It looks like the Navy has done some some clever product placement, allowing a team of real Navy seals to be used in an exciting scene in the new thriller "Act of Valor". The Navy even lent a  submarine for a scene. The Washington Post reports here that it follows a long tradition of using all those moviegoers eyeballs to spin a positive look at the military.

But the surprising, if not unprecedented, use of so many active-duty military personnel, as well as the filmmakers' embedded access to training missions and material (including a nuclear submarine) have put "Act of Valor" in the crosshairs of critics who question whether the movie crosses the line between entertainment and propaganda, and whether the military should be in the movie business at all. The relationship between the Pentagon and Hollywood has raised eyebrows before, even prompting an occasional congressional investigation.

Seems to me Americans like to see all that hardware they've paid for put to use. It's a better use than a real war, right?