Directed by: Peter Berg
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and Emile Hirsch
Plot: A 4-man Navy SEAL team are dropped into Afghanistan to take out a high-level al-Qaeda but find themselves in over there head.
Review:
You can always tell how society at the time feels about war through the stories they tell. Sands of Iwo Jima: it’s all about heroism and the most justified war maybe ever. “Born on the Fourth of July” (the book): it’s all about war is Hell and the soldiers tend to be broken men looked down upon or overlooked completely . Saving Private Ryan and pretty much everything since including this movie: it’s all about the soldiers’ sacrifice. Possibly the most balanced theme: “Yeah, war is Hell, but soldiers are even more awesome because it’s Hell.” It’s kind of dangerous as a theme though. It makes that fine line between great entertainment and propaganda/recruitment video even smaller than it already is. It is a feeling that is hard to shake the whole movie.
It doesn’t help that the movie doesn’t want to tell the story of these soldiers. We never really get to learn who these guys are. They pretty much just share their very cliche sitcom scenarios they are having with their significant others, all of which seem to have to do with their lovers spending too much money. It’s very reminiscent of cop shows where some nameless background cop talks about his newborn or his retirement. You know that guy is a goner. There is so much wasted potential to actually immortalized these guys. These actors are not slouches. Well, maybe Taylor Kitsch is, but Foster and Hirsch are Oscar-caliber performers and Wahlberg is plenty capable to keep up with them. Their chemistry is definitely there, so where is their story? I have never read “Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10″ by Mark Luttrell, but as a first hand account from a brother-in-arms, I’m guessing Luttrell painted these guys more specifically than simply soldier 1, soldier 2, etc.
The problem is the filmmakers are more interested in the mission than the men. The 4 soldiers are sent into the mountains of Afghanistan to take out a high ranking al-Qaeda member when they are interrupted by goat farmers. The SEALs now have to make a choice: let the goat farmers live (and inevitably reveal their location to al-Qaeda) or kill them. You can probably see where this is going. They let the farmers go. Their position is revealed, and they are run down before they have a chance to escape. What follows is what Peter Berg does best: an amazing action sequence that left me hanging off the edge of my seat. The firefight, for the most part, is one of the scariest and most realistic action set pieces ever put to film. It is entirely engrossing putting you in the moment, but this only makes the reality-checks that much harder to stomach. The realism is peppered with so many awful action movie cliches (one of the SEALs actually whispers to himself “I am death” before shooting one of the terrorists) and ends with some slo-mo sensationalized death scenes that ruin whatever sense of realism they had before.
Competently shot and constructed, Lone Survivor unfortunately forgets to pay tribute to the men and sensationalizes the mission instead. Making up for the lack of a human element with manipulative editing, Peter Berg and company make this movie good for only an awesome extended action sequence (and awesome it is!).
Rating: 5/10
