Lone Survivor

Given how well documented the survival story of of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell has been over the years, I had to wonder walking into Lone Survivor just how the filmmakers were going to draw suspense out of the film.  After all, the title alone kind of gives away the ending right off the bat.  What the filmmakers have chosen to do is to take the story, and shoot it in a very up close and personal way, so that we feel like we are in the middle of the action.  Sure, some sacrifices are made in the name of character development and dialogue.  But due to the intensity that the movie is able to generate, I didn't mind so much.

The film's director is Peter Berg, who you may remember previously brought us the stupid wannabe summer blockbuster, Battleship.  You can't really blame him, though.  This is the movie he really wanted to make, and the studio had him do that one first before they would allow him to do his more personal project.  In telling the story of Marcus Luttrell, writer-director Berg pretty much sticks to the details of the situation as Luttrell fought to survive in the Hindu Kush mountains in June of 2005.  This is not a complicated war movie that gets dragged down in politics or questions of whether or not the Afghan war is right.  It is a simple story of a man who finds himself alone after what was supposed to be a relatively simple mission went horribly wrong.  It's at this very basic level that the movie works.

The opening 20 minutes or so, where we are introduced to our main characters, is when the movie meanders just a little.  We get a couple brief glimpses at the men who made up Luttrell's company and their personal lives, but not enough to make them engaging personalities.  Mark Wahlberg portrays Luttrell in the film.  Alongside him are Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Matt "Axe" Anderson (Ben Foster).  They are given their orders early in the film by Lieutenant Commander Erik Kristensen (Eric Bana).  The mission revolves around a high-ranking Taliban leader.  The four SEALs are set up in the mountains to spy on him and track his movements.  The mission is compromised when some local goat herders approach, and Luttrell and his teammates must take them prisoner and decide what to do with them, fearing that these unarmed men may be Taliban spies.  The men ultimately come to the decision to let the prisoners go, which may have ended up being a costly mistake, as shortly afterward, the SEALs find themselves in the middle of a Taliban ambush, and with faulty communication equipment to reach their base for help.

It is pretty much from the moment the goat herders appear, and Luttrell and his comrades are forced to make a life or death decision that Lone Survivor finds the right tone of tension, and never lets up until the film's final moments.  We don't get that strong of a feeling for these men and who they really are, but that is not the intention of the filmmakers.  The movie's great attribute is how it throws you in the midst of the chaos of the situation and of combat.  As the men attempt to fend off what seems to be an increasing number of attackers, as well as deal with injuries sustained from the harsh environment, the film creates a real sense of isolation and pain.  And due to the gritty and realistic depiction of the violence, we get the sense that Berg worked very closely with the real life Marcus Luttrell in order to get the details right, and to recreate the moments when he found himself alone and in hiding.

In the early moments of the film, the limited character development seems like a glaring flaw, but once the action kicks in, we understand what the movie is going for.  Berg wants to focus solely on the action and situation at hand, and not get bogged down with outside details.  By zeroing in directly on the situation and the struggle of the SEALs, the film moves along at an incredibly brisk pace, despite running for two hours.  Mark Wahlberg is obviously the actor given the most to do by the screenplay.  It's not exactly a deep performance, but he does a great job of selling himself as a man trained to handle any situation driven almost to his breaking point.  He's at his best in his later scenes, where he comes across some local villagers, and does not know whether he can trust them or not after everything he has been through.  The rest of the cast fill their roles well enough, but are not given much to play with their characters. 

Lone Survivor is a simple and direct war movie.  The title pretty much tells you everything you need to know, and the movie itself sticks to that basic rule.  Where it succeeds is in its direction and how it makes us feel the same feelings of confusion, loss, and anger that the real Luttrell must have felt during the mission.  At the very least, it can be said that justice has been done to the story.  Those who have followed it over the years are certain not to be disappointed.

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