30-second review: possibly a perfect choice for memorial day? lone survivor is based on a book co-written by marcus luttrell, a navy seal in a team sent into afghanistan with the goal of killing or capturing a taliban-allied militia leader. the very beginning of the film makes it clear that the mission goes south and marcus appears to be the titular lone survivor, so the rest of the film is hampered by that knowledge. as such, it can play as jingoistic, as us military propaganda, as toxic masculinity in action, as essentially: suffer porn. it's a visceral film, neither censoring nor soft-pedalling the terribleness of armed conflict. i spent about 75% of the film dwelling on this, but i have to point out that the movie reveals hidden depths, and i think is a rough attempt to get at the humanity in soldiers, to remember them for their best, most human qualities. --------------------------------------------- for the real cinephiles: if you didn't know about peter berg, he's a former jock turned actor turned director, making him pretty much a wet dream for hollywood. i swear, every movie star secretly looks up to athletes and/or wants to direct, and every athlete secretly want to be in movies. berg's done it all, and after some modest success, seems content to fully pursue his interests in film: a career focusing on sports, military, patriotism. he's a sort of more-grounded michael bay, with many of the same weaknesses, if not the same strengths. this film marks the start of berg just apparently becoming a heterosexual life partner to mark wahlberg, who would star in all his feature films since. wahlberg's acting has a lot in common with berg's directing, to be sure. what he does bring to this role, as in many others, is a sense of sincerity and commitment which serves our main character well. he's surrounded by a fantastic cast though, and even skinny lil ben foster makes a compelling navy seal here, which i was thankful for because then we get to benefit from the total depth he brings to every role, never shying away from the dark places. all the supporting roles are great, even cardboard cutout taylor kitsch, who still looks like he's wearing eye-liner but who i actually felt emote in this. the production is a technical wonder, too, and berg is clearly more inspired here than on maybe any project besides friday night lights. he directs the hell out of this thing, turning it into a visceral, at times hard-to-stomach gauntlet-running trip through tartarus. cinematographer tobias a. schliessler catches some absolutely gorgeous landscape shots, making great use of magic hour especially. and both the sound design and sound mixing were well worth their oscar nods, an area berg seems to have a particular ear for. the film doesn't shy away from the violence either, with a plethora of head shots and bloody wounds, painting a portrait of the overall experience that lives up to the name "survivor". the actual mission itself and the nature of this as a war film is where things get complicated though. firstly, like with american sniper and similar other stories from soldiers, there's a lot of disagreement over the facts and figures reported, and it seems almost assured that there's an element of this where a story gets bigger and bigger over time until the teller can't, won't back down. out of pride and, at some point, having convinced even themselves. some people indicate that nothing heroic was done on this mission at all, and it was a collossal screw up where possibly very few afghani rebels managed to kill several seals without luttrell hardly firing a shot. other reports have them facing opposition of 35, 50, or over 100 rebels. it seems impossible to know at this point, but what's certainly true is that of course the movie is a big dramatization compared to the real events. there is reason to look hard at luttrell's version of events. he received medical discharge when he returned home, got married, got involved in a wounded warrior foundation. then he started something of a media blitz, partnering with an author on his book, appearing on duck dynasty, discovery network shows, stumping for rick perry, speaking at the rnc for trump. he got his own show executive produced by glenn beck. these are simple facts. i won't get political here other than to say that there are both americans and aghanis involved in the operation who have a different version of the events, so if you want to dig in, i'd encourage you to do your own research. as a pure filmic experience though, i think berg has his heart in the right place. it's tough, because i understand the needs for this story. you have to believe these guys are some of the toughest badasses around, and also that they care deeply about each other and rely on each other. on the other hand, the opening 15 minutes of the film that establishes all this plays like a wishlist for a us navy propaganda video. it can easily be seen to encourage the kind of warrior fantasy and toxic masculinity that fuels many of the mass shooters the us has every day. i know that's not the intention here, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. i think we need to really think critically about what having film after film like this adds up to in american culture. i appreciate the way this film really takes the time to remember the fallen, but i worry that too many young men watch a movie like this, and not movies about how a culture of justifying violence affects people both in the us and abroad. in terms of a more nuanced, smarter, and just as cinematic film, i much prefer berg's under-appreciated work, the kingdom.