USE OF DEADLY FORCE IS AUTHORIZED

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2018)

There is nothing like a tear jerking war film the whole f@#$%^& family can enjoy. The film opens with a montage of Navy Seal training to demonstrate that this is an elite group. It moves quickly to a base in Afghanistan where they demonstrate the adolescent machismo and crudeness that exists within the U.S. military service, highlighted by the "poem" recited by the new guy. We also get to see other aspects of their character, their plans for the future.
It isn't long before they go on a recon mission that doesn't go well, and plot spoiler, there is just a Lone Survivor (the guy they paid the most to be in the film). The film highlights the dilemma faced in the field by military personnel in modern times, that is how to deal with civilians of unknown allegiance. If you kill them you wind up on CNN and do 20 years (message: an open liberal media kills soldiers and saves the evil doers) or if you don't kill them, they will eventually kill you. Sometimes there are no right answers except when "The use of deadly force is authorized" as it was in this case. Perhaps they just said that line for effect, I don't know, but to me that would make decision making easy, especially with 20-20 hindsight.
The film has plenty of blood squirts. The injured soldiers had cuts and bruises on them which seemed to appear by magic for effect, especially cuts on the top of the face. The end credits show still photos of the actual men involved in this incident with an appropriate soundtrack to make for a teary eyed moment. I think absolute silence at the end while showing the pictures may have been more effective, if not appropriate.
I liked the realism of the film, showing the horrors of war and the impossible situations in which we place our troops. Clearly a training course in Farsi (or Dari) would have helped. I will mention the use of predator drones takes those difficult life and death decisions out of the field and places it on "the deciders" who can currently kill innocent people without consequence. This is a good thing for the foot soldiers (or Seals in this case) but speaks volumes of debate about the state of humanity, international law, etc. etc.
A war film worthy for patriots.
Parental Guide: No sex or nudity. Excessive F-bombs.