I should say beforehand that I have NOT seen "Act of Valor" an action movie featuring not Hollywood stars as US Navy SEALs but real life SEALs themselves(one reason why their names are left off the closing credits), but I am no stranger to the hero worship surrounding special forces( "Who Dares Wins" with Lewis Collins as an SAS captain, "The Delta Force" with Chuck Norris and the late Lee Marvin, "Death Before Dishonour" with Fred Dryer and of course Charlie Sheen and James Biehn in "Navy SEALs"). Given the SEALs involvement in last May's dramatic attack on Bin Laden's compound which left the AQ founder/leader dead and coupled with "Dirigible of Drivel" Rush Limbaugh's explicit praise for the film on his website, I would say that any hope of non political assessment of this film is a doomed one. Full disclosure here; were not my best friend Jim McFadden a Korean War veteran, I might be tempted to join the chorus of ritual sneers at the SEALs as a collection of knuckle dragging borderline psychopaths who get their rocks off killing people( a trope dating back to the Vietnam War era regarding soldiers in general esp the US military), but Kipling's poetic reproach for those"who mock the very uniforms that guard you whilst you sleep" thankfully stayed my pen. Actress Roselyn Sanchez who played the CIA agent abducted by terrorists(improbably led by a Chechen) praised the SEALs and wants not just their fellow Americans but the world to know the debt of gratitude we owe to the "unsung heroes" of the SEALs, clearly did not think so.
Whilst I admit that in an imperfect world, we need armed forces to defend us against not just against hostile nation states but also terrorist groups like AQ and PIRA, the military' stock in trade is basically the taking of human life and although I am no pacifist, war films always make me feel uncomfortable( I rarely watch them unless they have some historical significance such as"Waterloo" "The Battle of the Bulge" "The Dirty Dozen" "Midway"); even for the most righteous and justifiable cause wars bring out the worst in humanity, brutalizing and degrading victor and vanquished alike.
"We fight not for conquest but to put an end to conquest!"Franklin D.Roosevelt proclaimed on D-Day and along with the saving of human life, that is the only jsutification that there can be for the shedding of blood on the battlefield. If you want to see "Act of Valor" go ahead; enjoy the action but give the politics a miss.
Anybody else think as I do?
Terry
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