8 for grittiness

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2014)

I actually surprised myself by giving this movie 8 stars. Throughout the beginning half of the movie I was disappointing by certain aspects of the film. The characters were not nearly well developed enough and I never really felt I developed a bond with them. Mark Wahlberg is a fantastic actor though and his performance in the film manages to raise it above some shortcomings. The fighting is gritty and bloody and makes you wince at the brutality of it all. At the same time the number of enemies did seem video game like and somehow did not ring true. Others have said that the accounts changed over time in reality as well. The deaths of the US soldiers were over dramatized I think. There are some historical inaccuracies in the movie as well as fictionalized events. The battle at the end is one of them. From what I know there was more than enough material in the true story to make a great human story, and a great action packed war film as well. It was unnecessary for the film makers to through in things like the attempted beheading and helicopter assault at the end. It demeans the real life story to turn it into fiction in a film. Detailing the human story of Luttrell being saved by the Afghan villagers would have added an entirely new value to the film, but the producers seemed more intent on reaching a video game battle ending.