Hacker Cinema
Act of Valor
2012 · Film · 110 min
Directed by Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh
When a covert mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA operative uncovers a chilling plot, an elite, highly trained U.S. SEAL team speeds to hotspots around the globe, racing against the clock to stop a deadly terrorist attack.
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5 comments on Hacker News
As a way to spread propaganda these efforts are probably as good as they can be in liberal democracy. The methods are subtly directing the "sentiment" and removing unwanted issues without trace. They are not trying to hammer ideology too obviously.
If you want to see clear modern US military propaganda film that reaches the pinnacle of Nazi wartime propaganda (not that obvious propaganda like "The Eternal Jew", but highest quality epic and inspiring movies with strongly embedded sentiment) you should watch Act of Valor (2012) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591479/ The only problem with the Act of Valor is that it's not very good movie. The delivery of propaganda in the movie is perfect. It leaves you feeling the same way as the Nazi movie Kolberg (1945) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolberg_(film)
This is an important point. We're usually only tuned in to notice the propaganda of our "enemies", because to us they're evil and any attempt to appear otherwise is outrageous.
Another film example is Act of Valor (2012). An enjoyable demonstration of real military hardware, accompanied by god mode special forces operators, jumping in to any country, saving the world from super villains. This film provides a sense of security to the US and it's allies whilst simultaneously instilling fear in it's enemies.
All respect to the real heroes out there, military and otherwise.
Yes, because there is no choice in the matter. The only durable way to stop mass illegal immigration would be to relieve the enormous incentives for both illegals to come in, and businesses to hire them, which means making it legal for a restaurant to hire anybody - including foreigners - to work 16 hour days for $3/hour vs 10 hour days for $9/hour. This will never happen, not even under the most hardcore Tea Party government, not even if Goldwater rose from the ashes and brought with his election victory a House and Senate majority somehow with the same spine he had.
I thought the (excellent) movie "Act of Valor" pointed out the other way this issue could be resolved. In the movie, terrorists use the people smuggling networks to allow suicide bombers into the US, targeting a few stadiums in Southern cities. This is not the first time enemies of the US try to smuggle people in illegally - the Soviets and the Cubans especially sent many agents that way, as well as infiltrating US criminal organisations (see for example Oleg Kalugin's biography [1] which explores the links between the Soviets and the Italian mafia).
In the real world, no criminal organisation would be mad enough to let that happen (much as gangs in Mexico try to avoid killing gringos) because it would mean a promotion from "criminal organisation" to "effective terrorist organisation" and we saw after 9/11 how the American public reacts to that. So long as you're "just" smuggling drugs and people, it's "just" the DEA and ATF and the odd border agent.
If they did facilitate terrorist attacks, you can bet there'd be an enormous appropriation and militarization of the border, coupled with a systematic destruction of virtually all smuggling networks on Mexican soil and maybe temporary occupation of the territory south of the border. Panama was invaded for less.
But this is not going to happen just because a few people go on strike, especially when the majority of manual labour (11m vs 3m) appears to be illegal already without much outcry from the public which tacitly understands that this is key to cheap food and service.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/First-Directorate-Intelligence-Espionage-Against/dp/0312114265/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
I just watched the first half of it and thought the acting was just slightly better than the acting in Act of Valor ("real Navy SEALs!" in a movie about Navy SEALs).
On a similar note: I recently watched the movie "Act of Valor". I had no idea it was one big propaganda piece before I got in. As soon as the movie started I thought "Yep, here we go. 110 minutes of pure army PR".
What I thought was more interesting were the comments on the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. You can check them out for yourself here: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/act_of_valor/ It is a shit movie; no doubt about it. What I find interesting are the comments on the reviews that the critics gave.
Critics of course correctly pointed out how this movie is basically an advertisement paid for by the Navy. However, any critic that dared to give a bad review or even mention the word "propaganda" was attacked by countless posters that were shouting how he is a "damned liberal" and how the soldiers "die for [him] everyday to protect [his] freedom".
I do not understand the glorification of soldiers and I probably never will. War is a horrible, horrible thing. Soldiers are professional killers. As Voltaire said: "All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets"
There is no glory or honor in war (more specifically the current situation in Afghanistan/Iraq). The soldier sure as hell did not die for you. He most likely died protecting his comrades that he has been living with for the last 4 years. The soldier probably doesn't even give a shit about you. The Army is not defending America's "way of life". Terrorists do not hate you because of your "freedoms". As a Canadian, I really don't understand why my opinion is so frowned upon in the US.