LONE SURVIVOR **

The title kind of gives it away; when a movie calls itself "Lone Survivor" you can pretty much bet that the cast are going to get wiped out, save one that is. Peter Berg's war movie is about a mission in Afghanistan and it's based on a true story. It belongs very much to the "Black Hawk Down" school and even if we know the outcome it's still a terrifically exciting picture, technically brilliant, (photography, editing, sound are all superb), and harrowingly realistic in its portrayal of men in combat.

Essentially it's one long battle scene fought on the side of a mountain and it's unrelentingly grim. However brilliantly made this may be it's something of an endurance test; after a while the sight of bullets ripping through flesh begins to wear you down. There is just so much pain you can take. It's also very well played although when, movingly, the photos and the videos of the real combatants are displayed at the end it is difficult to relate them to the actors who played them. But while extremely violent I never found it exploitative and it's certainly worth seeing though after such a gruelling experience I'm not sure when I might want to see it again.