good, but the majority of the co-stars were not memorable given the limited amount of character depth.

Even with some of the missteps, Devotion tugs at the heart strings and brings up great themes around doing whatever it takes to follow your dreams, serving a cause bigger than yourself, and devotion to family and friendships against all odds.