Reviewing Movies

First off, cards on the table, there is no possible good outcome likely from Western interference in Afghan Affairs. We have only caused harm and in the process created new enemies for ourselves while doing nothing to change a millennia-old society and culture save provide them with more efficient means of killing one anther and us in the process.

Nothing demonstrates how out of place those Texas Cowboys were on that mountainside as the sight of that Afghan lad bounding down a boulder field like a mountain goat. Not since the movie Black Hawk Down has such feral hatred been portrayed on screen as that in the eyes of the Afghan Shepherds while they are held by the Seal Team. Those boys were dead men from the moment that flock of goats blundered upon their hiding place.

Luttrell may have survived due to an ancient custom of hospitality and sanctuary but in providing that succour the family and the village in which they lived did themselves irreparable harm. The greater transgression was a Westerner blundering into a situation of which he had no understanding in the first place.

Having trashed the circumstances that background this action movie the special effects and stunts we see on screen are spectacular. If you've read the book this film was based on you know that the torture that is Navy Seal Training was only hinted at here. These men are honed to the point that they manage to go on fighting even though their bodies are dying and lesser men would have long since died from shock. 

How did a man who needed defibrillation shortly afterward engage in fisticuffs with the Taliban as he lay wounded. Wahlberg can do action, pose, and flex but his acting range goes all the way from A to B.