I SAW an interesting post on Facebook the other day.
“Stuff this boring life, I wanna be a Navy Seal,” wrote my good friend Taina M after watching the movie Lone Survivor.
I had been hearing a lot about it lately, even well before it was released at the local cinema.
Some of my friends, who saw the flick on DVD, rated it as the “father of all war movies”.
Then Taina’s ambitious post on Facebook and I was compelled to invest my dollars in Lone Survivor.
Boom!
The Mark Wahlberg-starrer is based on real life incident of a SEAL team failing in its mission dubbed Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005.
It is based on the book of same name co-authored by the survivor, Marcus Lutrell.
The mission was to capture and eliminate a Taliban leader, Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami), during the war in Afghanistan.
The movie begins with survivor Marcus (played by Wahlberg) fighting for life after being rescued by the US Army.
Marcus, 2nd Class SEAL, who is a corpsman and sniper, is part of the four-man team on Operation Red Wings.
The others are Lieutenant (SEAL) Michael P “Murph” Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch) and Sonar Technician (Surface) 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew “Axe” Axelson (Ben Foster).
Murphy is the reconnaissance team leader and spotter, Danny is communications specialist and spotter while Axe is a sniper.
Basing themselves on a mountain overlooking the village where the suspect is camping, the team is discovered by the local goat herders — one adult and two boys.
I tell you, being the Labasa guy doesn’t do any justice in this part of the movie (goat scene).
I felt the nudge from my neighbour and friend Lix as I let slip the four letter word in disapproval.
Anyway, the team is left with three choices; either to let them go and abort the mission, tie them up (leaving them to be killed by wild animals or death by starvation) or terminate the compromise — kill them.
The four argued on the choices and Marcus pointed out the Rules of Engagement which forbid them from killing innocent civilians.
They don’t know for sure whether they are part of Taliban and the fact that they are unarmed left Murphy with no choice but to let them go.
Couple hours later, they are ambushed by a group of Taliban fighters, some 50 fighters.
Outnumbered and underarmed, the team fights on for survival, getting shot to falling from great heights tumbling all the way down the rocky mountain.
The rest of the movie is how Marcus survives the ordeal with help of Mohammad Gulab (Ali Suliman), an Afghan villager, and lives on to tell the world about Operation Red Wings and his brave mates.
Director Peter Berg, who is known for his work in Hancock and Battleship, reportedly met the families of the deceased, stayed with Lutrell for a month and even spent a month in Iraq with a Navy SEAL team while writing the script.
And this is reflected in his precise work, he makes the action in the movie look so real, recreating the scenes that give the viewers an idea of a real war situation.
Berg builds the story nicely, laying out a good foundation in telling what the mission is and gradually building on it with the “blasting” action and others features in the movie.
He can be forgiven in not revealing much about characters involved but in a decent 121-minute flick, he does what he can to be fair on the other aspects of the movie.
The action, Berg feels and rightfully though, is the soul of this film.
He even includes Lutrell, who is one of the Navy SEAL in the movie, but not part of Operation Red Wings.
Wahlberg, what a versatile actor he is!
At one moment, he is this tough bloke in The Fighter, the next he is cracking you up in Ted and then this daring expedition in Lone Survivor.
Wahlberg, whose father was a US Army veteran of the Korean War, makes the character so real in words, action and virtue.
Kudos to the make-up effects team for making the injuries look so real.
Lone Survivor is all about comradeship, courage in face of adversity and sacrifice.
Comradeship in the four men part of the mission, their courage to fight on despite being down in numbers and ammunition and sacrifice for each other.
It tells you the situation the real life soldiers’ face in war, the moral dilemma that sometimes lead to wrong decisions.
But whatever the decisions are, real heroes are those who learn to face the consequences and die defending the choices they make.
The involvement of Gulab is a revelation that there are true Afghans out there who are fighting for their country against Taliban and other destructive forces.
While, there are others like the goat herders, who believe in them.
Lone Survivor gives you an idea of what these brave men and women in the war torn countries face in their everyday lives.
They are the real heroes.
And it’s no wonder why Taina M wants to be a Navy SEAL.
This is what Lix thought of Lone Survivor: “It’s just a movie but you have so much respect for the guys out their and the decisions they have to make on the spot that could be telling difference of whether you live or die.
“Hats off to Marcus Lutrell for coming out and keeping the memory of his brothers alive by telling their story of what truly happened on that mountain.”
