A magnetic performance as a pioneer Black aviator
Jesse L. Brown was a pioneer in American military history. As the first Black aviator to complete the Navy’s flight training program, not only did he inspire countless others to follow in his footsteps, his death during the Korean war also made him the first Black Navy officer to lose his life during that conflict. “Devotion” shines a welcome spotlight on this important trailblazer, bringing Brown’s story to the screen with care and complexity for audiences who may never have heard of him before now.
Directed by J.D. Dillard (“Sweetheart”), “Devotion” stars Jonathan Majors (“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”) as Brown, with Glen Powell (who also executive-produces) playing his wingman Tom Hudner. As adapted by Jake Crane and Jonathan A. Stewart from the book by Adam Makos, the film shows the deep friendship between these two men as a remarkable feat from a time
when such bonds weren’t common.
While it could have easily depicted complex racial issues of the time with a cloying “white savior” perspective, a la “Green Book” or “The Help,” “Devotion” manages to neatly sidestep a lot of those tropes in favor of a more nuanced approach that is nonetheless uplifting.
Majors (who, between playing the next “Creed” opponent and being the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next big baddie Kang the Conqueror, is about to be everywhere) imbues Brown with integrity and intelligence, layering in the rage and insecurity from years of knowing that “good enough” can never be good enough, given the expectations forced upon him.
Much like the late Chadwick Boseman’s revelatory performance as Jackie Robinson in “42,” Majors makes an immediate impact while embodying an important Black icon. Whether flying a plane into battle, playing affectionately with wife Daisy (Christina Jackson) or emoting directly to camera in a tight closeup, the actor is raw, vulnerable and impossibly magnetic.
Of course, he also has a terrific partner to play off of in Powell, a consistently solid performer who seems to be finally getting his due. Coming off a memorable stint as a naval aviator in last summer’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” Powell plays a very different kind of pilot here, and even as Brown initially greets his new wingman with skepticism, it says much about Powell’s performance that the audience is rooting for them to bond.
Powell occasionally offers glints of the Hangman smirk from “Maverick,” yet he quickly subsumes himself into this role; making Hudner someone who has the unforced cockiness of education and experience, but who must learn for himself what it truly means to be an ally. While there are several effective aerial sequences, much of the film’s first two-thirds is spent on dialogue and introspection, which works to seed our emotional investment in the very compelling third act set during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in 1950.
In fact, one of the most memorable set pieces doesn’t involve flights or dogfights at all. After Brown inadvertently encounters film star Elizabeth Taylor (Serinda Swan) while on shore leave in Cannes, he and his cohorts are invited to a private party. It’s an amusing showcase for Majors and Powell’s chemistry, while illustrating the ways in which Brown had to navigate cultural prejudice no matter where he went, often doing so with an eye toward quietly defusing the situation even when his white colleagues preferred otherwise.
If there is a quibble it’s that, other than Brown and Hudner (and, to a lesser extent, their commanding officer played by Thomas Sadoski), the rest of the pilots in their cohort tend to blur together. Oh, one of them is played by Joe Jonas. So I guess there’s that. But given that this is very much a buddy story first and foremost, that’s a small complaint.
The friendship between Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner is one of the great stories of American military history. “Devotion” earnestly tells that story in a stolid, straightforward manner, flying admirably high while knowing when to remain grounded.