MOVIE OF THE WEEK #1: LONE SURVIVOR
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WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch, Eric Bana, Ali Suliman, Alexander Ludwig, Yousuf Azami and Jerry Ferrara
WRITER(S): Peter Berg (screenplay); Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson (book on which the film is based)
DIRECTOR(S): Peter Berg
WEB SITE: http://www.lonesurvivorfilm.com/site
60 SECOND PLOT SYNOPSIS (OR AS CLOSE TO IT AS ONE CAN TRY TO MAKE): Based on the 2009 New York Times bestselling book of the same name, Lone Survivor stars Mark Wahlberg as Marcus Luttrell, one of four Navy SEALs sent on a covert mission into the mountains of Afghanistan. Embarking on what is supposed to be a simple mission, Marcus – along with Matt "Axe" Axelson (Ben Foster), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch) and Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch) – find themselves isolated from the rest of their unit, only to be faced with a critical decision that will test their morals as well as their own prospects for survival.
As the title should tell you, things take a turn once they make it ...
WHO WILL LIKE THIS FILM THE MOST?: People who have served in America's armed forces; people who enjoy patriotism/patriotic propaganda (not that the film is, but it could certainly be used for those purposes); people who enjoy stories where basic human instincts (survival, compassion, etc.) are put on display to create compelling drama; those who enjoy based on true events features, people who enjoy testosterone-filled action; Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster fans
WHO WON'T – OR SHOULDN'T – LIKE THIS FILM?: People who cannot handle unflinching violence, those don't think about/hate to think about the consequences of war; Call of Duty-style video game fans who forget they are based on/inspired by real life battles involving real people; people who fear the film will inspire violence against people of Middle Eastern descent or inspire domestic terrorism
BOTTOM LINE – IS IT GOOD, GREAT, BAD OR DOWNRIGHT AWFUL? Great – if you can watch it without taking away the wrong messages.
WHAT'S GOOD (OR BAD) ABOUT IT?: Lone Survivor does not reinvent the wheel in terms of war movies. What it simply does is present a story of men in the military, exposing you to their camararderie and dedication and then it does what action movies often fail to do.
It presents you unflinching, tense and realistic battle scenes where the art of war is not glorified at all. Instead, it thrusts you into the battle and puts you in squarely into the action to make you feel what Luttrell and his comrades felt: This is life or death – and there's nothing fun about the prospect of it when it's for real.
As odd as it may sound at first, the cast of Lone Survivor are not the stars of the movie. Now don't get me wrong. Wahlberg does a very good job as Luttrell, convincingly portraying the real soldier in a manner where none of his actions seem forced, far fetched or embellished for the silver screen. Likewise, whereas Foster and Hirsch turn in very serviceable performances, Kitsch does as well, exhibiting the talent that led Lone Survivor's writer/director Peter Berg to cast him as the lead in the ill-fated Battleship and Disney to trust him with the equally disappointing John Carter.
No, the real star of the film is the situation itself with the cast simply serving as the moving parts in the larger grand scheme at work: Man against man in an all out battle for survival.
Just as Berg is smart to avoid inserting political/religious/social allegories into his film, he is cautious about overplaying the idea of "good" and "evil" (although its unlikely given our social conditioning all audiences will see it that way) throughout the film. Instead, he sticks to the events to let them be what they are without trying to force an opinion down your throat once the gunplay intensifies. Likewise, said violence is not presented in any video game fashion where a higher body count equals greater joy; there is no joy in Lone Survivor in people dying on either side of the battle lines.
Yes, the story focuses on Marcus and his American compatriots, but not in a manner where the audience is driven to elicit cheers in a Die Hard-like fashion each time a Taliban member meets their end. In other words, while you root for the American forces because you are American, all of the constructs about war being glorious in and of itself are removed, stripping away stereotypical xenophobic enjoyments. "Good" and "evil" as we know it ay be the pilot light for the conflict to start, but once it gets burning, it simply becomes a tale of survival and how those involved in a conflict rely on their basic human instinct to live – the ideas of family, bonds and cross cultural kindness all adding to that understanding.
For those reasons, Lone Survivor proves itself to be worthy of saluting – especially for all those who have signed up for service in America's military forces to be willing to endure that to not only preserve our freedom, but the freedom of others while risking their lives on principle in the process.
OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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