Hollywood only likes making American war movies about “the good wars.” You know, the ones where Americans are the heroes and the victors against great evildoers like the Nazis. The Korean War is not a good war, so it is quickly forgotten and almost wiped from US History, a cruel treatment to those brave soldiers who put their lives on the line. Soldiers like Jesse Brown, one of the greatest pilots the Navy has ever known. Devotion gives us Jesse’s long overdue big screen homage, as well as an equally compelling story of friendship in harrowing circumstances that the United States government would cruelly rather forget than devote any time to. See what I did there?
Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) transfers from Pearl Harbor to Rhode Island post WWII, and gets paired up with Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the first African American to fly for the Navy. Tom gets to know the prickly Jesse, eventually landing in his good graces and meeting Jesse’s wife Daisy (Christina Jackson) and his daughter. Their friendship is put to the test though in 1950, when the Korean War starts, and Jesse, Tom, and other pilots like Marty Goode (Joe Jonas) and Bill Koenig (Daren Kagasoff) get to fight in that war they didn’t get a chance to a few years earlier.
I can’t believe no one wanted to make Devotion for this long. Jesse Brown’s story is incredible. There are 3 different locations, all with incredible moments. The Rhode Island scenes put us in the air with Jesse and Tom, showing us how majestic, impressive, and also dangerous even peacetime can be up in the air with ever changing plane technology. The incredible second act (my favorite part) takes place on a weekend sojourn in Cannes, which could have been its own incredible feature length film, a humorous, fun dive into who our characters are off duty, especially the relationship dynamics between Hudner and Brown. And of course, the third act gives us the thrilling action promised and built up to, with incredible aerial battles. However, because Devotion is a great story, the ending is more complicated than a hero’s march: it has lots of complex emotional dynamics and messy friendship moments between our leads. But taken as a whole, Devotion gives us an incredible tale of a 24 year old Jesse Brown and his 26 year old wingman, Lt. Tom Hudner, who lived a lifetime of friendship in their too short time together on Earth.
Glen Powell loved the book Devotion is based on so much he agreed to produce in the movie and star as Lt. Tom Hudner. It’s impossible not to love Powell, filled with all the boyish charm and charisma for days. In addition, there’s just an inherent good intent Powell instills in the character, even when he’s not exactly being the best friend to Jesse. This is also the first time I’ve seen Powell have to be vulnerable/sad in a movie, and for the most part he pulls that off too. But the movie’s greatest strength was casting Jonathan Majors as Jesse Brown. Majors is incredible at carrying multiple emotions inside of him, and translating those emotions into herky jerky body movement that gives his characters a twitchy, exciting energy. The driving force of the movie is that energy, which commands the screen when Majors and Powell have to confront one another. The script contains these incredible, complicated monologues for Majors to deliver, bursting with that suppressed emotion he spends his waking days struggling to control because of the constant barrage of barriers Jesse’s been forced to deal with. And with Majors delivering them, the scenes out of the planes rivet just as much as the scenes in the air.
What did Top Gun: Maverick do to deserve this? About 5 days after that banger of a movie released, RRR comes along, and becomes the best action movie of the year. Then, not 6 months later, one of Maverick’s stars Glen Powell betrays Tom Cruise for Jonathan Majors and a better aviator story, Devotion. Movie industry, can’t you just let Tom Cruise try to kill himself onscreen for our entertainment, and not have to one up him at every turn? Shame, SHAME, SHAME!!!!!