I Went to See "Act of Valor"
I have to admit that my desire to see Act of Valor had been tempered a bit before I went because of a rant I saw somewhere that went off on the film and the film makers because one of the principal ‘bad guys’ in the film was a Jew. So I’ll address that little aspect of the film first and then get to my own take on the film.
The ‘device’ in the film of having a bad guy portrayed as a wealthy Jew who has been corrupted by his quest for wealth to participate in unspeakable acts… worked - on about a million different levels. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this now, other than to say that condemning the film on this basis is beyond bogus – on about a million different levels. And if someone wants me to expound on that in a separate post, I’ll think about it.
Now to the film on its merits:
Heartbreak Ridge. I’ll probably tweak a few people with this, but in my opinion, that movie was weakly acted, feebly directed and at least partly based on a ludicrous premise (Recon Platoon of Marines runs amok… yada, yada), yet that movie is on lists of all time great military movies. The movie was made by, and acted by, “professionals” in movie making.
Act of Valor. The acting was pretty good. Compared to the acting in Heartbreak Ridge it was great. The acting did what good acting is meant to do in this medium; have the audience relate to the characters. I related – strongly. The premise of the movie was totally believable and the scenes and the sequences were utterly authentic. I say this not because I know, but because I knew going in, that the Seals in the movie had been granted enormous leeway in making the film authentic. This made following the movie… unusual, to say the least - like say, watching a silent movie in this day in age. Could never happen, right?
I have one major complaint with this movie; Because of the way the movie was made, because of the shorthand nature of the acting in the conduct of the ops, the movie was simply not long enough. The sequences of the operators in the actual buildup to the action sequences could have been much longer, in my opinion… Or maybe the movie was just too short. I don’t know.
Bottom line: I loved this movie and I will see it again - probably multiple times. For me, it wasn’t about the movie, it was about the men. The movie made me feel proud of these men and now, when pride is increasingly hard for me to feel, the men make me proud of this country.
There is certainly no shortage of memorable – and when well acted – incredibly moving scenes, in Shakespeare’s plays. This movie reminds me of one of them; the St. Crispen’s Day speech from Henry V. Maybe to others that’s not significant, but to me it is – greatly.
Could the acting have been better? Of course, but these guys are Seals, not actors. They seemed like they might have been Seals acting normally without the gloss of actors performing their craft to appear to be Seals acting normally. Could the story have been better? Probably not. Should the movie have been longer? Definitely (IMO).
This movie will be one of the great military films of all times, or at least it will be on the list right above Heartbreak Ridge. I hope they do this type of thing again. In times like these, we need movies like this. I’m not saying that all men should convince their sons to all aspire to become Seals, but from time to time, we as fathers need movies like this to show our sons what some men have within them to achieve - that being able to look at the world and discern that there exist things in life that are worth one's life to see preserved is rare and precious trait still worth cultivating in an honorable person's character.
Listen. It’s not only Seals, or Rangers, or Green Berets, or Delta Force, or Para-Rescue or any of the other special operators out there. It’s our military men and women. Since 9-11, they’ve been the best. And this from a generation of kids that up to 9-11 people called the Generation X’ers for their promise of not ever amounting to anything. Talking about missing the mark!
And we’ve lost too many of them. This film is a tribute to them all, in my mind.
The ‘device’ in the film of having a bad guy portrayed as a wealthy Jew who has been corrupted by his quest for wealth to participate in unspeakable acts… worked - on about a million different levels. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this now, other than to say that condemning the film on this basis is beyond bogus – on about a million different levels. And if someone wants me to expound on that in a separate post, I’ll think about it.
Now to the film on its merits:
Heartbreak Ridge. I’ll probably tweak a few people with this, but in my opinion, that movie was weakly acted, feebly directed and at least partly based on a ludicrous premise (Recon Platoon of Marines runs amok… yada, yada), yet that movie is on lists of all time great military movies. The movie was made by, and acted by, “professionals” in movie making.
Act of Valor. The acting was pretty good. Compared to the acting in Heartbreak Ridge it was great. The acting did what good acting is meant to do in this medium; have the audience relate to the characters. I related – strongly. The premise of the movie was totally believable and the scenes and the sequences were utterly authentic. I say this not because I know, but because I knew going in, that the Seals in the movie had been granted enormous leeway in making the film authentic. This made following the movie… unusual, to say the least - like say, watching a silent movie in this day in age. Could never happen, right?
I have one major complaint with this movie; Because of the way the movie was made, because of the shorthand nature of the acting in the conduct of the ops, the movie was simply not long enough. The sequences of the operators in the actual buildup to the action sequences could have been much longer, in my opinion… Or maybe the movie was just too short. I don’t know.
Bottom line: I loved this movie and I will see it again - probably multiple times. For me, it wasn’t about the movie, it was about the men. The movie made me feel proud of these men and now, when pride is increasingly hard for me to feel, the men make me proud of this country.
There is certainly no shortage of memorable – and when well acted – incredibly moving scenes, in Shakespeare’s plays. This movie reminds me of one of them; the St. Crispen’s Day speech from Henry V. Maybe to others that’s not significant, but to me it is – greatly.
Could the acting have been better? Of course, but these guys are Seals, not actors. They seemed like they might have been Seals acting normally without the gloss of actors performing their craft to appear to be Seals acting normally. Could the story have been better? Probably not. Should the movie have been longer? Definitely (IMO).
This movie will be one of the great military films of all times, or at least it will be on the list right above Heartbreak Ridge. I hope they do this type of thing again. In times like these, we need movies like this. I’m not saying that all men should convince their sons to all aspire to become Seals, but from time to time, we as fathers need movies like this to show our sons what some men have within them to achieve - that being able to look at the world and discern that there exist things in life that are worth one's life to see preserved is rare and precious trait still worth cultivating in an honorable person's character.
Listen. It’s not only Seals, or Rangers, or Green Berets, or Delta Force, or Para-Rescue or any of the other special operators out there. It’s our military men and women. Since 9-11, they’ve been the best. And this from a generation of kids that up to 9-11 people called the Generation X’ers for their promise of not ever amounting to anything. Talking about missing the mark!
And we’ve lost too many of them. This film is a tribute to them all, in my mind.
posted by Kae Gregory at
10:40 AM
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