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Besides aviation, I am very fond of military related topics. In particular, I am in complete awe of fighting men and women in the field. I find it amazing they can carry out their tasks with such professionalism, precision, and turn around and do it again and again and again!
So that said, when I found out yet another movie was being made portraying SEALs I was thinking "oh great, another Chuck Norris type classic". Turns out this is made with SEALs and lots of LIVE ammo. As in real bullets coming out of the guns. Obviously some scenes have to have blanks, but either way, live SEALs, live ammo, and some real hardware?! Sweet!

As was G.I. Jane, starring the incomparable and always lovely Demi Moore...

Michael Biehn has to be the luckiest actor ever.

At 28 he landed this part in a low budget sci-fi movie.  He had to play second fiddle to a main character who could barely speak English.  What the heck - a job is a job.  And what was the best line he got in the whole movie?

Update: I have seen this movie twice already with #3 coming soon. This is not a movie for entertainment, I honestly felt changed leaving the theater.

While you watch it, remember that all the 'missions' in the movie are taken from REAL missions, and all the 'acts of valor' the SEALs in the movie do REAL SEALs did, sometimes dying in the process. Which is why the Charlie Sheen "Navy Seals" movies do not deserve to be in this thread at all. If you do not get watery eyes at the end, your moral compass is seriously screwed up.

Matt, if you dont get a little teared up yeah, something is not right. Unless you take glee in fathers dying for the sake of their team mates....and watching the funeral take place, then a list of all the members of Naval Special Warfare that have died since 9/11 in combat...

expat wrote on Mar 6^th, 2012 at 12:51pm:


Matt, did I say I served? I am 21 years old 4 years into an Aeronautical Engineering degree and recently married. There is no major war (world war) on the horizon, if one comes, I will do what I need to do. What exactly are you trying to say? I was not trying to insult you. I was simply stating that the end of the movie is pretty moving. Which is why I responded the way I did. I explained why the ending is moving.


Im not trying to start a heated argument here, I am just suggesting a movie. Besides Matt, you should know there are not too many people my age that give a rat's hairy @$$ about what happens to soldiers in combat. They simply do not care at all. So I am hopping this movie will remind my generation that there are men and women that did more with their life than play a game really well (like the NFL idiots). Also, it would be good for people my age to have a little respect for what this nation's fighting men and women are capable of.

I should tell you too that it can be very awkward to talk to veterans. I try to avoid talking to them about anything serious because I have no idea what will be a touchy subject. Which is why usually when I 'talk' to a vet I either just listen, or we talk about something simpler in regards to their service. Like something about equipment or vehicles. Again, I feel extremely uncomfortable talking to veterans because I really do not want to hit that touchy subject whatever it may be. Many people my age are the same way. Which is why we end up learning what we can from books, movies, and TV.
I had a Vietnam vet for a professor at GRCC, seeing him get flashbacks was not something I ever want to see a vet have again. He did it multiple times in lecture throughout the semester and he explained to us why he had them. Which is why I REALLY prefer to not talk to vets about their wartime experiences. If they talk to me, I will gladly pull up a chair and listen hard, if they wont talk, I cannot bring myself to ask. Which is why I am not asking you Matt or anyone else.

Don't be sorry, we all make our own choices and have our own beliefs. I just take exception to being told what emotions I should or should not display, that's all. There is a prevalent thought in today's society that if you are not showing the "correct" emotion at a certain place, time, at, during or after an event, you are for want of better wording not normal. Also the amount of online sympathy sometimes is way over the top and again, if you are not agreeing or partaking then you are void of feeling or at worst trolling.
One of the reasons that you will (unless it is extremely exceptional) will never see a post by me in a personal thread covering death or loss, I just do not do online sympathy. I save that for face to face situations, it is just the person I am, slightly distrustful of human nature and motives of complete strangers. A sad sign of the times I guess.

On a lighter note, Aeronautical Engineering, nice choice. I am a licensed aircraft engineer myself. And married at 21, thought I was young at 23 (you had just been born )

Matt

wahubna wrote on Mar 7^th, 2012 at 1:35pm:



Hi Adam, thank you.

About the only thing that gets me going is being told how to feel. My wife points out that I should give a little slack too, everyone in entitled to an opinion and she is right of course. As you said, it was a good discussion and I have no hard feelings. I am looking forward to seeing Act of Valor as I think it takes movie making to a whole new level. Not sure if this would work with all film genre though.

Matt