
Overview
Based on a true story, director Peter Berg's LONE SURVIVOR stars Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and Emile Hirsch as four Navy SEALs whose sensitive mission into the Afghan mountains is unexpectedly compromised, leading to a fierce skirmish with a small army of Taliban soldiers. The year is 2005. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, the War in Afghanistan is well under way when military intelligence learns that a senior Taliban member is hiding out in a remote village deep in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Kunar Province. Convinced that his capture or killing could turn the tide of the difficult war in favor of the United States, the Navy SEALs hatch Operation Red Wings. The goal is simple -- send a select team of soldiers to stake out the village from the surrounding mountains, and move on their target when the time is right. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Michael Murphy (Kitsch), Marcus Luttrell (Wahlberg), Matt Axelson (Foster), and Danny Dietz (Hirsch) reach their checkpoint, and quickly realize that another nearby hill will provide a better vantage spot. Shortly after arriving at that new location and getting a positive ID on their target, however, the soldiers are caught off guard by three wandering shepherds, including a young boy. Ultimately, a heated vote over what to do with the captured shepherds leads Lt. Murphy to decide that the best course of action is to abide by the rules of engagement, meaning that the soldiers will abort the mission, release the captives, and retreat to their extraction point. Shortly after the shepherds are set free, however, the four SEALs find themselves surrounded by dozens of Taliban soldiers, and engaged in a fierce gunfight that -- with the aid of some truly brave villagers -- only one of them will make it out of.
Awards:
Main Cast & Crew:
Peter Berg - Director
Mark Wahlberg
Taylor Kitsch
Eric Bana
Emile Hirsch
Ben Foster
Sammy Sheik
Alexander Ludwig
Scott Elrod
Ali Suliman
Corey Large
Details
- Format: DVD
- Run Time: 121
- Color Format: Color
- UPC: 025192175886
- Genre: Action
- Rating: R (MPAA) (strong bloody war violence and pervasive language)
- Release Date: June 2014

Movie Reviews
Reviews:
"Like the best war films, LONE SURVIVOR laces action with moral questions that haunt and provoke." - 09/12/2013 Rolling Stone
"[With] impressive physical filmmaking....Director Peter Berg delivers his most serious-minded work to date with LONE SURVIVOR, a scorching, often unbearably brutal account of a June 2005 military mission that claimed the lives of 19 U.S. soldiers..." Variety
"Peter Berg's screen version of Marcus Luttrell's book is remarkably good at dramatizing the notorious 2005 Navy SEAL operation that went horrifically bad." - 12/24/2013 Wall Street Journal
"Berg has a knack for capturing men at work; his depiction of special-ops maneuvering -- of silently casing the enemy base, of planning the attack -- is as compelling as the chaotic violence he orchestrates later." -- Grade: B- - 12/24/2013 A.V. Club
"Captured in uncompromising detail by director of photography Tobias Schliessler, this movie is not for the faint of heart." - 12/24/2013 Los Angeles Times
3 stars out of 4 -- ""Brutal, unrelenting and ultimately moving....[A] true story of a botched Navy SEAL raid in Afghanistan..." - 12/24/2013 USA Today
"[A] combat movie with the spare, clean contours of an old Western, as attuned to ethical questions as it is to gunplay and hot pursuit." - 12/25/2013 New York Times
"LONE SURVIVOR burns with the fever of a passion project. Writer-director Peter Berg's gratitude to United States servicemen for all their sacrifice comes through viscerally, from first frame to last..." - 12/25/2013 RogerEbert.com
"Berg has made a powerful film and an important reminder of what really happens when we send men and women off to war." - 01/15/2014 Entertainment Weekly
"Berg delivers one of the most shocking, gruesome and devastating depictions of war ever put on film." - 01/09/2014 Chicago Sun-Times
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]f you need reminding that 'war is hell', Berg serves it with unstinting first-person ferocity." - 01/27/2014 Total Film
