In the summer of 2005, Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) and his highly skilled team, set out on a dangerous and daring mission to capture or kill a notorious Taliban leader, deep in the heart of Afghanistan. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare. Lone Survivor is one of the finest releases relating the subject of the war in Afghanistan and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Director: Peter Berg
Writers:  Peter Berg, Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster

Based on the 2007 book, also titled Lone Survivor, this flick dramatises an unsuccessful United States Navy SEAL counter-insurgent mission called “Operation Red Wings”, during which, a four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team was given the task of tracking down the Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. Directed by Peter Berg, the movie adaptation had an estimated forty-million dollar budget and took little over a month to capture.

One of the standout strengths of Lone Survivor was the sheer emotion that the filmmakers managed to portray. This was done nicely by injecting various elements of the true story into the one-hundred and twenty-one minute runtime. For instance, the opening sequence sees real training footage captured of the soldiers that were depicted in the film itself, aswell as images of their family members. There also seemed to be an element of authenticity to Lone Survivor too, this was aided by the fact that real life veterans were predominantly used as extras, as well as all lead actors looking convincing in the role they portrayed.

Rather interestingly, Albuquerque, New Mexico, within the United States was actually responsible for the bulk of the filming, despite the flick being set in the deep, vast mountains of Afghanistan. With that being said, there were no real issues with this location, as the cinematography was easy on the eye from the first minute until the last.

In terms of the cast, Mark Wahlberg adopted the tricky role of Marcus Luttrell, while Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster all appeared in strong support roles, representing the characters of Michael Murphy, Danny Dietz and Matt Axelson, respectively. Elsewhere, there were appearances from Eric Bana, Yousuf Azami and Ali Suliman in smaller, less prominent roles.

If an action-packed war film is something you’re hoping to endure one evening, then Lone Survivor would be the ideal selection. The action sequences were diverse in nature, with some being through the eye of the combatant and others being wide angled and in slow motion. All in all, this is certainly a film I’d recommend. It’s worth noting that Lone Survivor is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

“See? God’s looking out for us...”

Marcus Luttrell – Lone Survivor