Mark Wahlberg Stars In ‘Lone Survivor’: A Heartbreaking Tribute To America’s True Heroes

We hear horror stories about the things that happen when the people who put their lives on the line to protect us and make this country safer are on duty, but never had we seen such an experience in our screens, so accessible, so real that it gives us chills, that we feel the pain, the struggle, the tension. Written and directed by Peter Berg, “Lone Survivor” is based on The New York Times bestselling true story of heroism, courage and survival. Starring Mark Wahlberg as Marcus Luttrell, the author of the first-person memoir, the movie follows the events that unfolded on June 28, 2005, when a four-man Navy SEAL team went on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level al-Qaeda operative.

The mission, code-named Operation Red Wings, was compromised when three goat herders spotted the men and made them face an important ethical decision. They could kill them to safeguard the mission, or let them go and risk being discovered by the Taliban. Their choice sets a chain of events that ended with the deaths of 19 American troops. Luttrell was the only one who made it down the mountains of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, saved by locals who followed the Pashtun code of honor and defied the Taliban to protect the American soldier.

Starring alongside Wahlberg as the other members of the SEAL team are Taylor Kitsch as team leader Michael Murphy, Emile Hirsch as Danny Dietz, and Ben Foster as Matthew Axelson. “It plays over my head everyday, because I went through it in real life,” said Marcus Luttrell. “So when I watch it on screen, basically I would say to myself ‘I remember that’ or ‘I remember it being worse than that,’ but from what happened to me in real life to what he (Berg) put on the screen, I’m absolutely overjoyed by what he did, and the actors, and the cast and crew, how they portrayed the whole scenario and how it played out.”

“I knew I wanted to pay respect to men who are willing to put themselves in between us and danger, and evil. I knew that,” Peter Berg explained. “What Marcus did when he wrote the book was he gave me an opportunity to settle down an experience, what he and his brothers went through. And that meant a lot to me.” When we asked Marcus if he had any influence in the casting selection, he replied, “I thought about everybody else but the guy who was going to play me.” He went on saying that people were coming from different directions trying to suggest actors like Matt Damon or Brad Pitt to play himself. “And my reply to them was ‘If I had somebody like that playing me and you go and watch a movie called Lone Survivor, who do you think is going to make it off the mountain?’”

Taking a more serious turn, Luttrell explained, “In real life, when the parents were at home, sitting by the phone waiting to see which one of us made it down the mountain alive, nobody knew. I wasn’t special, I wasn’t the best frogman out there. The fact that I made it off the mountain was pure luck and God’s intervention and stuff like that, and a little bit of skill.” Meanwhile, Mark Wahlberg praised Luttrell by saying, “I had the good fortune of meeting the guy I was playing and having him there through the entire process, and help me with anything I wanted or needed. He’s a very very special individual. I’m definitely inspired to be a better man because of him.”

When asked if he thinks he could be a Navy SEAL, Wahlberg replied that he’s not sure. “It’s not a question about physical abilities, it all comes down to that mental toughness that I think sets those guys apart.” He also opened up about why the film is not your typical action movie. “Originally this was going to be a big budget movie,” Wahlberg said. “So we would’ve had cables and green screens, but we did the movie for price and I think that’s why it feels so intimate and real, and authentic.” Emile Hirsch also weighed in on the movie, and explained why this movie was so personal, voicing his costars feelings to perfection.

“This film struck a chord with me on a personal level, because these are guys that are willing to put themselves on the front line and fight for their country. To me it wasn’t a political film, it wasn’t a film that was going into any kind of details of the war: ‘Should we be here? Should we not be here?’ It wasn’t about that. It was about soldiers that were willing to give everything they had, and the type of courage that takes to do that. Because no matter what your opinion is on any conflict, there are conflicts that need to be solved.”

He went on, “This is representative of the best guys that we have doing this for us, and I think that guys like that deserve to be honored, to have their stories told. We live in a world where there is a 24/7 news cycle and it’s so easy to have these guys be just another news story, and I think this is an example of really taking the time to appreciate the sacrifices that they make.” And like Marcus Luttrell said, “It’s a movie, it’s entertainment, it’s what it’s supposed to be. In real life is war, and war is not entertainment.”