Gripping true story, the horrors of the fight in Afghanistan.

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2014)

I live in Houston Texas, and around here an institution of sorts is furniture store magnate "Mattress Mac", known for his philanthropy and his very annoying "save you money" TV commercials. In recent TV commercials we sometimes also see a burly young man standing with him, that young man is Marcus Luttrell.
I only mention this to make a connection, because this movie 'Lone Survivor' is about Marcus Luttrell and his experience in Afghanistan as a member of a Navy Seal team sent into a hostile area to eliminate a top Taliban commander. That he survived to write his book and now see this movie come to reality is a testament to his toughness.
Unfortunately the others did not survive. This is not an easy movie to watch, the fighting is very realistic and the deaths often very gruesome. I never liked Peter Berg as an actor, and I do not like all his directorial efforts, but I have to give credit here, he went all out to make it realistic. That can be either good or bad depending on one's tolerance for violence and gore.
The mission was jeopardized when a group of two men and a boy, herding goats, came upon the Seal Team on a mountain slope overlooking the village where the target was. The men were faced with a critical decision, kill the innocent three to avoid spoiling the mission, or let them go and surely spoil the mission. It wasn't easy and it wasn't unanimous, but they did let them go, they did abort the mission, they tried to get rescue but had radio problems.
In the end Marcus Luttrell was saved only because he came upon men in another village that had an honor code of sorts, to protect someone in need of medical attention.
A chapter in a long war.