It can be difficult to film a true story, especially one with great possibility for bathos, and do it cleanly and effectively. "Men of Honor," from most reports, has done just that.
Cuba Gooding Jr. stars as real life Carl Brashear, the first African American to become a master diver in the Navy. Robert De Niro stars as fictional Bill Sunday, an invention said to shore up Gooding's role, and give more texture to the movie. Sunday is simultaneously Brashear's most vicious adversary, and loyal supporter, and scene stopper. ( De Niro has long had the reputation of an "actor's actor.")
Of course, it's a male bonding outing, but with a difference – some say, class. Sunday is actually a composite of two of Brashear's real life diving teachers. He is "hard-drinking, foul mouth, stubborn, brave and tough." In short, what more could one ask? Oh yes, he's also a racist.
Brashear has grown up in the sharecropper south, and has one ambition – to get into Navy diving school, which even in the 1948 desegregated Navy, most blacks were given a hard time and relegated to cooks and stewards jobs.
Brashear survives all the bigotry and becomes a diver only to suffer a horrendous accident and amputation and wind up as master chief. Gooding puts total commitment into his part, as well he should when up against De Niro. The two have excellent backup with Hal Holbrook, Charlize Theron and Michael Rapaport. It is directed by George Tillman Jr., and rated R for language.
It starts Thursday at Market Square East.

The St. Croix Landmark Society will host their annual Starving Artist Art, Craft and Antiques Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26 at the Whim Museum.
Local food, drinks and music will be available, along with approximately 60 to 70 vendors selling locally made goodies, arts and crafts.
An antiques flea market and a farmer's market have to been added to the event, as well as some demonstrations of local crafts.
The museum store will have a huge furniture and sidewalk sale and the education department at the Whim Museum will offer lots of children's games and activities, as well as the popular storytelling.
Adult admission is $3.00 and kids are free.
Art, craft and antique vendors can place a reservation at the Whim office in Frederiksted.
For more information call 772-0598.

Purportedly "Rugrats in Paris – the Movie" is about more than Notre Dame, high fashion, the Eiffel Tower and smelly cheese. Well, what else is there?
This animated adventure of the lovable gang of RR's, idols of the two to eleven-year-old set, proves once and for all that there's quite a bit more. Oh, come on, now, we knew that.
Seems that Chucky wants to find a new mother for his single dad, and when blind circumstance casts Chucky and his pals to Paris, France, voila! the hunt is on. Paris will never be the same. Then again, the inexplicable Parisians have always had that inexplicable thing for Jerry Lewis.
For reasons best known to people who write production notes, Napoleon Bonaparte, that old scalawag, is quoted: "Courage is like love, it needs hope to nourish it." For those of us over eleven, it'll take more than courage to slog through this adventure, but the rest of us will love it, and, come to think of it, that's who it's for.
The "Rugrats" TV series started on Nickelodeon in 1991 and has won countless awards. It has spawned enough consumer products to stock a small country in worthless merchandise for 15 years.
Along with Cheryl Chase and Christine Cavanaugh, Susan Sarandon, John Ligthgow and Debbie Reynolds lend their voices to the project, which is directed by Paul Demeyer and Stig Bergqvist.
It is rated R for . . . just kidding. It is rated G.
It starts Thursday at Diamond Cinemas.

Aulrick Caton of Estate Richmond died Friday, Nov. 10. He was 60.
A memorial gathering will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18 at the Thomas Hyll Memorial Funeral Chapel at 129 St. Peter's Rest. Burial will be at St. Thomas Anglican Church, Trinidad.
Mr. Caton is survived by his wife, Dorrell Caton; son, Kirt A. Caton; daughters, Cherrie Ann and Catherine Ann Caton; sisters, Irma Chambers, Oerlien Taitt, Linda Mohammed, and Zanifer Mohammed; brother, Nazir Kahn.
He is also survived by brothers-in-law, Ciebert Taitt, Desmond Stewart, Dennison Stewart, and Clarence Millington; sisters-in-law, Dawn Millington and Edlyn Stewart; nieces, Christine Smith- Chikuyo, Karen Stewart, Rhonda Millington, Belinda Millington; nephews, Trevor Millington, Derek Millington, and Kerry Stewart; and numerous relatives and close friends.
Funeral arrangements are under the care of Thomas Hyll Memorial Funeral Chapel.

Check out the movies now playing on local television. It's all here in
TV Listings.

Check out the reviews of current films being shown at theaters across the United States
at the Movies.

"Pay it Forward" is a game conceived by 11-year-old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment), and playing it is what this "family movie" starring a student, a teacher, an alcoholic cocktail waitress and a drug addict is all about.
It all starts in McKinney's social studies class when teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) challenges his class to come up with an idea that will change the world: "Think of an idea to change our world – and put it into Action!"
McKinney, who loves a challenge, steps right up. In his game, every time somebody does a favor for you, you "pay it forward" to three other people, doing life-changing good deeds for three people, who will then pass it on.
For example, McKinney gives shelter to Jerry (Jim Caviezel) a homeless drug addict, but it backfires when Jerry uses the money for drugs. He also is trying to get his teacher together with his mother, Arlene, ( Helen Hunt), the cocktail waitress, who is trying to make ends meet by working two jobs. Then there's McKinney's no good father (Jon Bon Jovi) who, further frustrating McKinney's plans, suddenly returns home.
However, the 11-year-old perseveres. He helps bring his Simonet out of his teacherly shell, revealing a complicated personality in need of an airing, as only Spacey could do justice to. And looks like there's hope on the horizon for his mom, too. You may remember Osment from his sensitive and haunting portrayal of a troubled youngster in "Sixth Sense."
The movie has avoided the cliches that might flatten or demean the story line, according to most reviews. Seeing Spacey and Osment together should be worth the ticket price alone.
It is directed by Mimi Leder and Oliver Stapelton and rated PG-13 for mature elements, substance abuse/recovery, sexual situations, language and brief violence. ( These raters must really enjoy their work.)
It starts Thursday at Market Square East.

The Public Works Department's Office of Transportation recently received more than $270,000 in federal grants that will go to a half-dozen groups providing transportation services for the elderly and disabled.
In a statement, Acting Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood said two grants of $135,138 and $136,122 had been received for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. The six nonprofit organizations that will benefit from the funds are: St. Croix Dial-a-Ride, St. Thomas Dial-a-Ride, Adullan Shelter for the Homeless (St. Croix), Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral and All Saints Cathedral on St. Thomas, and V.I. Resource Center for the Disabled.
Callwood said the section 5310 program under which the federal grants are awarded provides annual funding to assist private and public groups in purchasing vehicles that are accessible in accordance with the American with Disabilities Act, along with related equipment.
For more information, call Constance Gumbs at Public Works, 776-4844, ext. 257.

In the preview publicity for this season's Reichhold Center for the Arts offerings, director David Edgecombe touted the programs on tap as "appealing and applicable to our community's cultural diversity." He voiced the hope that "everyone would attend at least one performance they normally wouldn't," adding that "trying something different could be delightful."
With Chuck Mangione, the Dominican Waitukubuli dancers and the Puerto Rican Symphony out of the way, it's time to put that challenge to a tougher test: a triple one-night stand this weekend of "Shakespearean" plays – two of them well-known works by the Bard and the third, a collaborative effort by two of his contemporaries.
Inexplicably, the first up, to be performed Friday, is the "heavy," the classic tragedy "Othello." Saturday will bring the comedy "Twelfth Night," and Sunday will see the performance of "The Roaring Girl," also a comedy, quite a feminist one for 400 years ago at that.
The last time the Reichhold Center offered a series of three related programs in three successive nights was two seasons ago, with "Piano Madness," featuring Caribbean jazz artists drawing on their French, Hispanic and African influences in greatly varying contemporary genres. The music all three nights was outstanding. It would be a kindness to say that the attendance, especially the first night, was sparse.
To encourage attendance this weekend by young people, and probably their parents, community donors have provided for more than 300 free tickets to be made available to public school students.
For them, and for anyone else not innately enamored of Shakespeare, here's the good news: Shenandoah Shakespeare Express, the Staunton, Virginia-based company bringing this all to St. Thomas, has a track record of presenting a "fresh, energetic approach to Shakespeare."
Of course, one must ponder what sort of traveling troupe would promote itself as representing a "stale, lackluster approach" to old Will, or any other playwright. However, the media critics seem to be on Shenandoah's side. In the case of "Othello" as mounted in 1994, a Chicago Sun-Times reviewer wrote that the actors were all dressed in sneakers, black shirts and flowing trousers and performed with no set changes, no special-effects lighting and no intermission. What they did, faithful to Shakespeare's play, he said, was act superbly in a "no-frills, high-energy, low-fat" production.
"We do it with the lights on," Shenandoah marketing director Victoria Joyce says. "We re-create the original stage environment Shakespeare himself worked in. The group also incorporates a great deal of audience participation — often engaging an audience member in a role."
Shenandoah Shakespeare Express is the touring branch of the overall company, located in a small city in the Appalachian foothills of western Virginia, not far from the West Virginia border. The troupe is presenting this particular trio of plays around the country under the umbrella title of the Charm Your Tongue Tour.
The CYTT troupe, according to booking director Bill Gordon, comprises 11 actors, "each playing multiple roles in each of the three plays." Their appearance at the Reichhold is not part of a Caribbean tour, he says, "though we'd like to see these performances start the ball rolling in that direction."
Gordon says he met Edgecombe last January at an Association of Performing Arts Presenters national conference in New York. "It took several months of negotiation to finally ink the deal," Gordon says, with plans laid for the company to fly to St. Thomas following a tour of southern Florida.
The plots, in brief
For those who have thus-far avoided or long-forgotten English Literature 101 and who haven't seen the various film versions (a British production of "Twelfth Night" as recently as 1996), here are synopses of Shakespeare's tragedy and comedy:
In "Othello," subtitled "The Moor of Venice," the play opens with the young and distinctly Caucasian Desdemona, a senator's daughter, having eloped with the Moorish and definitely dark-skinned general Othello. Interestingly, the men who set about to undo this union while Othello is busy trying to win a war are motivated more by political and sexual passions than by racism. Roderigo, enamored of Desdemona, is consumed by jealousy. Iago wants revenge because Othello passed him over in choosing a second-in-command, Cassio. Iago's treachery leads to an unhappy ending for one and all – but you knew that already, because this play is a tragedy.
From "Othello" come these well-known words: "Who steals my purse steals trash … but he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.." Also in the play is reference to "one that loved not wisely but too well" and a description of jealousy as "the green-eyed monster."
"Twelfth Night" starts out with the tragic straits of one young woman who believes her twin brother has drowned in a boating accident and another, a wealthy countess, vowing to mourn the death of her brother in a cloistered life for seven years. But the play quicky becomes a comedy of mistaken identities, misdirected passions, high humor and low tricks. The twin, Viola, resolves to disguise herself as a boy and take up work in the service of the Duke Orsino, who is determined to woo the countess, Olivia, by sending his new lackey as emissary. Naturally, Viola, disguised as Cesario, falls madly in love with Orsino, and, of course, Viola's brother Sebastian shows up eventually – but you knew that already, because this play is a comedy.
One of the most familiar lines of "Twelfth Night" is this one: "… some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
Before getting into the story line of "The Roaring Girl," a word about the playwrights, Thomas Dekker (1572-1632) and Thomas Middleton (1580-1627). Scholars have pretty much agreed that they were not only contemporaries of Will Shakespeare (1564-1616) but also birds of a Bardian feather in the first decade of the 1600s.
"Bartlett's Familiar Quotations" cites for comparison a line from Shakespeare's "Richard III" – "So wise so young, they say, do never live long," and one from Middleton's "The Phoenix" – "A little too wise, they say, do ne'er live long." And in Shakespeare's "As You Like It," one finds "All the world's stage, and all the men and women merely players," compared to Middleton's line from "A Game of Chess"– "The world's a stage on which all the parts are played."
Written in 1611, "The Roaring Girl," subtitled "Or Moll Cutpurse," takes its name from the term of the times "roaring boys," which referred to the "riotous gallants" of London with a penchant for getting into fights. The title character is a local rowdy house habitue who dresses in pants, talks tough, smokes a pipe, sings lusty songs and has no interest in getting married and settling down.
Moll was based upon one Mary Frith, whose notorious exploits tested the patience of proper English society and often brought her before a magistrate. Dekker and Middleton, clearly in her court, created a loose and episodic play that serves mainly to showcase Moll's talents as she sings, fights, rescues a pal from the clutches of the law; and moves with equal ease among the gentry and the low-lifes. The play conveys not only her actions but also her thoughts and feelings about social inequities. Literary critics agree that few other comic female roles of the era are its equal.
Curtain time each night is 8 p.m. Tickets a re $22 in the covered section and $18 in the open air for each play. The free student tickets are available by arrangement.
For reservations by charge card and for further information, call the Reichhold box office, 693-1559. Ticket outlets in addition to the box office are the University of the Virgin Islands bookstore, Parrot Fish Music, Modern Music (Havensight), and Krystal and Gifts Galore on St. Thomas, and Connections on St. John.

Here is the schedule of playoffs for the St. Thomas Youth Soccer Fall League.
Game Details:
– All playoff games will be held at the UVI Fields;
– If game ends in a draw after regulation time, there will be two 5-minutes halves where the "golden goal rule" applies. That is, whoever, scores first in the overtime wins the game. If a game ends in a draw after the overtime, there will be penalty kicks "shootout" to decide the winner.
Players and coaches must be on the field 20 minutes before start time.
Under 7 – 20 minutes per half, 5 minute halftime, size 3 ball; 7 a-side.
Under 10 – 25 minutes per half, 5 minute halftime, size 4 ball; 9 a-side.
Under 13 – 30 minutes per half, 5 minute halftime, size 4 ball; 9 a-side.
Under 14 – 35 minutes per half, 5 minute halftime, size 5 ball; 9 a-side.
The Thanksgiving Soccer Tournament begins on Friday, November 24. The schedule of games will be issued during next week. If you have questions about this schedule please contact Stephen Brusch at 776-2237 or Tanya Ward Benjamin at 776-2105.
FRIDAY
4 p.m. Field 1 – Under 10 – GAME A – Antilles Gold vs. Youth Soccer.
5 p.m. Field 1 – Under 10 – GAME B – Antilles Red vs. All Saints Green.
5 p.m. Field 2 – Under 13 – GAME C – Youth Soccer vs. All Saints.
SATURDAY QUARTERFINALS
8 a.m. – Field 1 – Under 10 – GAME D – Montessori vs. winner of GAME A.
8 a.m. – Field 2 – Under 10 – GAME E – Sibilly vs. Dober.
9 a.m. – Field 1 – Under 10 – GAME H – All Saints Gold vs. winner of GAME B.
9 a.m. – Field 2 – Under 10 – GAME I – Antilles Blue vs. Antilles White.
SEMIFINALS
8 a.m. – Field 3 – Under 7 – GAME F – Antilles White vs. Montessori.
8 a.m. – Field 4 – Under 7 – GAME G – Antilles Blue vs. All Saints.
10 a.m. – Field 1 – Under 10 – GAME J – Winner of GAME D vs. Winner of GAME E.
11 a.m. – Field 1 – Under 10 – GAME K – Winner of GAME H vs. Winner of GAME I.
1 p.m. – Field 2 – Under 13 – GAME L – "Montilles" (Montessori/Antilles
combined team) vs. winner of GAME C.
1 p.m. – Field 3 – Under 13 – GAME M – Dober vs. Sibilly.