Zero Dark Thirty: Did Mark Boal Meet One of the Men Who Killed Osama Bin Laden?

Look what came out of all that right-wing saber-rattling in January: "According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the White House, Defense Department and CIA all offered rare, if not unprecedented, access to Boal and [Kathryn] Bigelow. The access included a guided tour of a secret CIA planning facility called The Vault and linking Boal up with what a Defense Department official described as 'a planner, SEAL Team 6 operator and commander.' The only restriction was that Boal not disclose the SEAL’s name." Meanwhile, America's "top commando officer" denies everything: "We don’t have a partnership [...] I have no interaction and no one on my staff has any interaction with — what’s her name? Bigelow?" [Danger Room]

Are There A Dozen Headshots Too Many in This Redband Video from Act of Valor?

By many accounts -- okay, mostly just the filmmakers' -- this week's commando pic Act of Valor marks a new kind of filmmaking on account of it's a Navy SEALS actioner starring real active duty soldiers that takes the viewer along on a near-firsthand experience of what it's like to fight terrorists and baddies. From the looks of the film's new redband featurette this means audiences will get to see what it looks and sounds like to drop dome shots left and right in the heat of battle, because nothing says "valor" better than shooting strangers in the head with automatic weapons.
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Is Act of Valor the Closest Thing to Military Propaganda That You Will See in Theaters?

Have you heard about Act of Valor , the upcoming Navy-approved action film starring actual Navy SEALs as Navy SEALs on a covert mission that is based on actual Navy SEAL missions? The one that totally glamorizes Navy SEAL-dom and resembles, as EW points out, a feature-length Navy SEAL recruitment video? Not yet? Well, you're in luck, because now there's a trailer.

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