Lone Survivor (2013) With a war-film recounting the terror of a single mission during the ongoing War in Afghanistan, Peter Berg is certainly beginning to turn to his career around already. His latest film Lone Survivor, which recounts the Operation Red Wings mission in which a SEAL Reconnaissance tried to track down Taliban leader Ahmed Shah, brings out the graphic brutality of a war-zone, and create one of the most realistic war settings of this film generation. Berg creates a lot of build-up in this movie. On the down-side, the first half of the movie, in which we get to know Navy-Seals does drag on a little. The four main members of the mission are all interesting and well performed, if not a little one-dimensional. When the mission starts however, is when the heart really begins to race. The environment in which the four Navy Seals travel in, is well depicted by relying on the natural rugged and desolate landscapes of America to recreate Afghanistan. With a good use of lighting and low-camera shots, we are as close-up to the thrill of the film as is necessary. Even before the action steps in, you can just feel the terror that is about to strike. Leading the cast, is Mark Wahlberg as Marcus Luttrell. From my experience; Wahlberg will usually give a very strong performance, or a really dull one, and fortunately here he goes in the later group. He leads and stands out among the other actors, with fierce emotion and a very realistic portrayal of a NAVY seal member standing next to death too many times. As for the rest of the main cast including Taylor Kitsch, Emilie Hirsch and Ben Foster as the other NAVY seals in the mission and Eric Bana as their commander, this is one of those cases where I feel their actions are stronger than their words. When the real action begins, and the four men are tossed into conflict, all the wait really pays off. This is however, where the movie is really hard to watch without forcefully glancing away from the screen. These four men endure so much pain, and getting shot with bullets is not enough. You can tell how much work was put into the blocking and stunt coordination, when these men endure twice as much agony rolling down a hill. The action and violence is handled appropriately and doesnt leave the whole second half of the film full of enveloping explosions. Much of the action will come in suddenly but realistically enough to make it feel like an actual battle. Its never easy to recreate history, but Lone Survivor shows that even a movie about war is enough to convince the viewer of its domino effect destruction. The movies habit of occasionally feeling dry, is easily over-powered by its emotion, Bergs direction, Wahlbergs performance and its actions which ultimately out-speak its words. 8/10
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 02:37:41 +0000
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