This paper identifies two trends within the US and UK: the “militarisation of intelligence” and the rise of “special intelligence” (SI). foreign policy, denies the human, moral and political consequences of these transformations and supports the growth and maintenance of a war society. Particularly, it focuses on the way the film’s representation/aestheticization of war sanitizes and celebrates significant yet contentious transformations in U.S. military policy (Dirty Wars), personnel (elite special ops soldiers) and practice (terror, torture, clandestine killing and more). The final section interrogates Act of Valor’s reality and authenticity claims via a systematic critique of the ways the film misrepresents the “reality” of U.S. Understood to be a “militainment” product and a significant moment in the development of the Hollywood Pentagon complex, themes in Act of Valor's are compared and contrasted to Hollywood's cycle of critical war films, particularly the Vietnam War era classic, Apocalypse Now. military policy, personnel and practice in the post-9/11 context of the endless global “war on terror.” A close reading of the film’s textual content, including the visual and audio strategies, reveals highly constructed imaginings of war and conflict, including a new militainment trope of soldier- as-superhero. Department of Defense (DOD), the film presents mythic depictions of the changing public face of U.S. Navy SEALs, a significant arm of the U.S. As a synergistic coproduction between the Bandito Broth- ers, a Hollywood film production company, and the U.S. military-industrial-media-entertainment-complex.

This paper analyzes Act of Valor (2012) as a Hollywood film and Pentagon PR vehicle produced by a vast and expanding U.S.

Act of valor true story