![]() Three of the four Seals are ultimately killed, but many more Taliban are killed. This whole failed rescue effort and the failure of the Seals communication technology gives one pause about the famed invincibility of the U.S. Any hope at this point of rescue is very remote. Two Chinook helicopters with several Seals aboard are finally dispatched but without the essential air cover from Apache attack helicopters, and one Chinook is shot down by the Taliban, exploding with presumably all aboard killed, and the other Chinook quickly returns to base. One key issue is the failure of the Seal’s communications equipment used in the attempt to bring in help, coupled with issues of authority and availability of helicopters for a rescue attempt back at base-camp. One of us in a theater viewing the film noted the many children and adults cheering whenever someone was killed. At this point it’s not a movie for unsupervised children under 16. Upon the older boy’s arrival at the Taliban compound, a massive lengthy assault on the Seals ensues, and the movie devolves into a pretty standard but prolonged and bloody fire-fight with a lot more Taliban shots than Seals. And some of the goats would probably have remained in the general area, their presence aiding in the search. The reasoning behind this pivotal action left out the likelihood that if the three herders had been left bound and gagged, they would probably have been found by searchers when all three failed to return later to the compound or their village. This prophetic decision is the turning point in the success of the mission, guaranteeing a quick end to the so-important secrecy of the mission, and raising the certainty of immediate armed resistance, and we ultimately learn the death of three of the four Seals. The older boy promptly bounds quickly down the mountain to the Taliban compound below, watched fatefully by the Seals, clearly on a mission to inform the Taliban. Finally, the commander of the mission orders the herders to be freed, resolving the rather thin moral debate. Discussion on this option turns on the likelihood the herders would die on the mountain if left under constrained conditions. Another Seal says let us leave them here tied-up and gagged and get on with killing the Taliban leader. Marcus (Walberg) argues that Seals don’t kill prisoners. He particularly notes the look of the older of the two boys, perhaps in his early to mid-teens, as a future killer, a terrorist-to-be. One advocates killing the herders, arguing that if they let them go free they will inform the Taliban below in the valley of their whereabouts. One of the only moral discussions in the film, and a very fateful one, takes place among the four Seals. This totally unexpected and obviously unplanned-for intrusion requires them to capture and secure the three goat-herders. In the midst of preparation for their take-down of the leader, an elderly Afghan goat-herder with two boys and several goats wander into the area of the mountain-side the four have staked out. They get close to the compound, above it on a mountain-side, observing through gun-scopes the movement below in the compound, complete with a sighting of the Taliban leader surrounded by Taliban soldiers. The four are air-dropped near the target area which is a compound where the Taliban leader is located. There is the usual macho banter with some personalization of members of the Operation. The movie begins with the four Seals, and others, going through special training, while in Afghanistan. The basis for the film is a book written by Luttrell covering the training, bonding, deployment and ultimate tragedy. ![]() Of the four, only one survives, Marcus Luttrell, played solidly by Mark Wahlberg. They were part of a larger operation named Operation Red Wings. Lone Survivor is a 2013 film based on a real story of four American Navy Seals in Afghanistan who were on a special mission to kill or capture a Taliban leader Ahmad Shah in 2005 in mountainous areas. ![]() Temple Cosby, PhD student, Temple Peter Berg True horror in an actual Navy Seals mission impossible, amid ambiguous heroism. ![]()
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