Thanks to one of my wonderful bloggy and fellow Mil-Spouse pals, the hubbs and I were able to take part in the DC Premier of SEAL TEAM SIX: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden, at the Newseum last week.  By now the movie has aired on National Geographic, and if you haven’t seen it I really suggest that you find a way to watch it.

I was given the amazing opportunity to attend from a Blue Star Families, and a very awesome friend of mine.  Attending was one of those experiences that I could almost not really describe to someone.  Being at a premier is pretty darn cool if you want to know the truth.  We hadn’t had the chance to make it to the Newseum yet, and after seeing a glimpse of it that night it is going to the top of our list of thing to do.  The Museum was amazing and they catered to us extremely well.  Working with National Geographic, as they did, it made it truly a night to remember.

So, lets talk a little bit about the movie.  The movie stars Cam Gigandet (Easy A, and that movie with Cher and Christina Aguliera – and freaking adorable), Anson Mount, Freddy Rodriguez, Alvin “XZIBIT” Joiner, Kathleen Robertson and Kenneth Miller.  People you will also recognize are William Fichtner (Entourage, Blades of Glory and Black Hawk Down), and Eddie Kaye Thomas (Paul Finch in the American Pie films).    So, yes, it is an actual straight up movie, not a documentary, not one of those weird inbetween films I’ve seen before.  No, it is a feature film type movie.  It is amazingly acted, excellent filmed and great time was taken to get accuracy in what was portrayed.  And although what actually occurred isn’t, and may never be, fully disclosed to us there is enough out there and good guesses can be made.  The hubbs recently read No Easy Day and that provided him with a whole other perspective on the movie.

Unfortunately there was a lot of political “stuff” floating around about the movie.  I heard plenty of input from both sides.  Many people said, “I don’t see what the big deal is.”  But if you want me to be honest, if you take into account the involvement of Harvey Weinstein, some of the things that he originally wanted to put in but had to remove, and the timing, it is almost impossible to not at least assume there was some sort of political-ness going on.  Although it was obviously denied, and will probably always be…..with the presence of so many circumstantial things I would have had more respect for them if they would have least acknowledged the fact that the cloud was hanging over us.  My husband is always telling me that I like to be angry.  Of course he’s sort of teasing, but I do have my opinions and I can be pretty loud about them.  So, the fact that I didn’t get all uppity about this movie, and the political cloud, shows you that it just didn’t really seep into the movie.  There were scenes of the President and audio of him talking, but it was all very relevant to the story line.

 A ton of information is jammed into the movie.  You gotta pay attention, and it is really helpful to know a little more about things – more than just what the news reported – to really engaged fully in the movie.  By the time it was over I was crying and had decided that when I grow up (ha! ha!) I want to be the CIA Analyst that Kathleen Robertson’s character was based on.  She’s a rock star, and I’m sure she’s rock starring it up in the CIA right now!  Seriously love her!  From the perspective of a military wife, and as part of a military couple, this movie was great, 4 Stars.  From a regular movie-goer’s perspective it might not be the best movie out there.  Like I mentioned earlier, it moves quickly; but it also has interview type segments, characters are fully developed, sometimes you think there’s something more to a character by the way they look or little things you notice and then nothing is ever explored further about them.  It didn’t go un-noticed by me for sure, but there were so many other things that I cared about in the film that they weren’t important to me.  From a real movie critic’s perspective, it is probably an easy way for the writer and director to skate around things.  You’re telling a story about one of the biggest parts of modern times, something that our generation will talk about like our parents talked about JFK, and where they were when it happened.  So you don’t necessarily have to do all the normal things that you might do in a movie, if it weren’t about that, and if it weren’t on the small screen.

Check it out for yourself, and let me know what you think – if you have seen it, or if you see it later.  Make sure to check your local listings for re-airings, and also for the rest of the new shows that are part of a six-night television event.

All movie photos courtesy of National Geographic TV (website). I received tickets to this even thanks to Blue Star Families, as a guest. I was not compensated in any way for my review or thoughts. The are my own.