Posted on 01/11/2014 7:16:50 AM PST by Kaslin
Editor's note: This review is cross-posted at JohnHanlonReviews.com
Director Peter Berg knows how to celebrate the fraternal affection that men oftentimes share with one another. On the show "Friday Night Lights"—which he executive produced, wrote for and sometimes directed— the male friendships on display were formed on the football field. In Berg’s latest production—the film "Lone Survivor"— those relationships are borne and grown in the military quarters and on the battlefield.
Based on the nonfiction book by Marcus Luttrell, this new drama focuses on a team of Navy SEALs—a band of brothers, if you will—who are sent into Afghanistan to kill a psychotic militant Taliban leader named Ahmad Shahd (Yousuf Azami).
The SEAL team is composed of four men who speak, compete and argue with one another like brothers. Taylor Kitsch, a "Friday Night Lights" alum, is the well-respected commander Michael Murphy who is leading the mission on the ground. Murphy is backed up by the strong-willed Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg), the naive Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and the fiercely-loyal Matt Axelson (Ben Foster). Their interactions at the beginning— focused on highlighting their affection for one another— feel very real and show how tight these individuals were.
The four men are eventually sent in for their mission, which quickly falls apart when they are accidentally spotted by some kids and an older man from the local Afghan village. The officers are forced to decide what to do— kill the old man and the children or let them free and risk the Taliban wrath— and their decision is a life-changing one. Because of it, the enlisted men eventually face a group of unrepentant Taliban warriors, who show them no mercy.
It’s in the scenes of battle— patriotic and well-filmed— that we witness the carnage of this particular mission. Berg is unrelenting in showing the brutality of the Taliban warriors and the overwhelming insecurity these men faced when their mission failed. Not only were they being hunted by people who wanted them dead but they had no viable escape plan. There’s a sheer helplessness on full display here that is hard to forget.
Although some of the characters are underwritten, there’s a humanity and sympathy that we feel for each of them. When the story opens, Murphy is looking for the perfect wedding present for his fiancé and idealistic enough to believe that buying her an Arabian horse is in his budget (it’s not). Another is worried about the color palette for his home and that sense of blatant household normalcy is what he holds onto, even when the enemy surrounds him and has nearly destroyed him.
It’s hard not to appreciate the sacrifices our military—and their families— make after seeing this brutal and oftentimes realistic feature. The film’s impact might not be remembered as strongly ten years down the line but the immediacy of each man’s love for his brothers and their patriotic fervor for this country will be hard to forget. Berg and his crew— especially the multi-talented Wahlberg— have done a fine job in bringing this heartbreaking and painful story to the big screen. It’s hard to watch but worth it, if only to appreciate the love, humanity and the honor that exists in a world where there can be so much hatred.
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I agree , Best Picture , except for the rattlesnake . No rattlers in AFG
I’m hoping someone will drive me to the theater tomorrow so I can watch this wit muh crumpled up arm.
Hopefully I won’t fall asleep.
*rme*
Rme ???
Your welcome, great numbers from box office mojo.. Congrats to Marcus 1 in the country.
12 1 (estimate)
1 movie
$9,611,000
$38,511,000
-33.7% / 35766%
+2,873 / +45283.4%
2,875 / $3,343
$13,395
$38,892,000 / 19
Just saw it. No one left after the movie was over until all the men who lost their lives were honored.
It’s very powerful.
Most of the mountain scenes were filmed about 10 miles from me in the Manzano Mountains. I guess the snake was an uninvited “extra”.
Very well stated.
I went and read the comments on Amazon. I was surprised at the way the liberals were criticizing Marcus Lutrell’s account of the discussion of the ROEs. How they shouldn’t have been a discussion. ROE (rules of Engagement) are sacrosanct. I think there were other options that they should have considered more thoroughly, but I don’t want to go into it since so many haven’t seen it yet.
Everyone is trying to second guess what these brave men did. I could see both sides when he made the decision. But these same critics give Obama a pass when it comes to drone strikes that murder many innocent civilians along with killing the bad guys. Killing civilians is justified if you are the President and you use a drone.
Thanks.
I saw it yesterday then actually watched the Tapper interview and was just posting on that thread to those who were critical of the team’s tactics.
I’ll copy and paste:
Just MHO, of course
They did everything right.
They wondered aloud about what to do with the goatherds, just as anyone would do in his own mind.
They could not murder them, and they were right not to.
The Apaches should have been left on site for support.
The the guy answering the phone and the skipper should have been quicker.
The intel could have been better regarding what they were going into.
The radios should have worked.
My late father, a former exec at an electronics corp, a former marine, and an electrical engineer, today, a day after seeing the movie, would be making tracks and scrambling to make sure no team gets caught like that without proper radio communication.
And any SONY, Motorola, even Radio Shack, certainly Apple execs today should be doing so.
There is a great shame that our researchers can’t figure out how to get radios to special forces teams.
Tapper is way off in this respect:
He, like all comfortable, proud closed-minded, selfish Americans, is under the impression that people in the military choose their missions and opt in or out.
They don’t.
And maybe the good Mr. Wahlberg, who took on this project and produced it, realizes this but is not aware:
It is the voters, the citizens who pick and choose wars and missions and battles when they choose our leaders.
It is congress who is in control of our engagements.
Period.
So Tapper needs to speak with and about Congress, and leave the military individual, who is doing his job, trusting the voters and the Congress to keep them in or out of their missions.
And they’ll die doing so, and these guys will die without fear, or loss of hope. That’s what they do.
ah ha ....old Route 66
Actually, the film crew trespassed on Chilili Land Grant Land... I’m not sure who I’d want pissed at me, them or the Taliban.
did you get the check out any of the filming process ?
No, I just let them do their job. A lot of filming in NM. several rural scenes in Breaking Bad were done within a mile of my place.
Excellent film. Very hard to hold it together at the end, when it shows pictures and film of these fine men. God bless them all.
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