"There's a storm inside of us"

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2014)

Based on the true story of Operation Red Wings, 2005, LONE SURVIVOR is gripping, well-acted, and well-filmed. It shows in no uncertain terms what it's like to train and fight in an outfit like the Navy Seals. Lots of death and violence, but no really blatant gore.
LONE SURVIVOR is too grimly realistic to function simply as a cheesy war thriller, which is good. Still, shoot-'em-up scenes in the mountains of Afghanistan very much predominate. That, of course, was mostly what ORW consisted of: Some will like this quality of the film while others won't. Nevertheless, LONE SURVIVOR would have been better if there had been more back-story on local Taliban leader Ahmad Shah's activities, as well as more on the specific politics of the region and the operation. More of an alternating focus on the Seals, the Taliban, and the neighboring villagers would also have been a plus.
One small but glaring anachronism: Rattlesnakes? In Afghanistan?