Created: February 27, 2012 Last Updated: February 27, 2012
A solider leaving for deployment in the action-drama ?Act of Valor,? a film about Navy SEALs who try to prevent a terrifying global threat. (Relativity Media)
?When you meet an active-duty U.S. Navy SEAL, he has a look. He has an intensity and an aura that?s almost impossible to replicate. He may have been training and on active duty for 20 years. How can an actor recreate that?? So says director Scott Waugh in the press notes for the phenomenal new war movie ?Act of Valor.?
Since the termination of Osama bin Laden and the hyper-accurate sniping of Somali pirates by U.S. Navy SEALs, these shadow warriors are front and center in the spotlight.
Of course they?ve been portrayed before, in dramatically compelling but realistically nonsensical Hollywood fare like ?GI Jane? starring Demi Moore and ?Navy SEALs? starring Charlie Sheen. Until now, we?ve never seen these military masters in their natural habitat. As co-director Mike McCoy concurs, ?The U.S. Navy SEALS in combat are far more than anything Hollywood could ever write.?
The ?Act of Valor? cast is made up largely of real-life, active-duty SEALs. Can these warriors bring the goods, acting-wise? Yes, but they don?t really have to. They just do what they do, and due to new camera technology, we get to be flies on the wall in the submarine, on the sniper ghillie suit, and inside the jump-goggles and dive-masks of SEALs. The result is mind-blowing. It?s a brand new film genre.
The story is based on true events. When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA agent leads to the uncovering of a deadly plot against the United States, a SEAL team is unleashed on a global anti-terrorist mission. Like a deadly treasure hunt, each accomplished mission turns up a new piece of intelligence. The realistic balancing act of these special-operations warriors is depicted in the juggling of their commitments to their country, their team, and their families.
Never have we seen the incredible stealth that SEALs are capable of, nor have we witnessed the SWCC (Special Warfare Combatant-Craft) gunboat crews in full action. The Mark V SEAL special-operations boats are like mechanized marine predators?low-slung, blacked-out, stealth-rigged, with monster engines, and fast as mako sharks. The utterly devastating, grim-reaper firepower of a SOC-R boat (Special Operations Craft-Riverine) has to be seen to be believed.
In one ?hot extraction,? escaping SEALs drive a truck straight into a jungle river and swim out the windows underwater. Their rescuing boat crew hauls up sideways, right on time, and lays down a truly shocking, pulverizing barrage of bullets on a normally deadly drug-cartel in a six-truck convoy.
Talk about out-matched. The high-decibel braying of the boat?s miniguns and the gut-registering pounding of the 50-caliber machine guns is enough to stand your hair on end.
All live-ammunition was used for this film?not seen before because it?s too dangerous. As the SOC crews say, ?Anyone who engages one of these boats will be immediately sorry they did.?
Act of Valor
Directors: Scott Waugh, Mike McCoy
Cast: Active-Duty Navy SEALs, Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle, Nestor Serrano
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rating: R
The real actors chosen for the film are not major stars, so they blend in well with the real-SEAL cast. Likewise, the facts and the fiction aspects are entwined seamlessly. The only aspect of the film that is slightly weak is the voiceover, which is done most likely by a real SEAL. The combat footage, while not real, is realistic in the sense that the SEALs were given free reign to plan and carry out missions just as they would in real combat situations.
It?s rare in film that the non-actors can actually act, but in ?Act of Valor,? this situation works for the most part. What becomes recognizable is that these quiet, humble men, handsome but not extraordinary at first glance, carry in their speech and in their walk something rather ominous. This ominous quality stems from the fact that SEAL training is far and away the toughest military training in the world.
This organization wants men who would rather literally die than quit. SEALs have a beyond-human capacity to grimly endure to the death in the face of terrifying, outrageous, unimaginable hardship. A SEAL weighing 130 pounds can do a 13-mile run carrying a hundred-pound pack on his back. That?s just for starters.
An ex-SEAL, in a recent Men?s Journal interview, describes an act of heroism as only being valid if you don?t tell anyone about it. ?If no one could ever know you climbed Everest?would you do it???Act of Valor? is a new film genre. The above-described humble heroism and the mindset of forbearance evident in SEALs is a new insight into the creed of true warriors.
Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/movie-review-act-of-valor-196634.html
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