Sunday, October 5, 2014

Lone Survivor - the movie

The Missus and Young Son are at their annual Fright Fest employment every weekend this month and I am on my own.  After dinner I rented "Lone Survivor" on pay-per-view.

 When it was in the theaters the Missus did not want to see it.  She said it was like "Titanic" and other movies made about a real life situation with a sad ending: you can't change what happened and it is too sad to watch.

The movie details a mission by Navy SEALS to capture or kill a senior Taliban officer.  The mission goes awry when the SEALS are discovered by Afghan goat herders.  The subsequent battle cost the lives of numerous Navy and Army personnel. The movie is factual in its overall content but of course it is a movie so some things may have been dramatized for effect.

The movie shows each wound and each traumatic injury suffered by the SEALS in the ridiculously steep and rugged Afghan terrain in vivid and excruciating detail.  The suspense, despite knowing how it ends, was agonizing and seeing each Sailor give his all for his teammates was heartbreaking.  Each American's death was not just his but like ripples in a pond, would wash outwards to strike sweethearts, wives, children, parents, siblings.

I am glad that I didn't see it in the theater or with the Missus at home because I had tears running down my face at the end of the movie.  I would have embarrassed myself.   Where we find such brave men and women who do so much for a mostly unappreciative country is beyond my understanding.

Everyone in this country should see this movie to see to what extremes we put our servicemen and women to.  Many won't, but they should.

If you are brave enough and want to see what they do for us, then see this movie.

"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men (and women) stand ready to do violence on their behalf"  George Orwell


1 comment:

  1. I'm tearing up just reading your description. I don't know if I'm brave enough to watch it, but I know I should. We are incredibly lucky as a country to have such brave people among us.

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