Movie: Lone Survivor

Dave

Dave

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Go see it. [FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I thought it was very good, and realistic.

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Will be seeing it Monday afternoon...looking quite forward to it. Although a bittersweet tale, I think it was right to make it and should be seen.
 
I haven't been to a movie theater since the original Despicable Me, but we went and saw this on opening night thanks to encouragement by Dwight.

Great movie! Definitely worth seeing in the theater.
 
I saw that opening day and thought it was great too. Makes one appreciate what our boys do over there even more.
 
I took my 15 year old daughter to see it last weekend. I was very impressed and moved by the movie. Not sure if this happens at other theaters but at the showing I was at; at the end when they run the bio's, past service members in attendance, including myself, all stood up in respect. Very moving.
 
From what I understand, part of the proceeds of the movie go to the fallen soldier's families.

I'm going to see it again tomorrow.
 
My wife, son, his girlfriend and I went this afternoon. Intense doesn't describe this movie in proper enough terms. Cam and I were crying at the end as the tributes rolled. It was a great movie but left me with conflicted emotions and lots to ponder. Highly recommended, but not for the cynical of mind.
 
This...

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.”

-Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
 
Saw it last night and it was a very intense movie. Not having served, of all the war type movies I have seen, this seems as close to what I would expect the war in the middle east would be like. In the end I came away sadden by how many lives have been lost, in so many hell holes.
 
The thing that bugs me is the US population has been dumbed down, the better part of the people that see the movie will think that's how everything happened...when it isn't, not even close.
 
What a great movie. I really like the ending showing the real people involved. My heart goes out to the families. Very moving.
 
Mike said:
snip...In the end I came away saddened by how many lives have been lost, in so many hell holes.
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Now, look at events in Iraq today... Fallujah and Ramadi and the entire province of Al Anbar under siege by al-Qaeda militants surging back into cities that were secured at an enormous sacrifice. Most veterans I've talked to are deeply disappointed that the sacrifices made have seemingly been for naught.

Of course the administration is going to help mitigate these losses by supplying more advanced weaponry to the current "democratically" elected government. Secretary of State John Kerry, himself a veteran of the Vietnam war stated such, "We are not, obviously, contemplating returning. We're not contemplating putting boots on the ground. This is their fight, but we're going to help them in their fight."

I can't help but notice the parallels between this and Vietnam. All US Forces were withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger promised US support through replenished materiel and a surge in US military aid in 1974. At the beginning of 1975 South Vietnam had numerical superiority in materiel and a 2 to 1 advantage in uniformed manpower to the Communist regime. Then April 30, 1975 and the fall of Saigon.

George Santayana once noted, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While that quote dose little to comfort us now it certainly serves as a criticism of our policy makers. I can't begin to describe the dread I feel. I hope this sacrifice of American treasure, our young men and women, is not for naught.
 
TangoBlue said:
Now, look at events in Iraq today... Fallujah and Ramadi and the entire province of Al Anbar under siege by al-Qaeda militants surging back into cities that were secured at an enormous sacrifice. Most veterans I've talked to are deeply disappointed that the sacrifices made have seemingly been for naught.

Of course the administration is going to help mitigate these losses by supplying more advanced weaponry to the current "democratically" elected government. Secretary of State John Kerry, himself a veteran of the Vietnam war stated such, "We are not, obviously, contemplating returning. We're not contemplating putting boots on the ground. This is their fight, but we're going to help them in their fight."

I can't help but notice the parallels between this and Vietnam. All US Forces were withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger promised US support through replenished materiel and a surge in US military aid in 1974. At the beginning of 1975 South Vietnam had numerical superiority in materiel and a 2 to 1 advantage in uniformed manpower to the Communist regime. Then April 30, 1975 and the fall of Saigon.

George Santayana once noted, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While that quote dose little to comfort us now it certainly serves as a criticism of our policy makers. I can't begin to describe the dread I feel. I hope this sacrifice of American treasure, our young men and women, is not for naught.
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+1

As a veteran of the fight for Anbar, I am appalled by these developments and our lack of resolve to help an ally in need.
 
I've seen the movie twice. It's like getting hit in the gut that the US is so nonchalant about losing our boys around the world like they're nothing. It ticked me off to think that some, maybe all could have been saved by providing apache air support. Instead they were somewhere else. If they have these boys over there then they need enough equipment to support every operation going on. Equipment can be replaced, those boys can't.

After all that, and those guys dead over it, then they pull out and let it fall like Iraq, and Vietnam. I had friends and family over in the latter.
 
DesertFront said:
I've seen the movie twice. It's like getting hit in the gut that the US is so nonchalant about losing our boys around the world like they're nothing. It ticked me off to think that some, maybe all could have been saved by providing apache air support. Instead they were somewhere else. If they have these boys over there then they need enough equipment to support every operation going on. Equipment can be replaced, those boys can't.

After all that, and those guys dead over it, then they pull out and let it fall like Iraq, and Vietnam. I had friends and family over in the latter.
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Generally, with these operations there is a plan, some can be hastily put together but most often they are a very complex, lengthy if not exhaustive coordinating document published and circulated among all the players; called an Operational Plan or "OPLAN." Among numerous sections that consist of medical, engineering, logistics, air support, communications, intelligence, etc., part of the air tasking order may very well have called for a palate of air support available to this force as well as other activities in the region on an "on-demand" basis but like any plan it could have been complicated by weather, altitude, and mechanical-technical issues. Generally air support is readily available; naturally I can't speak to this operation but I'm sure it's been thoroughly dissected.

Interesting thing I noted when talking to some of the young troops who served in SWA. Most have heard about Vietnam but knew nothing more than their unit's battle involvement during the conflict and all were born far after the memory of that war faded from our national psyche. Just an observation, nothing more, but I knew a few Vietnam War vets who lamented out involvement in these wars, perhaps more sensed dread... or rather, deja vu.

I assert it's a National tragedy to see these areas fall back into our opponents hands - very much like Vietnam - one complicated by indifference from the political elite, ignorance of the general population who never experienced the war in the same fashion the Nation did in WWII, and a war-weary media tired of reporting something that isn't nearly as interesting as say, a bridge closing between NYC-NJ and associated political subterfuge or the audacity of that Miley Cyrus girl.
 
I read the book, but its been a while. What was the big false part of the movie that stood out to you? I haven't seen movie yet.
bob91yj said:
The thing that bugs me is the US population has been dumbed down, the better part of the people that see the movie will think that's how everything happened...when it isn't, not even close.
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