So would it surprise anyone (who enjoys reading this blog) that the Media, the newspaper critics, the entertainment reporters i.e. the talking heads, don’t like this movie at all. A writer for The Huffington Post calls it “propaganda”.  Now its true that the film was commissioned by the Navy’s Special Warfare Command and its success will be measured not in box-office receipts, but in the number of new recruits it attracts to the Navy SEALs.

[God-damn, if I wasn’t 62 years old, with lifelong bad eyesight and a bad back, I’d try to enlist!]

One of the interesting things about this movie is the repeated comment I’ve read that the Navy considers the 80’s movie “Navy Seal” an embarrassment. And not the sort of film that would attract the type of recruit that they are looking for.

The type of man that they want, are the type of men that are in this film. It is very much against character and tradition for SEALS to be identified as such and even less to publicly play the role. For the SEALs, the decision meant potentially risking “ridicule for the rest of their careers for stepping outside the community,” Mr. McCoy says.

After they made a group decision to participate, deciding the project served the SEALs’ greater good, the Navy made the film a formal task for the sailors, who were between deployments. Their names won’t appear in the “Act of Valor” credits; instead, the film will list Naval Special Warfare members killed since Sept. 11. WSJ article. 

Those names appeared at the end of the movie, during the credits. I counted the names. There were at least sixty. That  probably didn’t include the recent loss of over twenty SEALS after the Bin Loudin raid.  After the almost two hour movie I seriously needed to visit the Men’s room. But I figured I needed to wait until the last name had scrolled past.

Here’s a thought, for their “tramp stamp” instead of hieroglyphs (that probably really decipher to “Eat at Joes”), how about if our young (nubile) ladies tattoo the names of such honored dead above their backside instead? (Free mustache rides for life from Moi for all participants)

My point is, someone has decided that any and all Hollywood movies made in the last forty years have to weaken the depiction of the American soldier. Every movie has to show a flawed or weak American soldier. Not in this movie; There are no corrupt officers, no damaged heroes, no queasy doubts about the value of the mission or the virtue of the cause.

The American Soldier, you can have no better friend and no worse enemy.

This post is dedicated to my friend Doug, I only wish I could have served along-side you my friend.