There’s a scene about halfway through Clint Eastwood’s new war thriller “American Sniper” in which Bradley Cooper, playing real-life Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, is providing what the military calls “overwatch” for Marines on the streets of Ramadi. It’s the height of the worst part of the Iraq War, and the patrol he’s covering through his rifle scope is systematically kicking in doors and searching for bad guys. The film depicts a teammate telling Kyle previously that half of the Marines had been civilians six months prior and were in desperate need of assistance, training and confidence. Against orders, Kyle packs up his gear and hurries down to the Marines, offering his hard-won expertise to lead the infantrymen through the dangerous room-clearing missions he can't observe from the roof. The Marines in the movie visibly fawn and immediately accept wise counsel from the man who became known as “The Legend” and “The Devil of Ramadi.” Commence slaying the “savage” Iraqis.

Bradley Cooper portrays the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in "American Sniper." Keith Bernstein/Warner Bros. Pictures/AP

Perhaps this is precisely how it happened in real life. Actual Marines who served in Ramadi tell U.S. News anecdotally that partnering with SEALs was a common occurrence at that time in the war. Marines are, however, notoriously cynical, and this particular encounter may not have occurred exactly as it’s portrayed.

But this attitude among larger-than-life SEALs does encapsulate the public image of the elite warriors – and the result of the Navy’s concerted effort to brand its SEa-Air-Land force as the best of all the top commandos.

“American Sniper” comes out three years after the release of the eponymous book Kyle authored with two ghostwriters, and almost two years after he was gunned down by a Marine suffering from PTSD.

It also comes at a time when public hunger for details about the secretive community is contributing to a subtle chipping away of its desired image.

Navy Times reported last week that Robert O’Neill, the self-described “shooter” within a particularly elite cadre of SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, now faces a formal Navy investigation for violating his NDA, or non-disclosure agreement.

These contracts stipulate the conditions upon which members may discuss their activities in public. NDAs differ among units and service branches, but those who have signed them offer a common explanation for the bottom line: Don’t talk about classified information. And if you want to, you have to get permission first.

O'Neill is not the only one who has come under fire. Former teammate Matt Bissonnette published the initial first-person account about the raid, “No Easy Day,” using the pen name Mark Owen and had to pay millions to the Defense Department from the subsequent profits. The Pentagon also has an open investigation into potential leaks provided to the producers of the blockbuster film, “Zero Dark Thirty.” And a 2012 trailer for a video game in the “Medal of Honor” series includes insights from two anonymous SEAL Team Six members who some accuse of releasing sensitive tactics and procedures.

Retired Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

O’Neill retired from the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six, also known as “DevGru,” in 2012. Esquire released a feature in March 2013 on a man who identified himself only as “The Shooter,” who cataloged the money problems he was experiencing after leaving military life. It’s unclear whether that was O’Neill.

He worked in the subsequent years as a private motivational speaker and consultant, spilling some details of the exciting and highly classified raids he conducted during his tenure. But O’Neill drew Navy ire last Veterans Day when Fox News aired an extensive interview in which he admitted to his role in Operation Neptune Spear and his specific place as the SEAL who shot and killed the notoriously elusive terrorist leader.

SEALs have a time-honored tradition of seeking attention for their high-risk missions, despite their creed to be “silent professionals.” Most go about it the right way, by allowing the Department of Defense or CIA to review any materials before published or broadcast. But a growing number do not, and it may have serious repercussions among the nation’s most elite forces.

“Americans want to hear how their top, elite force is getting stuff done,” says Michael Golembesky, a former Marine Corps commando whose book “Level Zero Heroes” came out last year. “It has a lot to do with the persona and accolades these guys have. Everyone wants to know what they do.”

“Those SEAL teams, they get those cool, sexy missions and those are the ones that people want to hear about,” he says. “The Navy has done a great job of making the SEALs a brand.”

Navy SEALs perform advanced cold weather training in Kodiak, Alaska, in 2003.

2nd Class Eric S. Logsdon/U.S. Navy/Getty Images

Golembesky says he did not have to sign an NDA during his tenure with the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, or MARSOC, as it was fairly new when he joined and hadn’t completely established its secrecy policies. Still, his publisher insisted on reviewing every detail of his book with its legal staff to ensure it did not release classified information.

The public may deserve to know more about how its tax dollars are spent in the most dangerous corners of the world. But that’s not without cost, even when it’s done legally. Golembesky admits, as have others who spoke with U.S. News, that choosing to speak publicly about clandestine operations results in severe backlash from others in that community, either those who feel the authors should have kept their mouths shut, or who believe they didn’t tell the story completely.

“NDA aside, every one of us was dubbed persona non grata by our former organization,” says Dalton Fury, the pen name for a former U.S. Army commando leader who wrote “Kill bin Laden” about his experiences hunting the al-Qaida founder in the mountains of Tora Bora. “To some, that doesn’t mean squat. To others, it can be pretty painful to lose a lot of close friends.”

Fury served as a commanding officer in the “Delta Force,” considered the Army equivalent of SEAL Team Six and an equally guarded top-tier unit. And he expresses concern that the careless actions of former special operations forces like O’Neill and Bissonnette could affect those still operating in those units, or endanger their families.

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“I’m glad they told their story, as I believe the country has an emotional need to know,” Fury says, adding that both should have cleared their comments before releasing them to the public. (Bissonnette had his second book, biography “No Hero,” reviewed by the Department of Defense. It includes pages of blacked out text, presumably because they contain classified information).

“The problem with that,” says Fury of the most secretive units, “is there is no welcoming system for guys that want to break the oath.”

So the military is left with attempting to harshly enforce the NDAs it maintains with former operators, who somehow believed they could get away with taking a shortcut around what can be a laborious process of government agencies' reviewing a manuscript.

“That may be exactly what these guys, these SEALs Bissonnette and O’Neill, are trying to avoid. They don’t want pre-publication review,” says Michael Navarre, a former Navy judge advocate lawyer who now specializes in government contracts for law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

A Navy SEAL sits on the edge of a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter in Conyers, Ga., in 2014.

Branden Camp/AP

There is, however, unprecedented demand for what these men can offer.

“There’s special, and then there’s special,” he says. “When you talk about the amount of training that these guys have -- the SEALs in particular -- the DevGru SEALs and Delta soldiers are some of the most highly trained individuals in the entire military.”

Which is precisely, others say, why they should also know better. Members of the community of retired SEAL operators have drawn continued attention to the post-service exploits of some former Team Six commandos. Some highlight what they see as a culture that exceeds the usual SEAL swagger and is dangerously close to losing the ability to police its own.

Brandon Webb served for more than a decade as a Navy SEAL with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming a SEAL sniper instructor. Through the website he runs, SOFREP.com, Webb has gotten into public spats with Bissonnette, posting through his Instagram account, regarding his leaks and the subsequent investigation.

“The main difference is that there's a whole lot of special operations guys, including a lot of SEAL authors, myself included, who are writing books [and] are honoring the non-disclosure agreements we signed," says Webb. His latest book “Among Heroes” comes out in May. "It appears that O'Neill and Bissonnette have been disclosing classified information related to a specific mission and the Pentagon is going after them for it to set an example for others. The government takes violating your confidentiality agreement seriously, and they should. It's confidential for a reason."

"There's a small subculture within SEAL Team Six right now, and from the outside looking in it appears very toxic," Webb adds.

An active duty SEAL Team Six operator reportedly wrote an email in 2012, responding to a column on Webb's website that criticized activities of some members of the elite unit.

“Ask your [Delta Force] friends about the highest profile Op they’ve done lately… and you’ll hear the crickets chirping loudly. It’s not because they are not talking about it, but because they are not being chosen to do them,” the anonymous author wrote. “The real answer is… It was, and still is, OUR time. Period.”

"The NDAs are thorough enough," Webb says. "They're making an example [of Bissonnette and O'Neill] because they apparently violated an oath to not disclose confidential material. If you're going to break the rules, you have to live with the consequences."