A typical SEAL? Think 007, not Rambo

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/29/2188823.aspx

A typical SEAL? Think 007, not Rambo
Friday, January 29, 2010
Chris Jansing, NBC News Correspondent

CORONADO, Calif. -- The world looks very different from forty feet up, hanging onto a rope wall. My advice? Don’t look down.

A lot of phenomenally fit people, including world-famous athletes and Olympians, have frozen at the top of the wall, which is part of the legendary obstacle course on the Navy SEAL base here in Coronado. Who knew that vertigo routinely kicks in at forty feet withoamut a safety net?

SEALs have a reputation as the fittest and most fearless of the military’s special forces. Their legend grew even more after SEAL sharpshooters -- firing from a heaving ship at dusk -- killed three Somali pirates and freed Captain Richard Phillips after his ship had been hijacked in the Indian Ocean last year.

When I traveled to Coronado the day after the operation against the pirates, the SEALs’ reactions were consistently matter-of-fact. “It’s what we’re trained to do,” was a typical response.

Video: From high-tech weapons and underwater demolition to hand-to-hand combat and parachuting into war zones, NBC’s Chris Jansing takes a look at the making of a Navy SEAL.

And that’s what started my nine-month quest to find out what makes these guys tick.

The grueling physical challenges of SEAL training -- while fascinating to watch as long as you’re not doing it -- didn’t surprise. A couple of things did. One was the amount of mental challenges thrown at the SEAL candidates every day. As one told me, “They tell us from day one that it’s 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. And you don’t always believe that, but being here now, I’d say that’s definitely the truth.”

‘They’re all studs’

An instructor put it another way: “They’re all studs,” he said of the 18-to-28-year-old men who report for training. But often it’s the super-studs who are the first to drop out.

And that leads to the second surprise. You think SEALs look like Rambo? They don’t -- think more along the lines of Daniel Craig’s James Bond. The average size of a SEAL is probably 5ft.-10, 175 pounds.

The Navy commissioned Gallup to look at almost 8,000 attempts to get through the key SEAL training, known as BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL). It turned up very interesting findings about who’s most likely to succeed. The sweet spot? Twenty-two to 25-year-olds, college educated, and NOT from glamour sports (football, basketball and baseball players don’t do any better than non-athletes).

Who does? Water polo players are number one. Triathletes, lacrosse players, boxers, rugby players, swimmers and wrestlers, in that order, also fit the bill. Endurance sports are great predictors of success: mountain biking, climbing and rappelling, skiing and snowboarding. The study has helped the Navy re-make recruiting.

The man behind many of the SEALs’ recruiting innovations, Captain Duncan Smith, also has been looking to a totally new group: young men who probably never considered a military career. High on the Navy’s list are Arab-Americans and those whose families hail from such countries as the Ukraine or Kenya. They’re looking for young men with cultural backgrounds and language skills that will help them blend in wherever SEALs operate. The challenge? Finding an incredibly fit, intelligent, fearless 23-year-old American who also happens to speaks Swahili.

World hotspots

The SEALs I met can’t seem to get enough of being SEALs. They’re patriots, yes, but as one told me, most of all they love to be where the action is. And Iraq and Afghanistan and other dangerous hotspots around the globe are their playing fields.

A Master Chief -- that’s the highest rank for an enlisted SEAL -- put it this way: “What is it like? It’s the best thing in the world. It’s life on steroids. Everything's fast. Everything's exaggerated. … Everything is just extreme with us. That's what it's like. And I’m saying it's a good thing.”

Lions Gate to give iTunes copy on DVDs

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8VALS4G1.htm

Lions Gate to give iTunes copy on DVDs
March 10, 2008
NEW YORK

Film and television producer Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. said Monday that it is working with Apple Inc. to provide customers who buy certain DVD and Blu-ray movies with an included digital copy of the movie through iTunes as well.

Lions Gate said the first movies that will include digital copies will be the special edition DVD and Blu-ray versions of "Rambo" and the film "The Eye."

"Rambo" be available on May 27 and "The Eye" will come out on DVD during the summer.

Lions Gate said it and Apple will make a number of other Lions Gate DVDs available with digital copies via iTunes later in the year.

Consumers can insert eligible DVDs into their computers, enter a code into iTunes and the film will be copied to their iTunes library, Lions Gate said.

In January, News Corporation's Twentieth Century Fox and Apple said they would make a variety of DVDs available for which customers could get digital copies through iTunes.

Apple shares fell $1.12 to $121.13, while Lions Gate shares fell 6 cents to $8.74.

Gruesome 'Rambo' Trailer Slays on Internet

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/movies/articles/_a/gruesome-rambo-trailer-slays-on-internet/20070523131209990001

Gruesome 'Rambo' Trailer Slays on Internet
Moviefone
5-23-2007

When a movie series has been dormant for nearly 20 years, what's the best way to resurrect it? For 'Rambo,' it's with cartoonish violence and tons of viral buzz.

The trailer for 'John Rambo,' the newest installation in Sylvester Stallone 's Vietnam Vet-turned-vigilante series, was posted online earlier this week, and has generated movie Internet buzz akin to the "Snakes on a Plane" phenomenon. On Youtube, the two clips have garnered more than a million views.

The footage in the trailer is more "Grindhouse" than "Platoon," showing Stallone as John Rambo ripping out a man's throat, gunning a man in a truck to pulp, decapitating another and disemboweling a foe in the gruesome 3 1/2 minute clip.

The Hollywood Reporter hints that Stallone and 'John Rambo' could hit a ratings snag unless they tone down the violence a bit, as the Motion Picture Association of America could slap the film with the dreaded NC-17 rating.

"If they end up cutting back on the violence, what will the reaction be? There could be an interesting backlash," author Eric Lichtenfeld told the Hollywood Reporter.

Another hurdle "John Rambo" may face is the same fate that "Snakes on a Plane" suffered -- lots of pre-release Internet buzz without the box office results to back it up. And with the release date for "Rambo" set for May 25 of 2008, there could be too much time for fans to tire out of the gory hype.

Besides "Rambo," Stallone has had other things on his mind lately. He recently plead guilty to illegally importing muscle-building human growth hormones into Australia, and was slapped with a fine for the offense.