"Mutiny", produced by Morgan Freeman, relates the story of the aftermath and controversy surrounding the largest home-front disaster of World War Two, the July 17, 1944 naval mutiny at Port Chicago. The story is told thru the experiences of three composite characters representing three of the 258 young sailors- all African-american- who initially refused to load munitions weeks after the catastrophic and still-unexplained accident. "Mutiny" is the first production of Revelations entertainment, a company co-founded by Freeman and Lori McCreary.
The story is exactly what Freeman wanted to use to launch his production company- an American tragedy few had heard of, marked by issues of courage, patriotism and justice set against the backdrop of an entrenched, segregated military.
"The story takes place during wartime," Freeman said, "where sailors, mostly black stevedores- are loading bombs and ammunition aboard ships headed for the Pacific and working at breakneck speed under terrible conditions. There was an accident and no one has ever been able to get to the bottom of what happened."
The explosion killed 320 men, 202 of them African-americans, and injured 390 others. It lifted two transport ships completely out of the water, destroying them, blew out windows 20 miles away and sent up a plume of flame visible 35 miles away.
Producer McCreary hired James Henerson, writer of "Attica" and "The Love Letter", to invoke the period and write the story.
"I'm in my 30's, and I grew up in Oakland," said Henerson, "and I knew about Port Chicago, but I didn't know about the black sailors. When I got into it, I was really fascinated."
Henerson interviewed 17 of the sailors who had survived the explosion, some of whom were active members of the mutiny that followed. Ultimately, he set the crux of his story not on the explosion, but on the conflicts and issues that followed in its wake.
"I didn't want to make a movie about victims. for me, this was the central problem. These were victims in a system, but they were also heroes. they were heroes by standing up and getting in the faces of people who victimized them."
Of the 258 sailors who were involved in the initial protest, 50 were charged with mutiny, over which hung the military sanctions of death and dishonor. Of the original number, 200 returned to work when they were threatened with a possible death penalty. The men were eventually given honorable discharges, but they were convicted of mutiny- a conviction that has never been lifted, so the taint of mutiny hangs with them to this day.
Kevin Hooks, the director, credits the three stars with bringing pathos and vibrancy to the dramas central themes and tragedy.
"It is critical to place ourselves in the shoes of those young sailors. We got incredible performances from the three stars playing three characters with different and sometimes overlapping qualities," he said.
The actors went through a "boot camp" of sorts in the San Fernando Valley. like the men they portrayed, they were given no training whatsoever in the handling of munitions. Much of their on-camera clumsiness was natural. The actors were drilled by ex-Marine Pat Dye, a respected military technical advisor aho had trained the actors in "Platoon" and "Saving Private Ryan".
Director White also commented that when he met the actual survivors they never thought of themselves as victims, not for one minute. They were as proud today as they were back then. They stood for what they believed in.
Survivor Robert Routh, Jr., an LA resident who was blinded in the explosion hopes that the film will bring honor and hopefully a pardon to those sailors. "I believe when we apply the word mutiny we generally look at people who are trying to take over something. These men merely stated that they didn't want to go back to work under the old conditions, meaning: We need to have some training and we're willing to do anything but that. No bereavement leave was granted for any of the men as it was for the white sailors. I feel the men were looked upon as machinery that was used to load bombs and projectiles, rather than as live young sailors. That explosion was the biggest fireworks I had seen in my life and it was curtains for me."