Guns, Cars, and Tech

Act of Valor

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wizardpc

in

About 90 minutes of war porn followed by ten minutes of you and everyone else in the theater crying (you know within about 3 minutes of the movie starting that it ends with a funeral). Chinooks dropping swiftboats into a river? Check. Dead terrorists? Check. Miniguns shooting live ammunition instead of using special effects? Check.

If that’s not enough to get you there, go read this article about how some of the scenes were directed. Basically, the director told the SEALs “This is what your objective is” and then the guys came up with operational plans. They then filmed based on the actual plan, not what some writer thought would be a good plan.

My only gripe is that they had several first-person shooter views where the shooter had an M4 with an EOTech up top, but the EOTech reticle was never seen.

Comments

4 responses to “Act of Valor”

  1. a leap at the wheel Avatar
    a leap at the wheel

    The previews for this movie apparently didn’t do it justice. I’ve seen a few trailers and commercials, and they made is look like the use of non-actors was a publicity stunt on an otherwise run-of-the-mill movie.

    Based on what I’ve read in the last few days, I want to go see it now.

    Maybe they should have let the SEALs write up the media plan, too.

    Reply
  2. Linoge Avatar
    Linoge

    You noticed that too, eh? I kept looking for the reticle, and not seeing it… Possibly the only error in those combat scenes (well, apart from a blast shield being visible in the scene), but it did not completely ruin it for me.

    And, yeah, Leap, the SEALS had pretty much the key roles all the way through.

    Reply
  3. McThag Avatar
    McThag

    The reason I don’t like my EOTech is the thing will shut itself off.

    How long were those takes taking?

    Reply
  4. Ted N Avatar
    Ted N

    I hope the “give the shooters the job, let them come up with their plan, then fit the cameras where they won’t get shot” style catches on, it came out awesome. My wife was bawling, and even I got a little bit of dust in my eye.

    Reply

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