Review: 'Devotion,' a story of Navy fliers in the Korean War, is a combat movie at its most sincere

The air-war drama “Devotion” is as sincere as a movie can get, an old-fashioned story of friendship under fire, inspired by true events.

It’s 1950, and a new Navy pilot has arrived at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, to train for the most dangerous flying available: Landing on aircraft carriers. The pilot, Lt. Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), proves himself in the air immediately, keeping up with the best aviator on the base, Ens. Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), when they’re paired up for the first time.

Brown is the only African-American pilot in the training squad, though the movie doesn’t show any of his squad remarking on his race other than noting the novelty of having a Black pilot. Later, when the squad is assigned to a carrier, some of the ship’s junior officers harass Brown because of his skin color — but Brown keeps cool, tamping down any urge to fight back.

In another important respect, Brown is different from the other squadron pilots: He’s married, to Daisy (Christina Jackson), with a small child. When the squadron is called up to fly missions in Korea, at the start of the conflict there, Daisy asks Hudner to watch her husband and “be there for him.”

Director J.D. Dillard — whose last two movies, the thrillers “Sleight” and “Sweetheart,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival — is quite dutiful in the military training sessions, which resemble what “Top Gun” would have looked like if it was made in 1951. The wartime scenes are more breathtaking, with the ratatat feel of aerial combat footage.

Majors (“Lovecraft Country”) and Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick”) have strong bro-chemistry, as Powell’s Hudner becomes eager to jump into the racism battles that Majors’ Brown struggles to avoid. The other notable performance is Thomas Sadowski as the squadron’s commander, who speaks quietly and philosophically about the horror and necessity of war.

The last image in “Devotion” is a dedication to Dillard’s father, who served in the U.S. Air Force (as my father did). Dillard’s earnest war movie does his family, and the military, proud.

——

‘Devotion’

★★★

Opens Friday, November 23, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for strong language, some war action/violence, and smoking. Running time: 138 minutes.