movie-review logo az world news

DEVOTION (2022, USA) – 6.5/10

When I already missed the sequel to “Top Gun” because I simply organically can’t stand Tom Cruise anymore, here is an aviator movie that I still decided to give a chance. And I didn’t regret it because “Devotion” turned out to be a solid historical war drama that takes place before and during the Korean War and follows the biographical story of the first African-American war pilot Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors). This is the generation that feels a bit disappointed and failed because they were too young when World War II took place and they could not participate in it, but as is usually the case with wishes that you have to be careful with, they will soon come true for this team as well.

Before that, the focus is on Brown’s relationship with the other pilots in his unit, especially with Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Glen Powell played the pilot in the sequel to “Top Gun”), between whom a great friendship will develop. And it is not a typical American film about racism because Brown does not want to see himself as a victim of the racial system and the fact that he is the first and only pilot in American aviation. The very title of the film suggests how much he was actually dedicated to succeeding and he is well aware that he and what he does are viewed through completely different glasses compared to his lighter-skinned colleagues. He is aware that he has to work much harder than the others, that he has to be the best if he wants to succeed, and even though his colleagues in aviation have completely accepted him and are aware that he is the best among them, racism is still very much felt.

Thus, Brown himself has a strange mantra and motivation, and before each mission he pushes himself with racist insults that were uttered to him during his life and which he patiently and carefully wrote down in his diary. Although the violence that Brown had to endure to get to where he is now is not shown, one can guess that it was not easy for him, and when the Korean War arrives, he will especially want to prove himself. It is interesting that the director JD Dillard himself comes from a military family and his father Bruce was only the second African-American pilot who got the opportunity to fly for the elite aviation unit Blue Angels.

Therefore, for Dillard this story was certainly largely personal and it was his most ambitious film to date after the indie superhero drama “Sleight” and the horror “Sweetheart”. Although it is clear that the budgets of “Top Gun” and “Devotion” cannot be compared, this film had a more than nice budget of 90 million dollars, but it flopped just as nicely at the box office, earning just over 20 million. All the same, the production is more than solid, and it is a film that could equally be described as a classic war action about heroism, as well as an intimate, internal drama about racism, injustice, inequality and the individual’s desire to rise above it all.

IMDB LINK