Peter Berg was so determined to make Lone Survivor he
directed Battleship for Universal Pictures in 2012 to help secure funding, and
his passion for this project is evident from the opening minutes. Berg begins
the film with documentary footage of real-life Navy SEALs undergoing a rigorous
and intense training process, learning to withstand extreme pain and being
shaped into hardened warriors. A little while later, we see one new recruit
reciting a macho SEAL mantra in front of his admiring fellow soldiers: “There
ain't nothin' I can't do. No sky too high, no sea too rough, no muff too tough…Never
shoot a large calibre man with a small calibre bullet…” In every scene Berg
reaffirms that these men are brothers and heroes, and that his film is a
tribute.
Lone Survivor is the story of the disastrous Operation Red
Wings incursion into Afghanistan in 2005. 19 American soldiers were killed
during the course of the mission, with the lone survivor of the title being Marcus
Luttrell (played here by Mark Wahlberg), whose book was adapted for the screen
by Berg. Luttrell was one of four men deployed as an advance force in a mission
to capture or kill the Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, but as they observed their
target from a vantage point in the surrounding mountains their position was
compromised by a trio of goat herders. After some debate about whether to kill,
detain or release the civilians, the soldiers decided to follow the rules of engagement
and let them go, retreating from the scene before the alarm was raised.
What followed was an almighty firefight, with Luttrell and
his team finding themselves outnumbered and outgunned by a Taliban army. Berg
recreates the battle in what feels like real time, with the volume being pumped
up to an ear-splitting volume as Berg pitches us right into the crossfire. Berg
is a decent director of action and he does well to maintain a sense of
coherence here as the four Americans face an onslaught that comes at them from
all directions, but it’s hard to admire any of the technique involved when you’re
having your senses battered so comprehensively. The other three men are played
by Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch, but the characters they play are
entirely interchangeable (in fact, it’s sometimes hard to tell which one if
which). We are given no reason to care about their fate beyond one simple fact –
they are American, therefore the good guys, and their assailants are the bad
guys. “You can die for your country, I'm gonna live for mine” Foster growls as
he lines one up in his sights.
The contrasts drawn between the two sides is stark. As we
spend our time with the Americans, we see them talking to their girlfriends at
home, joshing with their buddies and conducting themselves at all times with
dignity and honour, while their enemy is seen terrorising villagers and
beheading a man in front of his family. Each of the Taliban fighters is taken
down by a single bullet to the head or chest, while our four American
protagonists each suffer numerous wounds and keep on fighting. We see every
bullet that tears through American flesh and feel every crunch as the soldiers hurl
themselves down a rocky mountain face to escape the gunfire (in a manner that
recalls Homer’s trajectory down Springfield Gorge). Berg fetishises their
suffering to emphasize their courage and resolve, and when the time comes for
them to die, the director ensures it is a glorious death, with each of Luttrell’s
three companions exiting in slow-motion and adoring close-up.
Is this how it really happened? Perhaps, but the simplistic nature
of Lone Survivor is reductive and the high-octane style Berg employs just wears
the viewer down. The film will draw comparisons with Black Hawk Down – a film
coincidentally based on an operation that also left 19 soldiers dead – but I
found Ridley Scott’s film to be more varied and more cinematically interesting,
whereas after 20 minutes of gunplay in Lone Survivor I’d had enough. What are
we supposed to take from the film? The fact that war is hell and the men who
fight are very brave? Peter Berg may have succeeded in his stated aim to honour
these fallen soldiers, but I found little else of value in his orgy of
violence. The film is relentless, dispiriting and numbing.