Lone Survivor: Being a Navy Seal is a Tough Gig

Everything Mark Wahlberg does is pretty good. He's rarely great, although there are moments (The Departed, Three Kings) he gets close. It's similarly rare that he does terrible things (The Happening! But come on, that's M. Night's fault, not Marky Mark's). It therefore stands to reason that he'd produce and star in a very okay war movie, which is exactly what Lone Survivor is.

Maybe it's the trees again!

Lone Survivor is based on a book of the same name, a true story about a team of U.S. Navy SEALs tasked with the capture or killing of a high value Al-Qaeda target during the U.S.-Afghan war in 2005. Following a mission compromise (literally in the form of shepherds and goats, which is just attrocious luck), the team of four SEALs must fight their way to safety through a small army of Al-Qaeda soldiers. You can guess how many make it through.

I can't speak to the horrors of war. I have no military background. It's therefore difficult for me to comment on how right this movie gets the feel and intensity of combat. What it does do is its damnedest to show you the brand of punishment a Navy SEAL can handle, and it is a lot. The violence, and more the violence the film's heroes are capable of enduring, provide the film's most memorable moments. 

And yet, somewhere in the midst of the grit and the reality its trying to convey, Lone Survivor goes over the top. Whether or not the gun shot wounds and cliff jumps and all manner of balls out man-ness are factually based, their portrayal in the movie--fraught with slow motion and heroic fanfares--feel vaguely cartoonish. Director Peter Berg ultimately fails to make a movie that feels real by trying too hard to do exactly that.

This isn't to say Lone Survivor is bad cinema. It's entertaining, and well acted, and tense through-out. But ham-handedness is a problem it definitely suffers from, and it's a ham-handedness that permeates both the action and the film's emotion. It's worth a watch, but Saving Private Ryan it ain't.

Directed By: Peter Berg (Mr. Friday Night Lights)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, BIG TIM RIGGINS, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch, Eric Bana

You Should see it if: You're in the mood for a war movie and B- sounds pretty good to you.