"Lone Survivor" Movie Review

            
            

            

            



            This film was released in award season last year on December 18, but in limited release. Now that it finally has a wider release, I can review it. It is directed by Peter Berg and stars Mark Wahlberg. It is about four Navy Seals that go on a mission to kill on guy who is part of the Taliban, but when it gets compromised, they find themselves up against main Taliban soldiers.

            The best thing about this film is the fantastic makeup work done on these Navy Seals. All of the wounds look real and it really looks like they are in war. This goes right along with how well shot this film is by Tobias Schliessler, director of photography (cinematographer). It all looks like these guys are in the mountains and everything there looks like it is in the mountains. The layout of trees, grass, etc. looks real. The film is also very well directed. There was not one time of which I could not tell what was going on. I was almost always able to tell exactly what was going on and the camera moved around enough to give us some intensity, but it was not too shaky. This film also has great performances, especially by Mark Wahlberg, but everyone else is great, too. This film was very, very well done in general.

            Though, this film has flaws. One of them is the script. It moves along fast, which is good, but it moves a bit too fast, so we do not know the characters very well. The forty minute action scene would have been more intense if I knew the characters better and cared about them. Therefore, there were what seemed to be long portions of underwhelming action which I was enjoying, but nothing more. Although there is still intensity in the film, I think there was more underwhelming action than there was intense action. There was also unrealism with gunfire. There was several times in which I thought “He would probably be dead.” Also, the Navy Seals would run across a line of trees right in front of the enemy’s gunfire, and would get hit.

            The film has some good writing in the tad bit of dialogue we get with the characters. The dialogue seemed real and I did not find anything wrong with it. The film also has some realism. The war element of the film has a lot of realism and depicts war very well in the first ten or twenty minutes of which the Navy Seals are on their mission. And as I have already said, there is some intensity in the battle scene. The film also is enjoyable for most of the running time. The fast pace of it works for that aspect. Though it does get dull in some moments of the film, and it is a bit too long, it is a mostly enjoyable film.

One other very good thing is that it illustrated that not all Afghans are bad. Some of them are good people. It is only the groups that control that are bad. Although it is illustrated in a somewhat illogical way, at least it was illustrated. There is also a moral dilemma having to do with war in the first ten or twenty minutes when the Navy Seals have gone on their mission. It is the best part of the movie. I could not wait to hear was going to come out of the next person’s mouth, and who was going to speak at all. The writing at that point in the film was gold and it was, no doubt, compelling, but it was also nearly riveting.

            I have mentioned all of the things I like about the film. Now I will mention my other flaws with the film, which are my biggest flaws. By the time the huge action sequence starts, the film forgets all of the morality it had just had a few minutes ago. The second act has little to no of the moral complexity of war. It is just Americans shooting non-Americans, except when one Navy Seal gets shot in the toe, which is one whole other story. With every single wound that a Navy Seal gets, it is treated as if something terrible has happened and American is starting to lose its title. When a member of the Taliban gets shot and killed, it is treated like a video game. The Navy Seal just moves along and shoots another, then another, then another, and so on. The camera should have also focused on the Taliban and what it is like on their side of the battle. It depicts war as good versus evil. Good is the Americans and evil and the Taliban. War is two sides versus each other. Though, I am not saying anything about the real Navy Seals by saying this. I am just criticizing the film for not illustrating war correctly. The real Navy Seals are much, much braver than I will ever be and I could not imagine going through this. I am just saying that this film should have gone in a different direction with depicting war.

            My final flaws are that it gets dull sometimes, due to the underdeveloped characters, and is a bit too long. Some scenes could have been compressed and some scenes were not essential to the film and could have easily been cut out.

Although it has flaws, this is a very well done and enjoyable film that has some intensity and some realism. It is still a very good movie.

            Lone Survivor is a very well done film with beautiful cinematography, fantastic makeup work, and very good direction, but lacks the moral complexity of war.L