By Patricia Ducey. Act of Valor, a fine movie opening this weekend about the Navy SEALs, looks to crush its box office competitors, with Tyler Perry’s latest in second, and assorted rom-coms and thrillers trailing far, far behind.
Small wonder.
Valor’s non-stop action and gut-twisting suspense, based on real SEAL missions and starring present day SEALs, grabs us by the throat and doesn’t let go for nearly two hours. What makes Valor especially compelling throughout is its grounding in SEAL values like courage, patriotism, and family—their dedication to something bigger than themselves underpins all the action—supplying a much needed corrective to years of equivocal or downright ugly depictions of our military in Hollywood films. In Act of Valor our warriors stand tall as ever.
The action begins when jihadi mastermind Abu Shabal (Jason Cottle) detonates a bomb in a Philippine schoolyard, killing a U.S. ambassador, along with many other innocents, as he fetches his son from school. Soon after, a CIA agent (Nestor Serrano) is killed and his partner Morales (Roselyn Sanchez) is kidnapped from a Costa Rican apartment when their investigation of a drug smuggler named Christo goes awry. The savvy Christo showers the town with his largesse, thus ensuring their loyalty, and the townspeople out the operatives.
The SEALs are called in to recover Morales before it’s too late, and after a last get-together with their families, the Bandito Platoon are off to the jungle. They rescue Morales after a harrowing battle and recover intel that reveals Christo has teamed up with Shabal, who intends to smuggle suicide bombers into the U.S. And they will be wearing a new kind of weapon: ultra thin suicide vests with explosives made of ceramic that will sail through any metal detector and wreak unimaginable damage. If the bombers succeed at detonating at malls and stadiums, the casualties and the ensuing panic could destroy the U.S. economy. So the SEALs press on, crisscrossing the globe to stop the plot, mixing astonishing feats of skill and bravery with military technology unimaginable ten years ago. SEALs rendezvous with submarines; helos drop in boats and teams to inaccessible jungle rivers. It’s incredible stuff. Valor looks a little like 24 thanks to its screen graphics, and the action shifts from Costa Rica to the Ukraine and to the U.S., and from team to team. The cinematography and expert editing add to the heart-pumping suspense.
Yet this realistic film, which started as a recruiting short, has been criticized by some as ‘propaganda.’ Unfortunately, filmmakers today are between a rock and a hard place; if they conscientiously steer away from old, stereotypical racial tropes or political jingoism, that leaves them no alternative but to ‘stereotype’ whoever is left– and as Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Always us. Yet surely anti-military tropes have exhausted themselves; movies like Avatar and Redacted and even Hurt Locker posit a dystopian military culture as ‘the enemy,’ an enemy that the public largely does not buy into any more.
So where all this handwringing has left us is at the tedious notion of ‘balance,’ which requires that if one presents a positive image of the military, as Valor does, one is also required to add a negative one in order to achieve ‘balance’ – or else one is otherwise left with mere ‘propaganda.’ Yet realistically, how would this work out? In real life SEALs are so highly trained and vetted that it would prove a ridiculous stretch to ‘balance’ Act of Valor out with the usual stock neurotics or savages who so often appear in military films made by Hollywood.
All of this narrative confusion and timidity often leaves critics cringing at movies with a pro-American point of view. But does anyone seriously question whether single-minded pursuit of terrorists is a bad thing, or that the SEALs’ success springs from a profound sense of patriotism? Surely these are unequivocal matters. And besides, ask our own president how he feels about the ‘nuances’ or ‘complexities’ of the missions he sends SEALs on.
The charge of ‘propaganda’ also implies that this movie is lying to us – but this charge fails, as well. You don’t believe a SEAL would fall on a grenade to save others? See Michael Monsoor. Chechen terrorists killing schoolchildren? Beslan. Amazing technology and team precision? The bin Laden raid.
The Navy has concealed nothing about their involvement in the movie (after all, they commissioned it) and acknowledged that they wanted a realistic version of their mostly secret missions out in the public to aid recruitment.
And the SEALs know better than we that the War on Terror has been a long 10 years.
The real life SEAL actors, who are identified only by their first names for security reasons, are put to good use. Many critics have assailed the SEALs’ acting here as ‘wooden,’ but I find their calm professionalism under fire more believable and fresh than the histrionics supplied by actors. In fact, it may even help; instead of thinking “I wonder if he’s stoned” while watching a Charlie Sheen or a Demi Moore chew up the scenery, we’re thinking “they’re the real deal!” (And ladies, these SEALs are awfully easy on the eyes.) In any case, this is an action film; an action movie foregrounds the, er, action, not the personal stories. Still, several scenes certainly stand up to the acting in a TV show or film; for example, I loved the “another day at the office” banter of the comrades-in-arms, and several scenes, like the Chief’s interrogation of the suspect Christo, were crisp and compelling. In any case, story and heart trump slick production values every time.
Finally, the voiceover by one of the SEALs that bookends the film explains how and why these SEALS bond to each and to their country so deeply, sentiments they don’t have time to reveal in the midst of battle. At the conclusion, the narrator reads a letter written by one SEAL to his son, to be read in the event of his death. He talks about what his own father taught him in an effort to guide his son to manhood, setting forth guiding principles should he not be there to remind him. I won’t spoil it for you, but his advice is eloquent and wise, something worth reading to any kid.
As the movie fades out, we see a roster of names, much too long, of SEALs who have made the ultimate sacrifice since 9/11. Yes, it has been a long ten years for our military men and women. Yet they continue to live and die for us, in the shadows until now, reminding us in the final Tacitus quote adopted by warriors for centuries: “In Valor There is Hope.” Now, that is hope we can believe in.
Posted on February 26th, 2012 at 12:38pm.
This is a great/important movie. Yes the “acting” is not great but who cares?! These are great men who do heroic things everyday. This movie should be shown in our government run schools once a year.
An excellent movie. I went in expecting to cringe but knowing that I can’t complain that nobody makes movies with a positive portrayal of the military then not go to see one that does, but was blown away. The acting may not have been scintillating but they didn’t really have to act – they actually ARE SEALs and have a better idea of what SEALs say or do, and how, than any film critic. Now if America can show that people will watch such movies, someone in Hollywood, for monetary reasons if nothing else, should get the point and make more. That said I’m not sure how the international box office will work out – in my native Canada it was not widely released (3 screens in a city of over 500 000 people where I live) and didn’t make the country’s top 5.