LONE SURVIVOR

SYNOPSIS A four man navy seal team is trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. Lone survivor is the true story of a 4-man navy seal team sent into Afghanistan to take out a high ranking Taliban leader who then find themselves trapped by enemy forces. I have to confess that I was not sure how I was going to relate to the film’s characters, after all, you know from the title that only one man is getting out of this alive. Thankfully the filmmakers are aware of this and we find out within the first moments of the film who the titular survivor is. This actually stops the audience from playing roulette with the characters and adds a sense of tragedy to their interactions. Its characters are the main weapons in Lone Survivor’s arsenal, both the script and the actors do a great job of dropping us in amongst these men and making their camaraderie and close ties meaningful. This gives the film a major boost because it means that despite the audiences foreknowledge of the outcome, the tragedy of a character’s loss still holds emotional gravitas. It’s a shame that the filmmakers don’t seem to be aware of this fact because once the shooting starts the film loses itself a little. The most blatant example of this is the film’s climax which pointlessly abandons the true narrative for a scene more akin to a crass Hollywood action movie than what this is trying to be. All of the emotional weight and tension, which the film has very successfully built up, is pointlessly put in jeopardy just so we can get some loud noises and explosions. It’s as if the director and writer suddenly lost confidence in their own premise, which is a shame as it leaves the film feeling quite uneven. FINAL VERDICT 6/10 while it feels sincere and has strong performances its finale is sadly a bit of a mess