Lone Survivor is a film you might think risks being a flag waving bit of jingoism. Let's put that to bed right away; it is not that. It doesn't really take a stand on "should we be there?" It comes down squarely against the Taliban but most people on the planet are not fans outside of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
It is also an exciting action film that has something else too--it is a true story and is depicted fairly close to accounts of what happened (the book of the same name). This also gives the film something totally fictional films do not have--gravitas. You realize, before the film proper even starts that the characters represent real people. What happens to them, or something similar, happened in real life. They had families and friend. It gives the film a different feel. It opens with actual SEAL training and ends with photos of the actual soldiers who perished.
One thing I wish the film had gotten across is that these Navy SEALs are not just bad asses. You have to be smart to do this, you have to have the sort of leadership qualities that, frankly, the world needs. It is tragic when anyone dies in war but it is even worse when men of such promise do. That is, however, not about the film that was made.
It is also an exciting action film that has something else too--it is a true story and is depicted fairly close to accounts of what happened (the book of the same name). This also gives the film something totally fictional films do not have--gravitas. You realize, before the film proper even starts that the characters represent real people. What happens to them, or something similar, happened in real life. They had families and friend. It gives the film a different feel. It opens with actual SEAL training and ends with photos of the actual soldiers who perished.
One thing I wish the film had gotten across is that these Navy SEALs are not just bad asses. You have to be smart to do this, you have to have the sort of leadership qualities that, frankly, the world needs. It is tragic when anyone dies in war but it is even worse when men of such promise do. That is, however, not about the film that was made.
The acting is, across the board, solid. The ensemble cast never let you think of them as actors. Of course this is IDEALLY what should happen in every movie. It doesn't. I am not sure anyone stands out in the film, that anyone steal the movie. In a way it is an analogy for the military men they are portraying; they work together.
The film doesn't go into a great deal of backstory--something I talk a lot about because in some movies you need that, in others it is a distraction. Here you know enough about the men to make them real but not in the depth to make you really care for the character in the movie. Again, in the back of your head you realize these were real men so the characters get mixed up with reality. That makes it compelling so that the snatches of backstory work.
The relationship between the Taliban, Afghani villagers and the U.S. military comes of as a little false here. Perhaps it isn't so much "falseness" but rather the relationship being complicated, perhaps too complicated for a details in this film. Without giving anything away there are interactions, at the end of the film, that seem like they need more explanation. They don't ring true (although they may well be). Yet, it is also true that further details, a few more minutes, likely wouldn't help.
The film isn't Blackhawk Down or Zero Dark 30. It doesn't have the scope of those films. Yet it succeeds in telling this story. It should make you think about the gravity and tragedy of war too, which is always a good thing.
The film doesn't go into a great deal of backstory--something I talk a lot about because in some movies you need that, in others it is a distraction. Here you know enough about the men to make them real but not in the depth to make you really care for the character in the movie. Again, in the back of your head you realize these were real men so the characters get mixed up with reality. That makes it compelling so that the snatches of backstory work.
The relationship between the Taliban, Afghani villagers and the U.S. military comes of as a little false here. Perhaps it isn't so much "falseness" but rather the relationship being complicated, perhaps too complicated for a details in this film. Without giving anything away there are interactions, at the end of the film, that seem like they need more explanation. They don't ring true (although they may well be). Yet, it is also true that further details, a few more minutes, likely wouldn't help.
The film isn't Blackhawk Down or Zero Dark 30. It doesn't have the scope of those films. Yet it succeeds in telling this story. It should make you think about the gravity and tragedy of war too, which is always a good thing.
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