Movie Review: Act of Valor

A week ago my wife and I went to see the movie Act of Valor.

“An unprecedented blend of real-life heroism and original filmmaking, Act of Valor stars a group of active-duty U.S. Navy SEALs in a film like no other in Hollywood’s history.  A fictionalized account of real life Navy SEAL operations, Act of Valor features a gripping story that takes audiences on an adrenaline-fueled, edge-of-their-seat journey.” (From the official website.)

Enthusiasts outside the military hoping to see secret tactics revealed by the film will be disappointed.  The film reinforces professional and competent tactics many have already seen, or imagined, only this time with the support of real SEALs themselves rather than actors.  Refreshingly, in Act of Valor we get to see real warriors doing their jobs in a realistic way, without falling victim to an overblown, uninformed and overactive Hollywood imagination.  Even so, it’s still an action story that’s well put together.  Plot holes?  Sure.  Accelerated timelines?  Yes.  But what you end up seeing is a story rooted in the real-world, accelerated to allow us to experience it in a short 110 minutes.

So it’s clear up front: I liked the movie.  While not a documentary, the movie unfolds without a political bias or agenda.  It’s about SEALs doing the work they do, regardless of who sits in the Commander in Chief’s seat.  This is refreshing.  As a military officer I serve at the pleasure of the President and am bound by my oath to follow his lawful orders, regardless of political party.  Interestingly, the oath our U.S. military professionals take is an oath swearing to support and defend the Constitution, not any specific personality or political party.  This is quietly communicated well.

Act of Valor is rated R for strong language and violence.  While not excessively graphic, the rating is definitely warranted.  If my son was older, I would have taken him back to see it.  It’s definitely a movie I’ll add to my library at home due to the positive messages of honor, sacrifice and manhood it communicates.  We’ll watch it together when the day comes.  Here are the themes that resonated with me and I intend to reinforce with my son:

• Service before self and serving something bigger than yourself
• Sacrifice
• Strength and humility vs. arrogance
• Family: actual (e.g. husbands, wives, kids) and extended (in this case, military)
• Living bravely and dealing with fear

The movie uses a story to honor our troops.  Will it serve as a recruiting device?  Sure, but it’s clear this isn’t the primary reason the movie was made.  What the film does well is cause the audience to identify with real warriors, individuals who we get to know and get to watch do things that are difficult and demanding.  These aren’t just a few military men and their families we read or hear about in the news.  The impact is visceral.

Finally, before I saw the film several friends told me when they went to see it, the audience applauded at the end.  I know why.  Interestingly, when my wife and I saw it, the response was dramatically different: absolute silence.  It verged on reverence and was almost overwhelming.  The movie ended and people quietly and respectfully stood and left the theater.  I was stunned in the best of ways.

Visit the official site for more info (http://actofvalor.com/official/) or better yet, go see the film.  I think you’ll enjoy it, and if you have older kids, take them too.

It’s great to be a dad!

RESTREPO: Movie Review

There are a number of movies I intend to watch with my son as he grows older, to reinforce a variety of life’s lessons.  Some are general while others specifically focus on being a man.  I recently saw National Geographic’s documentary film RESTREPO.  It’s now on my list of films to watch with my son, and it’s a film I highly recommend to you, especially if you’re not in the military.

The film follows a platoon from U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade while deployed to an outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008.  The name of the outpost and title of the film come from the platoon’s fallen medic PFC Juan Restrepo. 

(Outpost (“OP”) Restrepo. Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. 2008. A film still from the documentary RESTREPO by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. Image © Outpost Films)

The film is not political, nor does it take a stand on the U.S. military or military service in general.  The purpose appears to be to give a raw human view of this kind of combat deployment, including the associated highs and lows.  The experience is visually stunning, intimate and very human as you see a one-year combat deployment digested into 90 minutes.  It’s very well done.

From the film’s website, its directors Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger state:  “The war in Afghanistan has become highly politicized, but soldiers rarely take part in that discussion. Our intention was to capture the experience of combat, boredom and fear through the eyes of the soldiers themselves. Their lives were our lives: we did not sit down with their families, we did not interview Afghans, we did not explore geopolitical debates. Soldiers are living and fighting and dying at remote outposts in Afghanistan in conditions that few Americans back home can imagine. Their experiences are important to understand, regardless of one's political beliefs. Beliefs are a way to avoid looking at reality. This is reality.”

(RESTREPO filmmakers Sebastian Junger (l.) and Tim Hetherington (r.) at Outpost Restrepo. Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, Kunar Province. 2007. Photograph © Tim Hetherington)

What about your kids?  You know your kids better than anyone, but my recommendation is not to take children under 17 to see this.  While the movie isn’t necessarily gory, it is a war movie.  It’s not a depiction; it’s a documentary, and it’s violent.  The violence, however, occurs in an appropriate context (it’s not violence captured on film simply for the purpose of sensational violence) and the film is very respectful of the soldiers and families involved.  What will make the movie difficult for kids, especially young ones, is viewing the movie without an appropriate understanding of the broader real-world context of the war in Afghanistan, or the decisions that led us to the war--again, not really a part of what the movie attempts to address.

For older or more mature kids, it may be a great teaching tool to help them know and understand any number of broader things:  courage, duty, service to country and friends, loyalty, bravery, decision-making, the practical impact of political decisions, as well as other attributes that we parents hope to see instilled in our kids as they mature into adults.  Overall, I recommend parents see the movie first, then decide if it’s the kind of film your kids should see.

For more information and to see the trailer, visit the film’s website (http://restrepothemovie.com) and National Geographic’s “The Making of Restrepo” (http://movies.nationalgeographic.com/movies/restrepo/junger-hetherington)

I highly recommend you see this movie no matter what your political views, your views of the military, or the war in Afghanistan.  It’s an amazing snapshot of what one facet of modern ground warfare looks like: dramatically different than that of previous wars up to and including the war to liberate Iraq.  More importantly, it’s also an amazing chronicle of the bonds that form between men, in this case men who became friends as they trained together and later fought side by side.

It’s great to be a dad!