Emmett/Furla Films, Closest to the Hole Productions, Envision,
Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, Ali Suliman, Alexander Ludwig, Yousuf Azami, Sammy Sheik, Dan Bilzerian
Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) who is a Navy Seal set out with his team on a mission to capture or kill Ahmad Shah, a Taliban chief who was responsible for many deaths of American troops. Running into communication issues, a lack of enough chopper power in the area, and a couple unique coincidences and the team found themselves in a fierce battle. The men gave a courageous fight against all odds to try to accomplish their mission and survive. If all of them had been killed, we probably would have never known about these missing seals, but through extreme effort, Marcus managed to stay alive until he was rescued and tell the story. This true story told in a book by Marcus Luttrell himself cause great honor to be brought upon the men who fought and died for their country.
Being based on a true story, this film is limited to the facts as best as it could be remembered. It’s not a documentary, so there are things that have to be made up to fill in the story. For example, if a dying soldier is all alone on top of a cliff, no one knows what he said or did before he died. But that is nit picking. But I mention that there was a lot of fact checking and the cast and crew tried their very best to portray the characters as truthfully as they could. On the special features there are interviews with the family members of the fallen soldiers and each of the actors visited and studied all they could to bring the story truthfully to the screen. In one of the most touching moments of the special features one of the mother thanked the actor who played her son for letting her have a couple more hours with her son. She said the portrayal was so spot on that she really could see and hear her lost son once again. Many will cry that this is American propaganda. I don’t feel that way, as there were a lot of things in the film that I feel that were portrayed very fairly. Likewise, the action is breathtaking and the photography is stunning. Very well acted, these guys really busted themselves up trying to give a good go to the action in this movie. There were many reported injuries to the cast. It was a suspenseful movie, and though the title itself is a big spoiler, it’s still very tense and exciting throughout. This was one of the most realistic war films I have seen, especially about the modern warfare of the last 10 years or so. I had doubts as to whether Mark Walhberg could actually pull this off, but he did an excellent job. But all the other guys in the squad also did an excellent job bringing this story to the screen. Sometimes truth is stranger in fiction. If you can handle the violence and accurately shown war scenes, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this film. I was highly impressed and I recommend it.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
