Our colleagues at Kit Up and Under the Radar are pumped about next year's release of a movie called "Act of Valor," which includes real, active SEALs and their real-life tactics and equipment. It's been in the works for many years, including under another title, "I Am That Man," and people in the closed world of Naval Special Warfare are said to be pumped, too.
But wait a tick -- a Hollywood movie that includes real special operators and the weapons and procedures they actually use in the field? Isn't that... treason? When New York Rep. Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, learned that DoD was in talks with a Hollywood studio about collaborating on a movie about the Osama bin Laden raid, he was furious! King vowed to "investigate" whether the Obama administration was leaking classified information in a baldly political bid to make the president look good to moviegoers.
So with last week's release of the trailer for "Act of Valor," King must've gone on another rampage, right? Right now his office is ordering 50 million blindfolds and pairs of earplugs labeled "OPSEC" that Congress will require people must wear if they want to see it, right? Press conferences! Hearings!
Well ... no. Although King's office released his letter to DoD and CIA officials requesting "investigations" about the bin Laden movie, it has maintained radio silence since the debut of the "Act of Valor" trailer.
In the interest of saving taxpayers' money, here are the preliminary results of our own investigation: People inside the Navy have been talking about this movie for years. A cursory search of the Navy's own official website yields no fewer than 13 official Navy photographs depicting SEALs, Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen and other sailors, ships and equipment all taking part in filming.
The Pentagon has helped Hollywood make movies featuring troops and their equipment for years. When "Act of Valor" comes out next year, officials believe their time and patience with the filmmakers will be rewarded if many of the kids who see it decide to join the Navy.
