By VANESSA LANGDON
Staff Writer
Lone Survivor is a war film that college kids can relate to – that may be why the theater I went to was packed with high school and college-age students. This isn’t a World War II film; this is one that hits close to home for the twenty-somethings that walk around this campus – we lived through this war and the subsequent film based on the true story of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.
The film is different than other war movies in that you grow to love each character so intensely, knowing in the back of your mind that this person was real, had a family, and died for you. Even though the title foreshadows that the lovable soldiers won’t all make it home to their families, you can’t help but pull for Marcus Luttrell, portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, and his band of brothers that made up the team sent to kill Al-Qaeda leader Ahmad Shahd in June 2005.
The film follows the team of 4 Navy SEALS: Mike Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), Matt “Axe” Axelson (Ben Foster), and Walhberg’s Luttrell. The team is dropped into Afghanistan and treks through the tough, hot terrain looking for their target. When they lay eyes on Ahmad Shahd, things get interesting. The group begins to have trouble with communication with their base and warfare ensues. The bonds displayed by the four men are intensified as they fight to cover each other and literally sacrifice themselves to ensure the safety of the rest.
The film’s true life account makes it so powerful. The fact that the characters aren’t in fact characters, but were real life soldiers allows those lucky enough to have not been touched by losing someone they love to war to experience the emotion in the smallest way possible, showing a window into the rollercoaster of sacrifice every soldier’s family may live through.
The humanity of these soldiers is not lost – this film, while it has its fair share of gore, also shows one of the four shopping for a wedding present for his fiancé and another dies clutching the paint samples his wife had asked him to look over for their home.
Additionally, the film depicts the Afghani citizens as the complex people they are, not unlike us Americans, both groups having good and bad people. While the four SEALS are there to murder an Al-Qaeda leader, Marcus Luttrell’s interactions with the Afghani people, a little boy specifically, shows the people in a favorable truthful light; they are not all against us. There is even a light moment between Luttrell and the little boy featuring a duck.
The film closes with real-life footage of the SEALS, just as it began with real-life footage of them in training. This film is true to the story and emotes such feeling that you can’t help but cry at least once during it. These people died for our country and that is a somber thought.
