Men of Honour: Indeed...

I never thought I’d ever write this next line down, but here I am, doing that after keeping a huge block of stone of my heart; because at one point, you have to keep all subjective preferences aside and write the truth; however hard the truth might be for you to tell it, to accept it, you have to tell the truth when the truth needs to be told; and this is the truth – Robert De Niro was outshined this time. Cuba Gooding Jr, more famous because of his famous Oscar acceptance speech, a speech that became a style by itself, overshadowed the legend. That in no way demeans De Niro’s performance – now that is a truth if there ever was one – that De Niro is a legend, a God for us people who make living souls our Gods, but in this movie, if he was good, CGJ was better. And that alone is a whole lot of a testimony that any actor can ever ask for.

And this movie was never about the way it was made. It was a pretty badly made picture, I can tell you that – this is what I do most of the day, watch movies, read about movies and then write about movies. I can now spot a loophole if there ever was one. So let me tell you, before you start thinking that this could be some great work of art, that it is more pretentious than it is good. But at the end it never really matters; because of the two other things that make it work – the story and the performances. And once you get on to that, you will never realise where the loopholes were. And frankly, they don’t matter. They aren’t malignant. They just stay there from time to time. They are mostly wiped out by the two actors.

And to say ‘what a story’ is a rather large understatement, because this is a true story. And when such a story is believed to be a true story, you understand the meaning of life in an altogether new way. You understand the will of the human spirit; that is if the humans will, they can do anything. And this is not philosophical anymore. It really happened. This is not a Slumdog Millionaire. This is a story that can be found in the annuls of history. It is a recorded fact.

And again, it’s just not about the person itself. It’s also about friendship. It’s about a person who wanted to thwart you because of pressure on him, but when he realised that you were the best, he bowed out and he stood there for you till the ultimate trial. That is something we never see today. It’s all about frauds and manipulation today – I can say that from personal experience, though I am lucky enough to have one such friend. They really are hard to find these days. Maybe that is why the picture connected to me even more, because I couldn’t believe that a person can do that for another person without having something for himself at the end of it all. Truly mesmerising! And it really happened...

The story is the true winner and it is the winner because the actors made it so. This is where the whole matter of Men of Honour lies. You have to see the colour of life. Maybe then it can make you live again. It can give you that hope to do whatever it takes to go there and do it. And then you also realise the road to personal glory as well. It comes by helping others. Not the objectivist methods of that dumbass Fountainhead writer. This man became a hero because he helped people whom he perhaps never even knew. And after that, when his own misfortunes befell him, he was in turn helped by the whole universe. It’s give and take. This is the world. Fountainhead methods are also shown in this movie and they reek of shame and disgrace. Not because someone felt it, because it really happened. It’s not about Marxism, or Communism, it’s just about helping the people around you in any way that you can. It’s about humanity... or if a word may so be used, humanism. And when you believe in humanism, only then can you be called a Man of Honour...