A very good war movie

Rating: 7/10 (14 March 2015)

This movie may be one of the best over the last couple of years. It is well shot, with crisp, colourful scenes and gorgeous mountainous landscapes that amply serve to show that Afghanistan is far more than a mostly flat dust-bowl like Rambo III portrayed it as. Good sound quality, with plus points for the solid thuds that storm rifles deliver instead of the pea-shooter sounds that far too many war and actions movies of the past have given these weapons of war. The movie even packs in a few good "shock" moments that genuinely had me jump out of my seat - thats a rare one for me.
There are many harsh criticisms of this movie here on IMDb, most of them giving it a 1/10. I do not believe that such a rating is in any way justified, and that that is the result of personal opinions coming in the way of sound judgment. Some criticisms are however worth mentioning: Primarily that, while the movie is hardly a case of "the American Supermen return home in Glorious Victory after mowing down hundreds of Afghan savages", it did annoy me that every shot that the SEALS landed on the Afghans had them go down just like that (without even using the classic trope of "bad buy took a bullet and looks dead, while reaching for gun right next to him..."), while the protagonists of the movie takes loads of punishment by the way of bullets that tear into them, RPGs raining down on them and shell shocking them, rolling down cliffs and getting everything from scraped to concussions. And no, it's certainly not like some claim that they merrily jog and fight on after taking so much punishment, but you do have to suspend disbelief when watching a movie like this. If not, almost every war movie ever must be bombed down to low grades based on the impossibility of whatever the actors in it do.
Another objection is that the movie is the usual USA-Patriotic-GungHo stuff. I disagree with this. While I certainly agree that it can easily be INTERPRETED to be the usual of this tripe (and it is an honest question: Can Americans at all make non-patriotic war movies?) the patriotism seems low-key in this. The intro with the footage of ultra-though SEAL training is claimed to be an advertisement for the US elite forces. I disagree. I saw it as a simple intro to how tough material a soldier than ends up in the elite ranks, has to be made of; it is a decent atmosphere-setting intro. Also, how patriotic is it to see a country's soldiers cut to shreds, or go down in a blazing inferno? Or do we have to justify that interpretation by claiming the "glorious death" angle with the heroes interred in Arlington with all the other dead heroes, while entirely neglecting their gruesome deaths? Come on! The last objection I'll mention here is that the movie is at odds with both the written story of the survivor, AND of the events as they likely occurred. I do not deny this at all. However, this is not a war documentary; it is a story told though an action-packed lens. Again, it means that to make an effective tale, artistic freedoms must be used. The scriptwriter and director does that here. This should come as a surprise to no-one.
All in all, it is a good movie, but far from perfect. Very watchable, and recommended, unless you can't stomach anything that can be even slightly be interpreted to be army/patriotic propaganda.
And if you must ask, I'm not at all a flag-waving American rooting for its heroes.