There is no doubt audience members will leave a screening of Lone Survivor with a strong “Go USA!” sentiment. But I wouldn’t say that the film took a heavy-handed approach at all in garnering that emotion from viewers. Rather, wewe can’t help but feel the utmost respect for the camaraderie, loyalty, and courage displayed kwa the Navy SEALs as they fight off the Taliban in Afghanistan. And wewe are even zaidi affected kwa the fact that this is something that really happened. Marcus Luttrell (depicted kwa Mark Wahlberg in the film) and Patrick Robinson wrote the 2009 book Lone Survivor to document Operation Red Wings in 2005, in which Luttrell and his three muhuri Team Ten squadmates were sent to find an al Qaeda leader but ended up getting ambushed kwa Taliban soldiers. wewe can probably guess the outcome based on the title.

The movie doesn’t waste much time jumping straight into the action. The opening credits provide some footage of actual muhuri training and then wewe briefly meet some of the SEALs at Bagram Air Base, including the four men that are carrying out the mission: Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, Lieutenant Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Petty Officer Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Petty Officer Matthew Axelson (Ben Foster). Then the four men get dropped off in the mountains of Afghanistan for what should have been a relatively straightforward military operation, such as many they have done before. Of course nothing goes as planned and soon the men are in the middle of a gunfight. The action is fast-paced, incredibly intense, bloody and violent. In short, a realistic depiction of what modern warfare probably looks like. “Probably” because obviously I would not really know but I do know the sequences are zaidi graphic than what most Hollywood sinema attempt and I can only imagine that it was even zaidi brutal in reality. This is not an action movie where machine guns moto and nobody gets a scratch. Here, the SEALs are shot and hit, roll down hills of rocks, and they still get up and fight some more. Director Peter Berg (whom I will always first remember as a doctor on the 1990s medical drama Chicago Hope) doesn’t hold back with the intensity and thankfully, dispenses for the most part with typical Hollywood sentimentality. After all, in war, there isn’t exactly time to have a long drawn out death scene to manipulate tears from the audience.

It’s true that we don’t get to know the characters very well before they are thrust in this life-threatening situation but the film focuses on the actual operation and it does that well. What does come through without doubt is how dedicated these men are to each other and how they are willing to risk their lives to protect their “brothers”, refusing to give up even when they realize what a dire situation they are in.

Recommendation: Definitely for those of wewe who are currently fascinated kwa the ongoing muhuri trend in vitabu and movies.