Model For A Military Movie

Those who see Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance in Men of Honor actually will be seeing the life story of Carl Brashear, the inspiration for Gooding's character in the movie. Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd reports.

(Little Nicky and Red Planet are also opening this weekend. In Little Nicky Adam Sandler, playing the devil's son, would rather play heavy metal music than join in the family business. Red Planet takes place in the future, when the Earth is dying and humanity needs a new home. Hibberd predicts the top movies this weekend will be Charlie's Angels, Little Nicky and Men Of Honor, in that order.)

The story of Brashear's rise to master Navy diver is the stuff of big-screen drama. But the man himself says, "Not in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be the subject of a Hollywood motion picture."

So how much of the movie is true? How much is embellished?

"I went through just about every scene you watched in the movie at some point in my life," replies the Navy hero. And that included dealing with some very tough superior officers.

"They tried to break my spirit," explains Brashear. "But you've got to understand: Diving school is designed for that kind of pressure, psychological stress on you and physical. And they...try to get to you, try to break down your spirit."

But they didn't break his. Brashear became the Navy's first African-American diver. After losing his leg in an accident, he also became the navy's first amputee diver. And that's an honor for which he had to fight.

He had to prove to the Navy that he could walk 12 steps unassisted while wearing a heavy diving suit. Here, truth is tougher than fiction. "In the movie, you only see this one time. I had to do those maneuvers five different days in a row," recalls Brashear.

"See, the Navy had to be real careful to put me back to duty. I could understand why they would put me through these maneuvers, to show and to prove and go beyond what was required to be a diver, because I only had one leg," he continues. "If I'd been sitting on the other side of the desk, I'd have been the same as those people were."

The only thing about the movie that frustrates Brashear is that it's only about a part of his life. Before he retired in 1979, he was involved in such other projects as the Apollo 17 salvage mission (in 1972).

And here's a bit of trivia for fans of last summer's Survivor series on CBS: Brashear counts Rudy Boesch among his military buddies.