(Some Spoilers) True historical event with a number of fictional characters thrown in for effect of the disastrous Port Chicago explosion in 1944 that killed some 320 US sailors and civilians. With most if not all of the victims of the explosion being black.
The movie follows the lives of three black US Sailors Big Ben Cooper, Michael Jai White, B.J Teach, Duane Martin, and collage educated Vernon Nettles, David Ramsey, who were in some way connected to the explosion with B.J who switched places with his friend Big Ben, so he can go out on a date, being blown to pieces in the blast.
The men working at the loading docks at Port Chicago were given the most dangerous jobs by the US Navy in that no one else were willing to do them. And being black they were felt to be expendable by their superior officers who were exclusively,due to the segregation policies of the US Navy at the time, white. In fact even black seaman Nettles who had two years of collage and a 147 IQ was not considered officer grade material in that he wasn't white. With the naval officers in charge of the loading ammunition on he supply ships taking bets on who's loaders, the black seamen, would load the most ammunition on to their perspective ships safety was put behind the back burner in exchange to putting them and those at the port in mortal danger of an ammunition explosion that was just waiting to happen. And on the evening of July 17, 1944 it did and with devastating results!
Not even giving the survivors of the blast any leave time to see their families and loved ones the Navy brass, after all the dust cleared, sent them back to the docks to do the same dangerous work as before! But this time they handed them US Navy issued gloves, in them not having them buy the gloves with their own money, to do it!
This was the last straw for the black seamen who in mass decided not to go back to work on the docks and thus face disciplinary action in doing it. Heart wrenching final with the black seamen put on trial for mutiny in wartime for not wanting to put their lives in unnecessary danger and called cowards by those, their superiors, who wouldn't do the job of loading ammunitions, with out proper equipment and training, themselves!
***SPOILER*** Despite the military court not having any evidence that the so-called mutiny was planned in advance those on trial were still convicted of it and faced as much as 15 years behind bars. They in a way were lucky in that the charge, mutiny in war time, carried with it the death penalty. It was two years later, in 1946, that President Truman commuted their sentences to time served which still didn't exonerate the black seamen and upheld their dishonorable discharges from the US Navy. Still it was also President Truman who four years after the Port Chicago disaster desegregated, by executive order, the US Armed Forces making for the most part it impossible that another Port Chicago, in how the black sailors were treated there, would ever happen again!
The movie follows the lives of three black US Sailors Big Ben Cooper, Michael Jai White, B.J Teach, Duane Martin, and collage educated Vernon Nettles, David Ramsey, who were in some way connected to the explosion with B.J who switched places with his friend Big Ben, so he can go out on a date, being blown to pieces in the blast.
The men working at the loading docks at Port Chicago were given the most dangerous jobs by the US Navy in that no one else were willing to do them. And being black they were felt to be expendable by their superior officers who were exclusively,due to the segregation policies of the US Navy at the time, white. In fact even black seaman Nettles who had two years of collage and a 147 IQ was not considered officer grade material in that he wasn't white. With the naval officers in charge of the loading ammunition on he supply ships taking bets on who's loaders, the black seamen, would load the most ammunition on to their perspective ships safety was put behind the back burner in exchange to putting them and those at the port in mortal danger of an ammunition explosion that was just waiting to happen. And on the evening of July 17, 1944 it did and with devastating results!
Not even giving the survivors of the blast any leave time to see their families and loved ones the Navy brass, after all the dust cleared, sent them back to the docks to do the same dangerous work as before! But this time they handed them US Navy issued gloves, in them not having them buy the gloves with their own money, to do it!
This was the last straw for the black seamen who in mass decided not to go back to work on the docks and thus face disciplinary action in doing it. Heart wrenching final with the black seamen put on trial for mutiny in wartime for not wanting to put their lives in unnecessary danger and called cowards by those, their superiors, who wouldn't do the job of loading ammunitions, with out proper equipment and training, themselves!
***SPOILER*** Despite the military court not having any evidence that the so-called mutiny was planned in advance those on trial were still convicted of it and faced as much as 15 years behind bars. They in a way were lucky in that the charge, mutiny in war time, carried with it the death penalty. It was two years later, in 1946, that President Truman commuted their sentences to time served which still didn't exonerate the black seamen and upheld their dishonorable discharges from the US Navy. Still it was also President Truman who four years after the Port Chicago disaster desegregated, by executive order, the US Armed Forces making for the most part it impossible that another Port Chicago, in how the black sailors were treated there, would ever happen again!