Not Just Any Sunday

In your article on “Men of Honor” (“The Hollywood Plunge,” by Susan King, Nov. 9), it was mentioned that the Robert De Niro character Billy Sunday was fictional.

In the frequently shown commercials for the movie, De Niro is shown exclaiming to his troops in a Southern (almost evangelical-sounding) accent, “I am Billy Sunday and I am God!” Have the filmmakers forgotten the real Billy Sunday, who was a prominent radio minister? Or are they making an ironic reference?

In, say, another 30 years, can we expect another Navy movie in which the fictional chief navy diver is named Billy Graham? Will this also be an ironic reference? And to what purpose?

J. GREGORY KEENE

Mission Viejo