The Lone Survivor is a movie based on a true story, about a four-man SEAL recon/sniper team sent to execute an HVT, or High Value Target.  However, while they are waiting for the opportune moment to take out their target, they are discovered by three Al-Qaeda goat herders.  Their options are to terminate the compromise, in other words, kill them, tie them up, and let them be killed by animals, or, let them go, and all of the SEALs risk death. Through much debate, the SEAL team lets the three goat herders go, and chaos ensues.  I rate movies based out of two categories, each of which can achieve five stars.  Those two categories are, how much did I enjoy the movie, where does it stand morally and ethically.

This movie displays such elegant writing, which was definitely thought out, even though there are some holes in the movie, as far as reality goes.  The movie starts out by showing you the intense training that navy SEALs have to go through, the. It transfers to the team on the military base, and the "new kid," who is not respected, even though he shows potential, he is taken advantage of often, and is generally the butt of all jokes.  The writer really displays the struggle this kid has as he goes through life on the base. The Lone Survivor also does an excellent job of displaying the brotherhood that the four men have.  It also makes an amazing allegory to the "Good Samaritan" parable in the Bible, which was astounding.  However, it does a poor job of emotionally connecting you to the characters, even though there is much tragedy throughout the movie, like one man and his fiancé are going to be married soon, so she wants an Arabian horse for her wedding gift, and another man on the team's wife is pregnant, and wants to choose a color for the baby room, and that soldier dies with a picture of his wife, and a color scheme sheet in his hands.  Even though I watched the movie a week ago, and paid very close attention, I do not know one of their names, all that I know, is that they called the new kid "kid," and I addressed Mark Walberg as "Mark Walberg."  Also, these soldiers are tough, I get that, but these guys take numerous bullets, and continue to press on, as if their fingers have not been blown off, or that fact that they were shot in the upper left chest area, or the fact that they took a bullet to the knee.  Also, at one point in the movie, the four of them fall at least one hundred feet down a sixty-five degree angle mountain.  One guy straddles a tree with his back and one guy bangs his head on a rock.  The worst part is, the guy who should have died from hitting the tree, should have been paralyzed, at the very least, but he really should have died. The guy that hits his head on a rock, while falling down a mountain at Mach two only gets a swollen eye and a bump on the head. Then, within ten seconds, the Al-Qaeda are right back on top of them, as if there were a trolley that took them down to the level that the SEALs were on.  Out of this category, I give this movie a 4-star rating out of five.  The movie was an entertaining movie; it was action packed, and told a good story, however it failed to deliver in the area of realism, and connection to the four main characters.

This is not a friendly movie to take a child to see, that is fact. The "F" word is said more times than I would like.  It is not just the one word in particular, but that is the one that stands out the most.  I understand that this movie is rated "R," and they are trying to display soldiers, but this is excessive. There is a reference to a man's reproductive organs in an inappropriate term, and even though it is used in a "pledge" so to say, the character who said it is in the movie for a collective amount of time of about twenty minutes, and dies before he even goes into combat, so I do not even see the point in saying this pledge. Also, all of their check points, and the name of their target are types of booze, and Rick James, the drug-addicted Canadian politician.  I personally do not have a problem with this, but I understand some people might.  Plus, some Canadians may not find the humor in Rick James being drug through the mud.  Please know that these are just things that are morally and ethically challenging, if you have a weak stomach for blood and gore, then you will want to stay away from this movie, someone's head is hacked off with a scimitar, or machete in the beginning of the movie.  Then, shortly after the Al-Qaeda cut off this man's head, they hold it up so the world can see.  Also, three of a SEAL's fingers are blown off with a bullet, along with enough blood to make a vampire drunk. In this category, I give the move a 2.5 star rating out of five.  It did not cross any other lines, other than the cursing and a man's reproductive organs, so I was generous with this rating.

The total average rating is a 3.25 star rating, but that quarter will be rounded up to a 3.5 for simplicity sake.  This movie was an exceptional movie, but I cannot recommend it to anyone under the age of fifteen.  But for anyone who enjoys a fast - paced shooter, this is the movie for you.