Saw it twice. Renting a wheelchair van to take my uncle (suffering from MS) and his father (both Naval Submarine Officers) and cousin to a show this weekend.
A little about the real Acts of Valor that inspired the movie..
http://www.itstactical.com/centcom/...-that-inspired-the-movies-realism/#more-11929
Today, I’d like to offer my thoughts and perspective on the recently released Act of Valor movie. I’m not a movie critic, or even someone who’s got any operational experience outside of BUD/s (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training) and what I was taught there. What I do offer with my write-up is the perspective of someone who has been through and overcome adversity side-by-side with members of the Naval Special Warfare community I’m proud to call my friends.
Words will never fittingly describe, nor do justice to the adversity that each one of these guys encountered in training and faces every day of their lives. What I mean by this is the continuous training, workup and deployment cycle they go through and all they sacrifice on a daily basis that most will never understand.
“We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.” ~ Sir Winston Churchill
Act of Valor
The opening line of Act of Valor starts with the statement that the movie is based on “real acts of valor.” As you’ll read in this write-up I was able to spot at least three different occurrences that were based on real life incidents that the Teams encountered. Before I go any further, I wanted to mention that the Navy SEALs are commonly referred to as “the Teams” or an individual SEAL as a “Team Guy.” Just a heads up in case you didn’t know.
I went into this movie expecting to see one of the most realistic movies ever produced about the Teams and I wasn’t disappointed. I knew going into it that all the SEALs in the movie were active duty Team Guys. I had mixed feelings about this and whether it was a publicity stunt from the NSWC PAO (Naval Special Warfare Command Public Affairs Officer) office to help push enlistment of guys going to BUD/s. Back in 2007 it was announced that by this year the command wanted to have an additional 500 SEALs.
I have no doubt that this movie using active duty SEALs was allowed to be made to help up the numbers. That’s certainly not to discount the active duty guys and their involvement, but having their faces on the big screen would definitely preclude them from ever being in certain SEAL units. I say this for the reader’s knowledge, not theirs.
I’m a strong believer in the SOF Truths, particularly that “SOF cannot be mass produced.” We’re still seeing this with the NSWC’s new numbers of guys going into BUD/s. When I was in, our class (251) started with around 170 guys and we wound up with 70 after Hell Week. This was also a very high number around the time I was there (2004). Funny thing is that the larger classes that are going through now, which have upwards of 250 guys, are still getting these same numbers after Hell Week. I mention this just to say that upping the numbers isn’t going to necessarily get the result the command is looking for. There will always be gatekeepers in the community who rightfully refuse to relax the standards. All BUD/s instructors are active duty Navy SEALs with the exception of a few Navy Divers in 2nd Phase and other select positions.
Something I appreciated reading was that this movie was produced at no cost to taxpayers. With most military movies, the usage of equipment, etc. is agreed upon and set up particularly for that film. With Act of Valor everything was shot in the training cycle and nothing was officially scheduled, which is why they’d been filming since 2006, as the “actors” still had to deploy and they shot where and when they could. Every battle scene utilized live fire and I was really glad to see the only use of automatic fire was for the purpose of suppressive fire as it should be.
One of my biggest gripes with Hollywood is the overabundance of fully automatic fire and with how many people I run across think that our troops run around dumping magazine after magazine (not clips!) into a bad guy. Ammunition is scarce and why you’ll only see fully auto used to suppress enemy fire.
Real Act’s of Valor
I’ll try to summarize the plot without giving away too much of the movie, but if you want to stay totally in the dark and see this for yourself first, it’s probably better that you stop reading at this point. Again, I’ll try to not give away too much.
The plot of Act of Valor is based on real exploits by the Teams and the premise is based on the overall global anti-terrorism mission that the Teams are currently chest deep in. This is portrayed with a mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA agent that leads to the discovery of a terrorist plot to funnel suicide bombers into major US cities with a new “undetectable” mass destruction technology.
The Bandito Platoon, that really seems to be more of a single squad in most scenes, is dispatched to stop the terrorist attack that “will make 9/11 look like a walk in the park.” Something I really appreciated throughout the movie was that the Team Guys were allowed to speak as they normally would. You could tell they weren’t actors, but I actually appreciated the candor that came across. I particularly liked the familiar language and talk I remember so fondly from the community.
My favorite SEAL/actor was the salty Senior Chief that threw out some great terms of endearment that made me smile and laugh my ass off. I especially enjoyed the interrogation scene dialogue between Senior and the terrorist cell financier, Cristo. The constant purposeful name mispronunciation and quotes like “shit filter’s full,” was exactly how I remember a certain Senior Chief I knew talked. Actually I heard worse come out of his mouth, but I won’t repeat it here.
Throughout the initial rescue of the CIA agent and successive operations to stop the terrorist cell, a SEAL is shot in the eye, another jumps on a grenade to save his teammates and finally one is shot dozens of times and continues to fight. These are the real acts of valor I recognized from the film.
The SEAL that was shot in the eye I believe to be the recently departed Ryan Job, whom I got to know while we were in BUD/s together. Job was a true hero and an inspiration to everyone, I’ll never forget his kindred spirit and his dive sup check dance that always had everyone laughing in Second Phase with Class 251. As in the movie, the shrapnel that struck him in the face didn’t kill him, but cost him his eye and eventually his complete vision. Job unfortunately passed because of a mistake in a facial reconstruction surgery more than three years after the original incident. A great quote from the movie was after the SEAL was evacuated from the operation, a teammate is trying to help calm him down and says “You took one to the face, you’re a hard m*****f*****!”
Later in the movie, the LT (Lieutenant) is the first to see a grenade that’s thrown into a room with himself and his teammates. He subsequently dives on top of it with his body armor and is killed in the blast, but saves the lives of his teammates. This act of valor is based on Michael Monsoor‘s unselfish act that saved his teammates lives and saw him posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor....(cont in article)
