Act of valor

Soldier movies... :-/

And that *points to above sentence* was my exact reaction when I got dragged into watching Act of Valor with a couple of friends after finishing lab last night. When I hear of soldier movies, I think of Black Hawk Down and the like - definitely not my cup of tea. But Darren insisted that it's awesome because 80% of it was filmed using Canon dSLRs (source). Okay, so I was a tad bit impressed. Then Alayne said it's not a soldier movie because they're not really soldiers - they're navy SEALs! Which I figured I was supposed to be impressed with.

What I was really impressed with though, wasn't the battle between the SEALs and the Islamo-terrorists/narco terrorists/arms smugglers/etc.. The scene with the SWCC boats (don't ask me what they mean, I have no idea) was really cool and I felt like I was playing Red Alert on crack. The action scenes failed to put me to sleep so I guess they're better than Transformers. There was even an eyeball popping out... What really made a big impact on me at the end of it all was a poem by Tecumseh, whom Wikipedia describes as "a Native American mystic, warrior, and military leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy that opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812" (Source: here).

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

 -  Tecumseh, Native American leader, Shawnee mystic and warrior (1768 - 1813)

Keep moving forward

I think Van watches the coolest movies, although most of them are discovered belatedly. :)

Meet The Robinsons is definitely all heart! You get an orphaned boy, who loves inventing, fails but KEEPS MOVING FORWARD. That was the message that strikes me the most because if one stops after failing, then things will never get done, nothing will ever be discovered and the world will be a much sadder place.

Anyway, in the movie, said boy got transported into the future, gets to meet a really wacky family who treats failure as a cause of celebration, got introduced to a bad guy and had to save the day (and this is where the twist in the story is).

I guess this movie might also be a tribute to Walt Disney as there was a quote from him at the end which I really really like:

"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

And with that, I leave you with a song from the movie soundtrack which will probably be playing on a loop for the next few days: