Lone Survivor

Maybe in large part due to my namesake, I'm a sucker for patriotism; as such, I found this movie fantastic. It was, and was not, your typical "America, Fuck Yeah" movie, and did endeavour to show some of the deeper complexities of the region, specifically the Afghani/Taliban relations. I was glad to see that not all "brown people" were painted with the terrorism brush, and I was really rooting for the villagers and Gulab. The dedication to the Afghanis at the end was very nice.

But at the same time, the Americans died (mostly) poetic and heroic deaths while looking like heroes. But what would you want besides that? It was nice to see them get banged up pretty good along the way, so they weren't just shining, beautiful, invincible men up until the point they were required to die. The final battle was a bit gratuitous in terms of hand-to-hand combat and satisfying deaths, but, again, you get what you pay for. I was no less pleased. It always breaks you heart to be reminded that these were real people at the end of these films, but it is necessary as well.

I never quite understand why people think these types of films romanticize war, because I always leave films like this with a renewed interest in moving towards a utopia where war is an embarrassing part of our past, rather than a constant in our present day. I also leave with renewed respect for the men and women in the military.

As a military/gun nerd, I enjoyed the overall authenticity in those respects of the film. It was nice to see accurate scope crosshairs, gunplay, and whatnot throughout.

All-in-all, I would call this as decent a dramatization of a real-life wartime situation involving Americans as you could ask for.

8/10 Patriotism Boners