Lone Survivor

For Peter Berg, getting Lone Survivor right was very important, and there are a number of reasons why its success was key.  First of all, it is based off of and honouring the service and sacrifice of soldiers in Afghanistan and a failed component of Operation Red Wings.  Also, this was a passion project of Berg’s, which he was able to do on account of accepting to direct Battleship.  Thirdly, Berg’s career was tarnished because of Battleship (I have not seen it, but can he really be blamed for a board game as such failing as a movie?) and success on Lone Survivor is what could restore his career to its previous state.

The movie follows the story of four Navy SEALs who were sent into hostile territory to perform recon before things become incredibly pear-shaped as their presence becomes known.  Playing the SEALs are Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster, who are portrayed as a very tight group with a ferocious bond.  That theme is really what starts off the film, highlighting the training of endurance that they have to undergo and the brotherhood that forms.  I really do not want to sound too down on the film, but there were times where it felt like an advertisement for the Navy.

Perhaps it is because I am Canadian and not American, but it was at times almost over glorifying and romanticising the roles of the military and what they stand for.  I imagine that for a different audience, such as my neighbours to the south, there is a lot of built in pride for armed forces but that sort of thing if not properly tempered can fall victim to the cultural divide in other nations.  I do believe that perhaps the military nature of the United States and the more peace-minded nature of Canada allows for different interpretations of the film.

One thing that I find Peter Berg does effectively in action sequences is that he is able to keep them tight and quickly edited without being hard to follow.  As well, he once again proves that he has a skill of keeping action from being too ‘Hollywood’ like.  He does not focus on the explosions and the booming sound effects, but rather the scraps, bruises, shrapnel and bullets that the soldiers came face to face with.  The first action sequence has a very long build to it, and the sound track is silence, allowing a great deal of anticipation to properly build within the audience.  While I found the lead in to the first battle in the movie to be expertly done, the final conflict just sort of happened out of nowhere.  There were a few shots to establish its approach, but nothing to the extent that created the success of the first fire fight.

While the movie is called Lone Survivor, it focuses mostly on the group aspect of the battle, and less of the plight of the individual.  The movie was two hours long, but I feel like it could have used about another fifteen minutes to really catch the emotions of the experience that the one soldier went through in the ordeal.  Before anyone criticizes me for spoiling the fact that one of the soldiers survives, I refer you to the title and ensure you that it is no spoiler.  All of that to say, I felt like the singular experience was neglected for the sake of the group story and I think both could have existed in this film.

In The Kingdom, Berg does a wonderful job of taking away the concept of the blameless good guy and the pure evil of the bad guy, and was able to round out the tale with allowing perspective to the whole cycle of violence.  While he does not lend any relatable traits to the Taliban in this movie, he does work to insert bravery and morality into the people of Afghanistan to show that there is more to the story than just the American side.

In a time where action movies are pointless and supercharged with special effects and end of world consequences, Berg did a good job of delivering a more down to earth war movie.  While the action was very well done, it came off as almost over patriotic in creating these men as heroes.  I do not say that to diminish the work of the real life soldiers that it was based on, but it is more a comment in the tone of delivery.  The ending of the movie came off to be over dramatized, perhaps because of the slow paced nature and the slow tempo version of ‘We Could Be Heroes’ that played (it is a song about love, not war… maybe they should have read the lyrics).  I do think that it is important to pay tribute, but the pace of it did not fit in with the rest of the film and it felt like an over enthusiastic gut punch.

I don’t know.  Perhaps I am just a big meany, but I don’t think so.  This film is a real love letter to their legacy (almost to the point of making them a little unbelievably tough) and maybe it did not hit home because I am not within that kind of world… but is that not what a good movie does, or is supposed to do?  A great movie takes us by the hand and leads us into a part of life that we are not accustomed to and connects us with it, for good or bad, and leaves us touched by the experience. 

Rating – 2.5 out of 4 stars