Navy Seals (1990)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Lewis Teague

Writers (WGA):

Chuck Pfarrer (written by) and
Gary Goldman (written by)

Release Date:

20 July 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Tagline:

America's top secret weapon.

Plot:

While rescuing an American air crew captured by Mid-Eastern terrorists, Lieutenant Curran and his team...

Plot Keywords:

Navy Seal | Rescue | Shotgun | Stinger Missles | US Navy

Cast

Charlie Sheen	...	Lt. Dale Hawkins
Michael Biehn	...	Lt. James Curran
Joanne Whalley	...	Claire Varrens (as Joanne Whalley-Kilmer)
Rick Rossovich	...	Leary
Cyril O'Reilly	...	Rexer
Bill Paxton	...	Dane
Dennis Haysbert	...	Graham
Paul Sanchez	...	Ramos
Nicholas Kadi	...	Ben Shaheed
Ronald G. Joseph	...	Capt. Dunne (as Ron Joseph)
S. Epatha Merkerson	...	Jolena
Gregory McKinney	...	U.S. Helicopter Pilot (as Greg McKinney)
Rob Moran	...	U.S. Helicopter Co-Pilot
Richard Venture	...	Admiral Colker
Mark Carlton	...	Jim Elmore

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Arabic

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:18 | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Algeciras, Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

When discovered by a terrorist who tries to speak to him, Hawkins shoots him without answering, then says, "Boring conversation. Leader, we're gonna have company!" imitating a similar line by Han Solo in Star Wars (1977).

Goofs:

Errors in geography: At the beginning of the movie when the men are traveling over the Berkely Bridge on their way to the wedding at Christ's of Saint Luke in Norfolk, Virginia, they are actually heading towards Portsmouth/Chesapeake, Virginia. Christ's of Saint Luke would be behind them, so they are headed in the wrong direction.

Quotes:

Hawkins: What's he saying?
Leary: Something about your mother.
[Hawkins lowers his gun and slightly alters his aim, hitting the terrorist directly in the forehead with a well-aimed shot]
Hawkins: NEVER talk about Mom...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Clerks. (1994)

Soundtrack:

Tempt Me (If You Want To)

Not great, but decent

First off, I'd like to correct the poster below me who said that God "Had a sniper rifle that fired tiny grenades." God was armed with a Barrett M-82A1 .50 caliber BMG. It is a current special forces rifle and is fully capable of (and often used for) putting a bullet all the way through a truck's engine, a foot of solid metal plate, or, as often shown in the movie, wimpy little concrete or cement block walls.

Anyway...

This movie is certainly not a feast for the brain, but neither is it intellectually devoid. The issue with the journalist in the movie is startlingly relevant in today's world, for example. I doubt it was intentional; it's likely that it was put in as a weak attempt at adding conflict and depth to a flat script. But hey, take what you can get, right?

The real strong point of this movie, for me, is the set design. This was shot back in the old days, when neat backdrops couldn't just be drawn in with computers over a bluescreen. The Beirut scene at the end of "Navy SEALs" has some of the best *real* urban combat sets I've ever seen, right up there with the Hue scene at the end of "Full Metal Jacket"... though not quite as good.

I don't know if the sets alone make this movie worth watching, but they do for me. It's generally mindless action, but that doesn't mean that it's without substance; just because "Navy SEALs" doesn't meet the standards of a "great" movie, with well-developed characters and all that junk, doesn't mean it's awful. "Navy SEALs" doesn't include much script depth because it really doesn't need to. That isn't the point. Do you think that real Navy SEALs would make well-rounded characters in the Hollywood sense? These soldiers *can't* have strife within the team, *can't* have little internal conflicts that, in most movies, would be considered interesting. That just isn't realistic.