Personal Favorite War Film

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2017)

Lone Survivor
An excellent film about a terrible tragedy, Lone Survivor manages to chill the bones and tug the heartstrings with it's gritty, violent, surrealist realism, juxtaposed against the exposed souls of these valiant men.
These "exposed souls" are revealed throughout the first act of the film. The film does a very good job of portraying a likable group of soldiers, who are also very down to earth, or as down to earth as you can be when you're a trained killing machine. Their relationships, hopes, dreams, their camaraderie, all given to us beautifully without any pretentious or lazy storytelling. It all feels authentic.
The film is shot very well with interpersonal relations and the mundane scenes at the base. I will say there were a few points where the film began to lose my attention, mostly during the briefings. They could have been left out I suppose, or done differently. I did notice it during the film, but it didn't bother me enough to really affect my enjoyment of it.
The music is so on point in this film. The score blew me away several times, but always in a very subtly effective way. There are no big orchestral pieces, but instead a lot of very beautifully done electric guitar, shrouded with reverb, echo and other effects.
Once the film gets to the action, the cinematography really shines. So much of the action is caught in such vivid and raw detail. Many times you feel like you are there. Motion blur is kept to a minimum, which I certainly appreciate. Honestly, with the scope and scale of the fight that ensues, it's amazing they were able to put it all on camera, much less in such an unusually clear frame. There were many noticeably long shots in the middle of firefights that required some very delicate staging and timing, but these were not done with intent for fancy film making, but instead for actual practical conveyance of tactical and emotional information, and also for pleasantness to the eye, without seeming to sacrifice in real life believability.
The story was a roller-coaster of emotion. It opens ones eyes to both the brutality and the beauty of Afghani and Islamic culture in a way that doesn't feel forced or sugar coated. Yet it also has a few jabs at the progressive press and the pressure they put on soldiers fighting in a conflict they know nothing about. And again, it shines a light on the utter incompetency and murderous carelessness of the U.S. military. None of it is pretentious. No one is left safe. I love this godd*** movie.
Ultimately, my biggest complaint is they give away the end of the movie at the beginning. I mean, I know it's called "Lone Survivor", but leave at least something to the imagination. We know we are in for action, it's a movie about navy seals! Just let us get to the action when it comes, instead of jumping the gun and spoiling the movie. That choice I did not understand, seems like a suit decision.
Ultimately, I would highly highly recommend this movie. However, it is very difficult to watch. And many tears will be shed, if you have a soul. I recommend leaving time to watch something funny or lighthearted afterwards. You can get popcorn though, the first part of the film is palatable in that way. This may be my favorite war film.
SPOILERS:
So I wrote this review before seeing the accusations leveled against the movie for it's "heavy handed jingoism".
Here's the thing, this is a true story about how these seals got screwed because they chose to let prisoners go instead of killing them. And they didn't want to kill these people because they were afraid of the Seals getting bad press. Now, most critics being as narrow-minded progressives as they are, they are unwilling to accept that maybe their world view is wrong, and maybe people in the states who have no idea what's happening on the ground shouldn't stick their noses where it doesn't belong. Also, not all people from other countries are just happy, peace loving farmers that want to be left alone. Now if you actually watch the entire film, and you didn't fall asleep after you gorged yourself on the free snacks you get for being a professional criticizer, you realize that this film depicts two warring peoples in Afghanistan, and the noble efforts of one of these sides to defeat the other. I felt so much compassion and love for those people because of this movie. It gave me a perspective and appreciation for a people half a world away, who are struggling to defend themselves and their way of life. I think it's incredibly insulting to label this movie jingoist, just because it doesn't paint a very friendly picture of the FREAKING TALIBAN! You know, the people who execute homosexuals.
But of course, the other thing that bothers them is this shows how humane our soldiers are by choosing to not kill captured enemies, and that of course bothers them because they like to think that our soldiers are just a bunch of swinging dicks.
And again, like most war movies, this movie is decidedly anti-war, and it only serves to show how poorly fought and thought out this conflict has been.
It is a very nuanced film, so I guess if you are a closed-minded SJW type, you would call that Jingoist.