#LoneSurvivor--A Pygmy Review: "Lone Survivor" is largely artlessly directed and lensed without subtlety. It never, thankfully, turns into a jingoistic, flag-waving propaganda piece, but rather does a generally adequate job representing men whose duty is first are foremost to each other (as well as showing that heroics can be found across nationalities). The film is a brutal exercise in emotional battering, that bricks the viewer inside a claustrophobic cocoon built of episodic tension. When the film works, it is not because of the pyrotechnics, but rather the camaraderie of men being murdered by degrees, dying piecemeal, alone, far from home, all too aware that everything they love is being cut from them one fatal wound at a time. The actors who embody this camaraderie, particularly the always brilliant Ben Foster, do so with breathtaking professionalism and skill. "Lone Survivor," despite all its hype, adds nothing to the genre, but what it does well, it does exceedingly well. Unfortunate then, that in a film for which real heroics really ought to have been enough, its director, Peter Berg--who most recently helmed the preposterously silly "Battleship"--lacks the requisite self control to avoid turning the finale into one enormous Hollywood cliché. "Lone Survivor," as a whole, never earns its very best moments.

http://youtu.be/VuIINk0IftU

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