Lone Survivor -
Review
Starring Mark Wahlberg,
Ben Foster and Eric Bana “Lone Survivor” is an amazing, brutal and extremely
realistic true accounting of the firefight of 4 brave Navy Seals in Afghanistan
on their ill-fated mission to kill a Taliban Warlord.
The Direction by Peter
Berg gives the viewers an almost minute by minute intimate, horrifying and visually
exhausting experience of what they endured being isolated in rugged and
desolate terrain, being out gunned and out manned, but nevertheless the value
of their premium training to survive by fighting their aggressors with superior
effectiveness in spite of their numerical disadvantages and low odds.
Without going into
details of what happened given that this is true story, for me what was sorely missing
in this film was there was not enough back story as to who these brave men were
besides some deliberately pushed in idle conversations about a pending wedding,
some male bonding hazing and some discussion about horses. Another 30 minutes by
Director Berg to thrash out some personal details as to how a collection of
strangers can come together as brothers under the banner as members of the United
States Military would have given this story and these men the greater weight to
their sacrifices in life and in death. This same structural issue for me also applies
to some of the personal back stories of certain key Afghanistan tribal men (both
good and bad). I believe this too would of
overall helped round out this film execution as well.
Still, for me Lone Survivor
jumps off the screen with raw unrelenting action for virtually all of its 121
minute running time with a purpose of telling and showing its audience what heroism,
valor and bravery really looks like and in that regard the film accomplished
its mission very, very well.
3 - 1/2 stars
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