Lone Survivor Essay

Flor Chavez

ENG 474

Duerden

Title: Lone Survivor

Directed by Peter Berg

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana

Released by Universal Pictures, January 10, 2014

Runtime: 122 minutes

Based on a true story, Lone Survivor revolves around Operation Red Wings, widely known as both a failed and fatal mission of the US military in Afghanistan in June 2005. The only survivor of SEAL Team 10 (a four man reconnaissance and surveillance team), Marcus Luttrell, wrote Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, a novel telling the horrifying events that sequenced in the Red Wings mission. Of course, it was not long before the film industry took Luttrell’s story to the big screen, directed by Peter Berg, with the intention of portraying an epic sample of valor: the true story of four Navy SEALs who embark on a covert mission to

What I noted most about Ebert’s own reviews published on the site was that when a movie was truly worthy of a perfect rating, he wasn’t afraid to praise it, unlike many other critics are. The few reviews I picked out to use in comparison, shared one similar feature. Ebert described the sentiments the films were able to deliver via the discussion of how well the cast members were able to portray them. I tried to do the same, picking apart the emotion that the most influential actors were able to bring to life.

3. The most challenging aspect of writing this review was trying to give enough of the plot without giving too much away, given that the film I reviewed is widely known as a spoiler in itself due to the fact that it is based on a book and true story. Many people have read the novel, and if not, have seen the headlines for the occurrences that was Operation Red Wings and the fatal outcome. If that was not obvious enough, the title of the movie, Lone Survivor, does not exactly give a promising foreshadowing to what started out as, a group of four