Last week, the US Navy SEAL who claimed to fire the fatal shot which killed Osama Bin Laden broke the SEALs’ code of secrecy by appearing in an interview on Fox News. Rob O’Neill went on more than 400 missions during this 16 year career. His exploits have helped spawn at least three Hollywood films: Zero Dark Thirty, Lone Survivor and Captain Phillips (all of which can be watched on Blu-ray).
Now the man who led the mission to rescue the crew of Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009, and helped save colleague Marcus Luttrell, the only SEAL to escape alive from the failed mission to capture a Taliban leader in Afghanistan, has revealed his identity, we have an opportunity to re-watch these military dramas in a new, gripping light.
Zero Dark Thirty
Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American action thriller war film directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Billed as “the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man”, the film dramatizes the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden. This search eventually leads to the discovery of his compound in Pakistan, and the military raid that resulted in his death.
Zero Dark Thirty was nominated for five Academy Awards at the 85th Academy Awards and won the award for Best Sound Editing. It earned four Golden Globe Award nominations, of which Jessica Chastain won the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama).
Captain Phillips
This is based on the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abd, the film emerged as a box office success with earnings of over $217 million against a budget of $55 million. In 2014, Captain Phillips received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Abdi.
Lone Survivor
Lone Survivor is a 2013 American war film written and directed by Peter Berg, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana. The film is based on the 2007 eponymous nonfiction book by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson. Set during the war in Afghanistan, Lone Survivor dramatizes the failed United States Navy SEALs counter-insurgent mission Operation Red Wings, during which a four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team was tasked to track Taliban leader Ahmad Shah.
Luttrell and several other Navy SEAL veterans acted as technical advisors, while multiple branches of the United States Armed Forces aided the film’s production
