Movie Review: Lone Survivor

Lone Survivor (2013)


Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.  Short synopsis of Lone Survivor taken from IMDb.com  

Ouch. Those falls off those cliffs make my bones jar. When I reflect back on my watching of Lone Survivor, the film account (based on a true story) of the last stand of a team of special forces who were isolated and hunted down by the Taliban in the formidable mountains of Afghanistan, that is what comes to mind.  By way of explanation, when the special forces guys are running from the horde of Taliban fighters who are pursuing and hounding them with machine gun and rifle fire and rocket propelled grenades, there is a moment where the G.I.'s are trapped on a steep slope and the only way out is to jump down, falling, rolling, tumbling and crashing into rocks, trees and every hard bump on the way.  The film depicts this fall in gruesome detail.

And I guess I’m not a nice person. When the Afghani goat herders initially stumble into the SEAL team and are detained by the SEALS, the U.S. guys are discussing whether to tie them up and leave them, kill them or let them go.  Truth be told, I’d have killed them. I’d have felt horrible about it, but I’d have done it. Them or you, ya know? I hate the idea of having to kill innocents, and yes, the good karma comes around when the “lone survivor,” played by Mark Whalburg, is protected by the Afghani villagers later in the film's events… but still. All those lives would not have been put at risk so thoroughly if those three or four Afghani men had been killed.  More U.S. servicemen lost their lives when choppers went in to extract the SEALs and were shot down by the Taliban forces.  And the villagers suffered for their defiance in protecting Whalburg's character, even if it is, as is said, an ancient custom of hospitality.


Luttrell's speech to the Crimson Tide football team includes some sharp details about the actual battle on the mountain side.  Please note: language and violence of an adult manner are included in this clip.

Oh, it almost goes without saying, language and violence is heavy in this one, for those who are thinking of it. I’d recommend Lone Survivor to those who like war movies, or if you are feeling like a dose of appreciation for what American servicemen go through for the nation, and the sacrifices that entails. Also it is a relevant, though Hollywood-ized, piece of recent history that is worth being cognizant of.

The parting comment:



Source: LOLSnaps.com

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