Lone Survivor is not your typical modern war film. It doesn't bash the audience over the head with pro-war propaganda, it doesn't simply exist to serve as an advertisement for the United States military, it simply honors the courage and sacrifice that the men of Seal Team 10 made for their country in Operation Red Wings.
The story of Seal Team 10 and Operation Red Wings is not very well-known. On June 28 2005, a team of four navy seals was dropped into Korgnal Valley, Afghanistan to take out Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. Soon after getting on the ground, Seal Team 10 learned that Shah's army was much larger than the Intel projected and were eventually compromised when they were found by local goatherds on the mountain they were stationed on. After letting the goatherds free, Shah and his men became aware of Seal Team 10's whereabouts and proceeded to engage in a firefight with them. Seal Team 10's requests for backup were unsuccessful due to poor radio and satellite phone signal in the mountains and this led to three of the four seals dying in the line of duty. Against all odds, one member of the team, Marcus Lutrell, managed to survive. Lutrell was found by a local villager with multiple injuries and gunshot wounds sustained from prolonged combat and was eventually able to contact his commanders via another villager knowing where they were stationed. Lutrell went onto make a full recovery and returned to active duty in 2006 before retiring from the Navy in 2007.
Lone Survivor is a relentlessly brutal war film that doesn't hold back on the grim nature of warfare. Aside from Saving Private Ryan, I can't think of another film that depicts war in such a graphic and intense manner. Writer/director Peter Berg employed numerous Navy Seals on the production and worked closely with Lutrell to make this film as real as possible and he certainly succeeded. A lot of times you'll watch a war film and you can tell the filmmakers are watering down the actual events for the big screen, Lone Survivor is not one of those films. War is hell and this film makes sure the audience sees every gory detail and at least get a semblance of just how terrifying it really is. The authenticity of the film is driven home by the exceptional cinematography from Tobias Schileese. Schilesse's camerawork puts the viewer in a non-stop stranglehold for a majority of the film. The camera never leaves the thick of the combat zone and never gives the audience time to come up for air until the combat is over at the very end of the film. This ability to capture all the action so close makes it seem that much more real and subsequently more effective in telling the tale of Operation Red Wings without softening it up for Hollywood.
The men of Seal Team 10 are brought back to life on-screen by Emile Hirsch (Danny Dietz), Ben Foster (Matthew "Axe" Axelson"), Taylor Kitsch (Michael "Murph" Murphy) and Mark Wahlberg, who plays Lutrell. Their performances become secondary once the fighting starts, but each of them bring a genuine heart and a ton of passion to their roles. It's clear they wanted to honor the legacy of the deceased members of the team by getting their story out there and also make Lutrell proud by documenting his miraculous survival in this grisly mission.
With the focus of Lone Survivor being on what happened on the mountain, there isn't a whole lot of time for anything else. You don't really get to learn much about these guys before they're dropped into battle. There's about 20 minutes of material of these guys hanging around the base and being debriefed on the mission before they set off for the mountain. The film still makes a pretty strong emotional impact, but it could've been greater if the film had spent more time developing the characters prior to the combat sequences. Despite its shortcomings with character development, Lone Survivor still makes a strong statement with its excruciatingly realistic look at the pain of warfare. This is a film that needed to be made and succeeds in its goal to honor the fallen members of Seal Team 10 by exposing their story of heroism and sacrifice to the masses.
4/5 Stars
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