LONE SURVIVOR, based on the 2007 nonfiction book by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson, has been made into a Navy SEALS action/war picture headlined by 2006 Oscar Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Wahlberg, and aside from a small role for Eric Bana, viewing the film... its an acquired taste. It tackles the Navy SEALS failed mission called Operation Red Wings (in which four SEALS are supposed to track down Taliban leader Ahmad Shah). Peter Berg (my onetime favorite actor from the 1994 Linda Fiorentino film THE LAST SEDUCTION) has come up with a sometimes bleak, sometimes grim, no-holds-barred chronicle of the 4 soldiers holding out against the murderous Taliban in wartime Afghanistan. LONE SURVIVOR is earnestly made (the principals had 3-week military training to prepare physically and internally) and bluntly scripted (by Berg). The middle part was too much for me, but Marcus Luttrells amazing survival, the films thematic focus, is a gripping denouement. We learn about pashtunwali, an Afghan/Pakistan code of honor, an ideology that dictates safety and protection for an individual in danger (from a private or public war). How pashtunwali saves Luttrell is a remarkable, nay, miraculous event, and this quasi-deus ex machina reiterates the need for countries to harmonize, fraternize, sort things out, resolve things peaceably and amiably. It would be a perfect world. As in the THE KINGDOM (2007), HANCOCK (2008) and BATTLESHIP (2012) (films that Berg has directed), Berg gives us a refreshing, unflinching look at human conflict (and war), and handles his cast superbly. Wahlberg (as Luttrell) is excellent, matched by supporting stars Taylor Kitsch (Michael Murphy), Emile Hirsch (Danny Dietz) and Ben Foster (Matt Axe Axelson). Eric Bana does what he can with a very small role (as the teams Lt. Cmdr. Erik S. Kristensen). 36-year-old Nazareth-born Ali Suliman makes his mark as the Afghan whose pashtunwali practice saves Luttrell from imminent death. Yousuf Azami makes for a sinister Shah. Bergs LONE SURVIVOR is absolutely devoid of Hollywood gloss; to set one in the mood for such a war picture, music by Steve Jablonsky (and Explosions in the Sky) is purely evocative, while, like Bergs eye, the cinematography by Tobias A. Schliessler is equally unflinching, brutal and jarring. LONE SURVIVOR, like most war-themed biographical movies, is an acquired taste (and Berg/Wahlberg helps us pick Luttrells brains, but not the other SEALS so much, but Berg compensates for this by giving us good dynamics between the four SEALS) -- but once youve gotten past the heros physical and psychological hurdles (with him), the finish line is sweet victory, if with trembling knees. (I never did go for war movies, and up to this day Ive never watched SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, BLACK HAWK DAWN, THE THIN RED LINE or even JARHEAD, but my late father made me watch the 1953 film STALAG 17 and the 1966 BEAU GESTE version, and I absolutely appreciated the human nature angle behind war movies).
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 17:17:21 +0000
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