Gripping take on modern warfare

Lone Survivor (MA)
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch
IT’s a stunning depiction of modern warfare in which rich countries pound poor countries.
And it’s probably the most accurate portrayal of contemporary combat ever to reach the big screen.
Lone Survivor tells the tale of Operation Red Wings, a special forces operation aimed at a Taliban commander in Afghanistan carried out by a tiny party of US Navy SEALs.
The opening credits feature a brutal summary of SEAL training and this is a gripping film from the first frame.
The action takes place in a mountainous area of Afghanistan that looks nothing like the bare hills we see on the nightly news – rather, it’s heavily pine forested and more reminiscent of Yellowstone National Park.
Politics takes a back-burner and tactics and logistics are to the forefront.
The SEALs soon find their position compromised by local goat-herders – some of them not much more than children, and possibly Taliban themselves. The SEALs debate killing the locals to enable their escape.
Knowing that releasing the locals will bring a human tsunami of Taliban down upon them, they release them anyway.
Several brutal fire-fights ensue, with the tiny SEAL team gradually being ground down by sheer weight of numbers, plus a lack of air support.
Particularly gripping are not one but two terrifying tumbles the SEALs take down the mountainside – weapons smash into bodies, heads are slammed into trees, bones break on rocks.
Ultimately they can barely walk, let alone fight.
Mark Wahlberg plays the lead character, Marcus Luttrell, who wrote the title book.
The team medic, he is the last man standing at the end of the op… but you knew that already from the title.
Photos of the real men from the mission run over the end credits.
If you’re looking for a film to take you somewhere else, you’ve probably found it.
– Jason Beck