Thank you to Briarcliff Entertainment for having me at the premiere of Valiant One, based on the true story of the crash of a U.S. military helicopter in North Korea, and the journey of the surviving service members and civilian analyst to escape, with no assistance from the U.S. government. As both an actor and a military veteran, I was thoroughly impressed with this independent film and I think it’s excellent. Editing was great (very underrated aspect of filmmaking), every actor was incredible ESPECIALLY Lana Condor. Almost every time I wanted to cry, it was because of her. Perfect length and pacing, good score, great characters that are easy to get attached to, and just a good story that pulls you into the emotions of the experience. In the military we train for this, but in the end, training can NEVER compare to the real thing. The panic of being suddenly thrown into the real thing is VERY well conveyed in this movie. Military movies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but IMO this was simply a movie about a group of scared young people, trying their best to handle a very scary situation…and it happens to be a military movie. I think perhaps it’s a very timely watch, especially for people my age and the age of these characters, in a moment where we are trying our best to handle scary things that we never imagined/really hoped would never happen, and wondering if we can actually get through it. It’ll be hard, but it’s not impossible. Valiant One is in theaters January 31st.
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