Act of Valor

This past weekend, the number # 1 movie in America was the military action-thriller “Act of Valor”. A patriotic portrayal of U.S. Navy SEALs, the film managed to pull in $24.7 million at the box-office. That’s a pretty impressive haul considering the movie doesn’t feature any major stars. Instead, the cast is comprised of active duty Navy Seals in the leading roles. The ads state as much, but I was surprised they were the stars of the show and not the supporting players. On Tuesday evening, I saw “Act of Valor” and it was pretty much what I expected; a big-budget, non-stop action flick with plenty of “flag waving”. In terms of story and tone, it’s no different than “The Expendables” or “Rambo”, but the film unabashedly honors the true life heroics of our nation’s soldiers.

The thing I find interesting about “Act of Valor” is that it was originally intended as a recruiting film. Eventually, it was embraced by the Navy and evolved into a full-length motion picture. As I watched it, I was well aware of the flat acting; the line readings are bland and the emotional scenes are in a word, laughable. Of course, the performances aren’t meant to be the highlight of the film (the same can be said of action movies in general). But regardless of the lack of any real drama, I thought “Act of Valor” featured some impressive action scenes. They certainly felt authentic, if not entirely accurate. The film was directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh and their intent was to depict a realistic portrayal of the SEAL’s work.

In a sense, I think the directors only got it half right. On one hand, there hasn’t been a film like this since 1993’s “Sniper” which starred Tom Berenger as a U.S. military operative living in Panama. It (I thought) accurately captured the details of a real life military sniper. On the other hand, this movie’s action scenes play out like a non-interactive “Call of Duty”. At times, I almost felt like my controller was missing. The action is too slick when it should be harrowing. This, in effect, defeats the purpose of such a movie. If a film wants to accurately portray the lives of active duty military personnel, it should do without resorting to romanticism. I highly doubt that real-life combat is fun. After watching “Act of Valor”, I didn’t think the filmmakers felt the same way.