As a movie, Navy SEALs is probably most famous for a pretty nasty dig made at its expense in Kevin Smith’s Clerks. Everyone involved came to think of it as a disaster, with Michael Biehn and Charlie Sheen, when they reunited on the former’s podcast, admitting they hated the finished product—only to be surprised years later when it became a cult classic, not only for action fans but also for a generation of Navy SEALs themselves.
Indeed, shooting Navy SEALs was a fraught experience both men look back on with regret, with Biehn in particular expressing tremendous disappointment with the craft exhibited by director Lewis Teague, whom he tried to have replaced. And oh yeah—both guys were partying HARD during production.
Navy SEALs was Rambo meets Top Gun
So how does a movie like Navy SEALs happen? Well, in a lot of ways, Navy SEALs, despite coming out in 1990, is very much a product of the eighties—or at least the two biggest action movies of the decade, Rambo: First Blood Part II and Top Gun. The Rambo film featured a larger-than-life hero single-handedly returning to Vietnam to basically refight the war as a one-man army, and audiences went wild. Then, the next year, Top Gun came out and reinvented the classic service drama—a genre that petered out around the time of the Vietnam War but had been a staple of the fifties and sixties, when movies about serving in the armed forces were regularly made and highly glamorized.
None of them had a thing on Top Gun, which was sexy and directed like a music video, with its MTV-ready soundtrack, high-velocity action, and hot cast led by none other than Tom Cruise. Cruise became another type of eighties hero—not brawny like Sly, but just as capable and more vulnerable.
Put those two movies together and you have Navy SEALs. Of course, Navy SEALs are real, although this would be the first movie made about them. The U.S. Navy SEALs are an elite special operations force within the U.S. Navy trained to conduct some of the military’s most difficult and dangerous missions. The name SEAL stands for Sea, Air, and Land, reflecting their ability to operate in all three domains.
In terms of movies being made about them, the best is usually considered to be Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, which is based on the true story of Marcus Luttrell. Compared to that movie, Navy SEALs is fantasy—very much a comic book, Hollywood creation. The intent wasn’t to be realistic at all, but rather to be a piece of escapist entertainment.
Initially, it was set up at none other than our beloved Cannon Pictures, with the film titled S.E.A.L.S., and it was set to star Kevin Bacon, which is pretty high-caliber casting for them, as it could have just as easily ended up being made for a pittance and starring someone like Michael Dudikoff. However, as we already covered in our American Ninja 2 video, the studio had a disastrous run, and they lost the rights to the project. Instead, Menahem Golan made his own very cheap SEALs movie,The Finest Hour, which starred Rob Lowe and went direct-to-video.
The real-deal Navy SEALs was set up at Orion Pictures, a fledgling studio that in the late eighties and early nineties was always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. They had a few hits but didn’t have any franchises—although the same summer Navy SEALs came out, they tried to turn RoboCop into one with a sequel.
How Navy SEALs came together
Initially,Navy SEALs came about when a William Morris agent, Brenda Feigen, was introduced to Chuck Pfarrer, a former Navy SEAL turned screenwriter, and convinced him to turn his experience into a script. She was able to get it set up at Orion; although what one assumes was a harder-edged script was soon turned into more of an adventure film by a succession of writers. The finished film ended up giving writing credit to Pfarrer and Gary Goldman, a writer known for Big Trouble in Little China and Total Recall.
Initially, the film was set to team Michael Biehn and Mark Harmon, with Biehn playing Hawkins—the team’s second-in-command—and the rebellious Maverick-style lead while Harmon would play the more experienced commander Curran. Both men were rising stars at the time but not exactly surefire box office draws.
Biehn had broken out playing Kyle Reese in The Terminator, but then played two highly regarded military roles—playing Hicks in Aliens, and then a more villainous character in The Abyss, all for James Cameron. As a leading man he’d never really gotten a fair shot with movies like Rampage and The Seventh Sign, not amounting to much. Yet it was thought that he had potential in the right role.
Harmon as well had broken out following his turn on St. Elsewhere, but his leading roles in films hadn’t performed at the box office; movies like The Presidio underperformed while Stealing Heaven and Worth Winning, barely got released.
Charlie Sheen replaces Mark Harmon
I suppose at this point Orion started to get cold feet about whether these men could lead the film; some juggling was done. By the time he was approached to do the movie a second time Biehn was now offered the Curran role while Charlie Sheen was sought to play Hawkins.
Sheen’s casting as this Maverick-like character made sense. Sheen had a huge hit with Platoon in 1986 and he was more than convincing playing a soldier. He also had Wall Street under his belt; for a time it looked like he really could be the next Tom Cruise.
Both men agreed to star in the film because it offered them big paychecks; for Biehn it was seen as the movie that—potentially—could help him break out.
Michael Biehn goes to war with the director
To hear the two discuss the movie later on Biehn’s podcast,Just Foolin’ About With Michael Biehn, what sank the film was the choice of director Lewis Teague—a sentiment echoed by producer Feigen in her book.
Initially they wanted Ridley Scott who passed; they actually hired Richard Marquand—the director of Return of the Jedi, but he passed away suddenly in early pre-production.
Lewis Teague was a journeyman director who having cut his teeth working with Roger Corman had a solid hit with Alligator in 1980. He became a director of mid-level studio fare making vigilante movieFighting Back for Paramount in 1982; then two Stephen King adaptations,Cujo andCat’s Eye . His big break came when he was hired by Michael Douglas to helmThe Jewel of the Nile —a sequel toRomancing The Stone .
While a hit Teague had disaster with his follow-up—a buddy-cop comedy calledCollision Course which paired Pat Morita and Jay Leno. It likely would have killed any thought of him makingNavy SEALs had it ever gotten released but it only surfaced in U.S. in 1992 when it went direct-to-video.
Teague was hired on strength ofThe Jewel of The Nile but Feigen revealed in her memoir that what she didn’t know at time was that Teague’s input on that film was limited to doing whatever Michael Douglas said.
Biehn had an amusing story about his own introduction to Teague where he was told Teague directedThe Lady In Red . Biehn got that movie confused with Gene Wilder movieThe Woman In Red which he remembered enjoying. When he realizedThe Lady In Red was cheap Roger Corman movie his enthusiasm waned; and two went to war as shoot went on.
It got so bad that at one point Biehn was nearly fired by studio head Mike Medavoy who actually had to get Sheen to get things under control. Apparently Biehn and his co-stars particularly Bill Paxton who played sniper nicknamed “God” did their best to improve script—but met lot resistance from director which enraged Biehn to no end.
I mean when Sheen at height of his hard-partying eighties phase is guy you have call in order get things under control you have problems.
A wild shoot — and a haunted hotel?
There were lot other crazy things that went on during shoot that were unrelated drugs—or well maybe not depending whether or not you think ghosts are real. Both Sheen and Biehn believe hotel they stayed at Spain where movie shot was haunted.
To give makers ofNavy SEALs their due there some attempt make this more than justTop Gun ripoff. The actors playing SEALs actually went through two weeks training where they learned how handle weapons urban combat took part field maneuvers.
What is Navy SEALs about?
The premise ofNavy SEALs is pretty basic. Early in movie SEALs rescue Navy helicopter pilots who have been captured by terrorists but are forced leave behind shipment Stinger missiles group had already captured.
Needing track down terrorist mastermind they team with civilian journalist played by Joanne Whalley-Kilmer track down missiles. But along way soon-to-be-married team member Graham (played by Dennis Haysbert) is killed due Hawkins’ recklessness after disobeys Curran’s orders—leading feud between them.
The end they deployed Beirut destroy missiles only encounter massive resistance during which Curran badly incapacitated leading Hawkins rising occasion finishing mission saving commander’s life Roll credits.
Navy SEALs really is a Top Gun clone
If you watch film you’ll see Orion clearly put significant resources into it but Biehn and Sheen’s criticism Teague is valid as film lifelessly shot with action sequences come off stale.
The script for all people who worked on it really isTop Gun clone but it’s not helped fact thatNavy SEALs furthers comparison giving itTop Gun -style score well as soundtrack full pop songs They even use one ofTop Gun stars Rick Rossovich as one SEALs Plus injection romantic subplot where military vet falls civilian ties their mission right out that movie’s playbook too.
As far as romantic subplot goes there’s reason feels undercooked A love scene planned which actually made its way into novelization but ended up canceled when Biehn broke out cold sore day shooting—which course put kibosh shoot as Whalley could gotten infected HSV-1 Biehn hoped would rescheduled but his chagrin dropped.
Navy SEALs bombs at box office
Perhaps reason is that some point Orion Pictures likely decided they had dog their hands with neither Sheen nor Biehn remembering ever having premiere for it.
It did however get prime summer 1990 release but opened middle phenomenal box office run forGhost and landed thud It only grossed $25 million domestically—which if account home video cable likely meant eventually turned profit considering cost $21 million.
It didn’t help Biehn’s career with him openly calling worst experience his life It didn’t push him stardom serving one several movies led didn’t make much impact box office includingK2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and K2 and 
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