Lone Survivor

The last film that Peter Berg presented to us was the risible Battleship, a film that only young teenage American boys would have got anything from, though what that was is open to debate (hopefully it was "I'll never direct a film as bad as that"). This time Berg moves away from such silliness as Lone Survivor tells the real life story of a group of US Navy SEALS and how, once their mission had gone awry, they had to fight for their lives in the Afghan hillside. Before going any further is should be made clear that the film is a dramatisation of the events (in reality it is highly inaccurate in places) and any mud slinging that has occurred post release you can read about yourself elsewhere. This is actually quite an odd film when all the dust has settled in the fact that it's actually too professional a production. Berg and company are getting some serious back slapping for all the extensive research that was undertaken before the camera's starting rolling, but for all the authenticity a film must still engage an audience. This is where the problem's begin. For all the correct uniforms, guns and military lingo you can give a soldier, you still need to explore their character and Berg's script fails miserably here. The fact the film is over long (even after being chopped in the editing suite) and still doesn't shine a proper spotlight on the persona's of the combatants just proves that Berg should have spent less time on getting the explosions as loud as possible and more time on getting some emotional balance into the end product. Speaking of the battle scenes, they are a mixture of brilliance and (unintentional) confusion. The scenes where the soldiers fall down the rugged mountainsides are bone-crunchingly captured with some highly impressive stunt work, but a lot of the action is captured with Berg getting as close as possible with the camera, meaning that at times its not only hard to tell what's going on, but also which soldier is which. It certainly isn't all bad though, particularly in the surprising final third where you'll be educated (surely only the most well read of us could tell you what pashtunwali is) and also feel uplifted that such heroism and humanity still exists in sure dire and brutal situations. In the end though, especially as this veers dangerously close to propaganda, I can't escape the feeling that some things are just better being read about and not shown. Rating: 6/10.