Select a full-length film and identify the title, writer, director, major actors, and the year it was released.
Title: Lone Survivor
Writer: Peter Berg
Director: Peter Berg
Year: 2013
Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster
Summarize the story and plot of your chosen movie.
Story: Lone Survivor is the story of a U.S. Navy SEAL team deployed in support of Operation RED WINGS during the war in Afghanistan in 2005 (“Operation RED WINGS”, 2005). A four man team is selected to conduct a reconnaissance mission to locate a known terrorist. During the reconnaissance mission, two Afghani tribesmen and a young boy herd their goats into the four man team’s observation post. The SEAL team is face with the decision of what to do with these individuals. After deciding that the right thing to do is set them free, the SEAL team is followed and fired upon by Taliban insurgents over the next two days.
Plot: The movie begins with scenes from U.S. Navy Basic Underwater Demolition (BUDS) training showing some of the more rigorous aspects of the training required to become a U.S. Navy SEAL. It introduces and builds the main characters of the movie by showing them as fathers, husbands, brothers, and friends. The first day begins with the main characters in their beds asleep and walks the viewer through a small slice of their lives.
Later, a mission comes into the Joint Tactical Operations Center known as the JTOC that a SEAL team is needed to perform a reconnaissance mission to the verify the presence of a known terrorist in a small village along the Pakistani border. The team selected for the mission plans and prepares for the mission before being inserted. Once in position, they quickly identify the terrorist target in the village and settle in to make contact at their assigned communications window. The team ultimately has problems with their communications link and they are forced to find a location to spend the night. Two Afghani tribesman and a young boy wander into their hiding place with their goat herd and accidentally discover the SEAL team. The SEALs are forced into a moral conundrum and have to decide what to do with the Afghanis. They ultimately decide to let them go.
One of the Afghani tribesmen is obviously a Taliban soldier or at least a Taliban sympathizer and he runs down into the village below to announce that there are Americans in the mountains. This begins a two day ordeal of the SEALs attempting to escape and evade death or capture by the Taliban. Ultimately all but one of the seals is killed and the main character Marcus is taken in by friendly Afghani tribesman. The friendly Afghanis are bound by ancient Pashtun tribal laws to protect a guest at all cost and fight off the Taliban in an attempt to protect Marcus. Ultimately, U.S. forces fly into the village and save Marcus from the attacking Taliban and return him to the safety of the U.S. base.
Discuss whether your film is presented chronologically or non-linearly
The movie begins non-linearly by foreshadowing what is to come by showing the main character Marcus, in a Blackhawk helicopter being worked on medics and then in the hospital emergency room back at the main operating base located at Bagram. The film then goes back to three days earlier to begin to show how Marcus came to be in that condition. This does not detract from the movie since the name of it is Lone Survivor. It is obvious that this person who has not been introduced yet is indeed the lone survivor. The rest of the film is presented chronologically by showing the main characters waking up and beginning their day.
If the film had followed a different presentation style, how would the general effect on the audience have been different?
If the film had followed a different presentations style, I think the overall effect of the movie would have been different. Beginning the movie in the non-linear fashion and showing the main character clinging to life set the mood to remind the audience this movie is about a tragedy.
Resources:
Universal Studios Movies Trailer, (2013). Lone Survivor official movie trailer #1[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnh9DHLDRVM
Operation RED WINGS. (2005). Retrieved June 6, 2014, from http://www.navy.mil/moh/mpmurphy/soa.html
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