294 RüdigerKunow
role.^127 On the one hand, his body has lost almost all its normal
functionsandYoungpostedinhisTwitterprofilehelived"inamedical
Maryjane state" (@tomasyoung34). On the other, this same body
attained a new function in becoming a very public, even political body.
IninterviewsfortheCBSshow60Minutes, abiopicforTheNation,and
also in the filmic documentary, Young's body, sometimes clad in
fatigues, became "damning evidence against the war" (Dargis n. pag.).
ThiscentralityofYoung'sbodywasdulytakenupbyTVtalkshowhost
Phil Donohue (one of the producers of the film) when he said that the
film was "provoked by my own questions as I stood on my functional
legsathisbedside"(Dauntn.pag.).
Quitethecontraryposition,bothtodisabilityandtheU.S.wareffort,
is taken inMen of Honor(2000; George Tillman, Jr., dir.), a biopic
about Carl Brashear, the son of a sharecropper who became the first
African American to attain the rank Navy Master Driver. The film
recastsBrashear'slifeasaHoratioAlgerstoryofsorts,highlightingfirst
Brashear's determination to overcome his personal limitations and the
pervasiveracisminthemilitarybeforeitturnstothedecisivemomentin
Brashear's life, the moment he loses his leg during a salvage operation.
Aided by his superior, Master Chief Sunday (a Caucasian, played by
Robert De Niro), and encouraged by his wife Jo (Aunjanue Ellis),
Brashear retrains, gets re-certified as a diver and continues his
successful military career (Men of Honor). In this way, the filmic
narrativereaffirmsthehistoricalBrashear's personal lifemotto: "It'snot
a sin to get knocked down; it's a sin to stay knocked down" (Men of
Honorn. pag.)—which could serve as well as a motto for similar such
representations of disabled veterans, in fictional or (auto)biographical
form, organized around a performative code that makes disability both
appear and disappear, move into the background of a new and
potentiallymorefulfillinglife.
(^127) As one columnist wrote: "Young will die for our sins. He will die for a war
that should never have been fought. He will die for the lies of politicians. He
willdieforwarprofiteers.Hewilldieforthecareersofgenerals.Hewilldiefor
acheerleaderpress.Hewilldieforacomplacentpublicthatmadewarpossible.
He bore all this upon his body. He was crucified." (Hedges qtd. in Scheer n.
pag.).