Time to Frogman Up: Go See Act of Valor

Last time I sacrificed a small fortune at the theater, it was to see Red Tails. I got burned on that one. But I march to the beat of a completely different drum than the lock-stepped mass media, so the hate spewing forth against this flick helped me decide to give it a chance on the big screen.

I'm glad I did.

Not that I've read all the knee-jerk criticisms of Act of Valor, but I'm sure the acting was panned. Okay, I'll admit that the performances were not Oscar caliber, but considering that the SEALs on-screen were portrayed by real life active duty SEALs, it wasn't that bad. Better, in fact, than in many films I've seen. Let's not forget this is an action movie, either.

Much of this movie was shot in something like cinema verite` (reminded me of how John Milius and George Lucas originally planned to shoot Apocalypse Now...in 16mm on location in Vietnam). In general, this worked pretty well, but did cause occasional confusion during the action sequences. Otherwise, they were fantastic.

It was nice that the Special Boat Squadrons got a little bit of cowboy time, and pretty cool to watch, too. As with all war/military flicks, I took issue with some of the tactics depicted. For instance: I've never been a SEAL, nor do I watch the reality shows about BUDS, but I should hope that on a mission requiring surprise, SEALs would know better than to silhouette themselves in front of a bright, low moon. But cinematicly, it makes for a pretty shot. Directors like to cram multiple characters into the frame, too, in tactical scenes--which causes combat formations to shrink to tactically unwise intervals. But I can nitpick pretty much any shoot-'em-up movie with those kind of observations.

The language was actually a shade tamer than in real life military units. The technical details seemed to be solid. The action was violent, but not gratuitously so; and was necessitated by the plot. In short, this was a humdinger of an action flick.

And as I suspected, Act of Valor did no political soapboxing. But the very fact that a conflict was portrayed in which there was a clear deliniation between right and wrong--and American fighting men happened to be in the right--has infuriated the Hollywood establishment. See, American GIs should be ignorant rapists, racists, murderers, exploiters of harmless Third World Paradise-Dwellers, dangerous immature loose cannons committing a Mai Lai Massacre every time the military industrial complex gives them live rounds and a plane ride over the pond. Act of Valor has committed Hollywood heresy.

It's a mystery how they avoid choking on their own hypocrisy when they call this movie "propaganda."

It's a good movie, and probably one of the least propagandistic you're going to see in theaters OR on TV this year.

Act of Valor: An End-Run Around Hollywood Thought Police?

So how is it that a movie with so little Hollywood hype (that I never heard of it until after it opened) blast enough profit in the first three days to earn back its investment X2?

Judging by the industry's silence about the film, you gotta wonder if they were hoping it would flop. By all accounts, it is not the typical leftist portrayal of American fighting men as savage raping racist warmongers, which probably explains why Hollywood didn't invest nearly the marketing into it as they did for, say, Brokeback Mountain. Whatever the reason, I'm proud of moviegoers who thought for themselves this time and spent their voting dollars on something different.

And boy, does it sound different--active duty SEALs as actors, reenacting real missions? I didn't even know that was legal. This goes a step beyond those classic war flicks that show a credit to the US Armed Forces during the opening music. You know, back before schools and movie studios began conditioning citizens to be ashamed of being American and insisting on how unexceptional our country is.

I've read that the film itself really doesn't get political. By Hollywood standards I guess that makes it "conservative" or "right-wing."

Whatever. I look forward to watching it.