Proud (film)
Encyclopedia
Proud is a 2004 film directed by Mary Pat Kelly and stars veteran actor and activist Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...

. The motion picture was filmed in Buffalo, NY. The screenplay was written by Kelly based on her non-fiction book Proudly We Served (1999).

Proud was an Official Selection of The Third Annual Buffalo International Film Festival
Buffalo International Film Festival
The Buffalo International Film Festival was founded in 2003 and takes place in Buffalo, New York. It is also known as The Buffalo Film Festival.-History:The film festival became a 501c3 not-for-profit charity in January 2005....

 in 2009. Mary Pat Kelly and Lorenzo Dufau (last surviving crew member) introduced the screening.

Plot

The film focuses on the meritorious service of the USS Mason (DE-529)
USS Mason (DE-529)
USS Mason , an Evarts-class destroyer escort, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named Mason, though DE-529 was the only one specifically named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason. The USS Mason was one of two US Navy ships with largely African-American crews in World War II. The other...

 of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the first US Navy ship with a predominantly African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 crew, and how three of the men were finally honored in January 1994 for their meritorious service.

Cast

  • Reggie Austin as Dubois
  • Vernel Bagneris
    Vernel Bagneris
    Vernel Martin Bagneris , playwright, actor, director, singer, and dancer, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the third child of Gloria Diaz Bagneris and Lawrence Bagneris Sr. Bagneris’s mother was a housewife and deeply religious woman who “quietly outclassed most people,” and his father was a...

     as Larry's Father
  • Marcus Chait as Lieutenant Westin
  • Michael Ciesla as Yeoman Of The Flagship
  • Ossie Davis
    Ossie Davis
    Ossie Davis was an American film actor, director, poet, playwright, writer, and social activist.-Early years:...

     as Lorenzo DuFau
  • Eric LaRay Harvey as Kevin / James Graham
  • Rashad Haughton as Hank Fields
  • Janet Hubert as Larry's Mother
  • Albert Jones as Larry / Young Lorenzo DuFau
  • Kidada Jones as Gordon's sister
  • Jeffrey Nash as Marcus / Gordon Buchanan
  • Denise Nicholas
    Denise Nicholas
    Denise Nicholas is an American actress and social activist who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement...

     as Gordon's Mother
  • Edward O'Blenis as Watkins
  • Aidan Quinn
    Aidan Quinn
    -Early life:Quinn was born in Chicago, Illinois to Irish parents. He was brought up as a Roman Catholic and raised in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly in Ireland. His mother, Teresa, was a homemaker, and his father, Michael Quinn, was a professor of...

     as Commodore Alfred Lind
  • Stephen Rea
    Stephen Rea
    Stephen Rea is an Irish film and stage actor. Rea has appeared in high profile films such as V for Vendetta, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto...

     as Barney Garvey
  • Darnell Williams
    Darnell Williams
    Darnell Williams is a British-born soap opera actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Jesse Hubbard on the ABC soap opera All My Children, a role which has earned him two Daytime Emmy Awards.-Biography:...

     as Thomas Young, War Correspondent

Reception

When the film was released Ronnie Scheib, film critic at Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

magazine, gave the film a mixed review, writing, "A weird hodgepodge, Proud is part history lesson, part family saga, a lyrical nod to the Old Sod, a Navy recruitment flag-waver and a war actioner. Earnest, intermittently rousing pic, skedded for a fall opening, should coast on Davis' masterful perf before being archived by cable for suitable occasions...Pic's overall structure is determined both by Davis' narration and by the presence of black war correspondent Thomas Young (Darnell Williams), who was assigned to cover the Mason. His frequent to-the-camera interviews with sailors abstractly punctuate the film, creating a broader sociological framework...Aside from generally excellent combat scenes, pic is uneven. The bigoted animosity of a petty officer, for instance, or the Admiralty's dismissal of the captain's praise of his crew's valor as exaggeration unfold with the leaden sententiousness of a grade-school pageant."

Critic Marcia Davis with The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

wrote, "The high purpose of Proud is not matched by the film's execution, however. It's worth seeing, but don't go expecting a traditional Hollywood feature film. It is rather oddly executed and uneven, unlike the well-known and controversial Glory, which won Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...

 his first Oscar, or the brilliant A Soldier's Story
A Soldier's Story
A Soldier's Story is a 1984 drama film directed by Norman Jewison, based upon Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning Off Broadway production A Soldier's Play. A black officer is sent to investigate the murder of a black sergeant in Louisiana near the end of World War II...

,
adapted from Charles Fuller
Charles Fuller
Charles H. Fuller, Jr. is an American playwright, best known for his play, A Soldier's Play, for which he received the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Early years:...

's A Soldier's Play. Proud is something of a hybrid, part documentary -- with actual footage from the Mason -- and part dramatization. It is at times deeply poignant when it talks about the longing of black men to be treated as men and what they went through to prove their worthiness. It can also be a bit of an unrestrained flag-waver on black American patriotism."

Distribution

Film festivals
  • High Falls Film Festivals: November 11, 2004, Rochester, New York.
  • Tribeca Film Festival
    Tribeca Film Festival
    The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

    : April 23, 2005, New York, New York.
  • Lake Placid Film Festival
    Lake Placid Film Festival
    The Lake Placid Film Festival is an annual Film Festival held in Lake Placid, New York. The Festival, previously known as the Lake Placid Film Forum, has played host to famous film personalities such as directors Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese...

    : Lake Placid, New York
    Lake Placid, New York
    Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....

    .
  • Urbanworld Film Festival: New York, New York.
  • Buffalo International Film Festival
    Buffalo International Film Festival
    The Buffalo International Film Festival was founded in 2003 and takes place in Buffalo, New York. It is also known as The Buffalo Film Festival.-History:The film festival became a 501c3 not-for-profit charity in January 2005....

    : Buffalo, New York
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