*Since writing this article 4 year ago, the documentary “Not A War Story” came out.  Updates on this can be found below this post

So you think Hollywood does a bang-up job at portraying our Veterans?  Movie after movie has been produced that portray the great men and women of our Military as either stoic, unyielding, bland, tunnel-visioned, broken, haunted or just down right scary.  We see this play out in theaters across the country because Hollywood does love a stereotype.

Well, our Veterans are not stereotypical, and a group of them set out on their own mission to prove just that, and in epic fashion I might add.

Two Veteran owned companies Ranger Up and Article 15 Clothing have teamed up to bring us the (soon to be cult classic), zombie apocalypse, stereotypes be damned, up coming horror/action comedy film Range 15 that according to creators Nick Palmisciano, CEO of Ranger Up and Mat Best, CEO of Article 15 and the rest of the Range 15 Team:

“This movie is so hardcore military it makes Hollywood wet itself and run home crying to mommy.”

Don’t believe me?

The Official RedBand trailer for Range 15 I’d say speaks for itself.  A little warning:  This video may contain scenes and language not suitable for children or for the “fragile, PC minded, only Hollywood can do these movies, I don’t like any gore, fun or comedy” adults.

Notice any familiar faces besides the actors whom we all have come to know?   HINT: There are actual Veterans in this flick!

Retired US Navy SEAL and author of Lone Survivor Marcus Luttrell, Medal of Honor recipients Leroy Petrie & Clint Romesha, and Mary “Wondernubs” Dague, just to name a few, are among many of our US Veterans that are in the cast.

I say OUTSTANDING!                    

Range 15 funding has been for the most part all crowd sourced and it’s popularity has hit a fever pitch of epic proportions on Social Media.  The trailer alone has garnered almost 5 million views on Facebook.  In an interview with Fox News, Nick Palmisciano, one of the Producers of the movie and founder of Ranger up had this to say:

 

“We started an Indiegogo campaign with the goal of raising $350,000 to supplement funds that we had raised ourselves, as well as some sponsors,” …“Over the course of a couple months, we ended up raising $1.2 million.”

Palmisciano went on to say in the Fox interview regarding the stereotypes Hollywood seems to always throw out regarding the Military Veterans:

“It’s either, ‘Those poor veterans. They’re broken and they went to war,’” Palmisciano said. “And then the other side, where veterans are these godlike creatures that are supposed to be just loved and doted upon. And neither of those things is true. We’re a cross section of society. We’re regular people that chose to serve their nation. And that’s really what we want to be treated like — regular people.”

In my opinion, this film is sure to be not only a cult classic, but a fantastic way to finally teach Hollywood a lesson that our Veterans are normal, everyday, funny, regular people!  Stereotypes be damned!

Range 15 is scheduled to be released in theaters on June 16.  For a list of locations and to purchase tickets you can go to Range15.com.

GET SOME!

UPDATE:

A couple years after the making of Range 15 the guys came out with the documentary “Not a War Story” and the description by it’s creators really says it all.  From the Range 15 website 

Not a War Story is the behind the scenes look at the 80 veterans and superhuman effort it took to execute the first veteran movie ever, Range 15. Relive the tense and poignant moments as this crew tries to do the impossible.

80 Veterans.
One movie.
No Quit.

The documentary is a fantastic compendium to the Range 15 movie and I highly recommend watching it.  Both features are on iTunes, Amazon Prime as well as the Range 15 website 

Be sure to follow Range 15 on Twitter and on Facebook.

Thank you to Grumpy Opinions and @PUMAbydesign  for linking

Thank Doug Ross @ Director Blue for linking