Review of Lone Survivor: A Definite See-Again Movie

Google Images (2014)

I finally got to see the much lauded film Lone Survivor, but only because I bought it at Walmart two weeks ago for $14.96. Otherwise I would still be waiting and would continue to wait until it was eventually shown on one of the six zillion cable channels to which Chet subscribes and for which we pay COX a veritable fortune each month. 

You ask, “Why didn’t you go see the movie in the theater?” The answer to that question is because Chet and I haven’t set foot inside a movie theater since we went with some friends in 2006 to see Glory Road, in which Chet portrays one of John Voight’s two assistant coaches and for which Chet achieved his fifteen minutes of fame.  

See, it's like this: Chet would rather watch movies at home where he can wear his baggy Homer Simpson sleep-shorts and send me to the refrigerator every fifteen minutes to get him another beer. Anyway, Chet’s idiosyncrasies aside, this blog is about the movie Lone Survivor.

Review of Lone Survivor: One of the Best Movies in Years

Based on the 2007 nonfiction book of the same title, by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson, Lone Survivor (2013) is set in Afghanistan and dramatizes a failed U.S. Navy SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance mission (Operation Red Wings) to track Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster as the four Seals sent on the mission, along with Eric Bana as Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen.

Moral Dilemma in Lone Survivor 

The four men are dropped into the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan and set off for their destination. Once they arrive in the hills overlooking the Taliban stronghold, however, they encounter three goat herders (an elderly man, a young man, and a boy), and the team is faced with a moral dilemma: Let the herders go or kill them. Luttrell (Wahlberg) convinces his comrades that killing the herders will be a mistake, both morally and strategically, so they release the three herders. Big mistake. 

The young man goes running to the Taliban forces just as fast as his goat-herder legs will carry him (You can tell by the look in his shifty eyes that he’s going to do this before he even does it, so you find yourself shaking your head and saying, “Don’t let ‘em go, guys. Don’t do it.”). Naturally, when the herder divulges the team’s whereabouts, the Taliban forces go after the four men, and this is when the film really cranks up and becomes heart-pounding, teeth-clenching, nail-chewing, nonstop action, as well as hard to watch at times because of its intensity.

Nonstop Action and Amazing Stunt Work in Lone Survivor 

 As one of the SEALs ( I can’t remember which one) says at least twice during the film, “If we could get ‘em on flat land, we could take ‘em.” The problem, though, is they are not on flat land. They are in the mountains, and the four men are ill-equipped for mountain warfare, unlike the enemy. This is the enemy's home, after all, and they are trained mountain fighters. In addition to being at a disadvantage because of the terrain, the SEALs are also heavily outnumbered, so after a grueling firefight, and several vain attempts to contact their command post (cellphones don’t work that well in the mountains, nor do radio transmitters), the SEALs decide to flee and find cover until their unit sends help, if it sends help.

The action in the second half of this film, as I said, is nonstop. It’s also hard to watch at times because of what these four men have to endure. And what I found utterly fascinating when I conducted research on the film was that, though so much of what we see in movies today is all illusion, the action scenes were not created by using computed generated special effects; they were filmed using real people.

According to Wikipedia (2014), that online cornucopia of at times dubious facts, Kevin Scott, the film's stunt coordinator, "was tasked with depicting the four Navy SEALs tumbling down rugged terrain with sixty-degree inclines. Scott did not choreograph the stunt work, nor did he have the stunt performers use wires or dummies. He instructed the stunt performers to fall 15 to 20 feet off cliffs and avoid looking at the ground until right before impact."

Also, according to Sarah Sluis (2014), Scott said, “Several stunt performers were injured after falling from the mountains, as the falls proved too difficult to control;” and according to Oliver Gettell (2013)., Berg (the director) recalled, "Some guys got hurt, some guys got bumped up and ribs were broken, a lung was punctured, some concussions, but these guys were determined to try and do everything they could to capture what Marcus described in the book.”

So, in summary, Lone Survivor is most definitely a see-again movie. In fact, I would see it again not only once but twice, maybe even three times. I think, though, that Alonso Duralde (2013), writing for The Wrap, best summarizes Lone Survivor: "The film never makes a grand statement about whether or not the war in Afghanistan is, per se, a mistake, but it does portray war itself as a disgusting folly. Berg sets up the cathartic moments we’re used to in movies like this, but then he pulls out the rug, reminding us that the cavalry doesn’t always miraculously show up in time to save the day.”

Sources:

Duralde, A. (November 12, 2013). Lone Survivor Review: Mark Wahlberg Shines in Powerful Drama About Hellish Wartime Decisions". The Wrap. The Wrap News Inc. Retrieved December 21, 2013 from http://www.thewrap.com/lone-survivor-mark-wahlberg-peter-berg-taylor-kitsch-emile-hirsch-war-hell/

Gettell, O. (November 21, 2013). Lone Survivor: Navy SEALs, stuntmen and a five-story jump (video) – Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 5, 2014.

Sluis, S. (January 2, 2014). Stunt Coordinator Kevin Scott on Lone Survivor’s Commitment to Realism The Credits. The Credits. Motion Picture Association of America. Retrieved January 5, 2014 from http://www.thecredits.org/2014/01/stunt-coordinator-kevin-scott-on-lone-survivors-commitment-to-realism/

Wikipedia (2014) Lone Survivor. Retrieved July 3, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Survivor_%28film%29