Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg, and 'Lone Survivor' – Grantland

Nonetheless, the very brief debates that go on among the Pashtuns feel refreshingly thoughtful for an American war movie — even if all that these ethnic men are doing is arguing about whether to save or sacrifice a white American. That argument and its outcome situates Lone Survivor within a long history of American movies in which ethnics circle the wagons around an outsider; Mel Brooks made a scathing joke of it 40 years ago this year. These 15 to 20 minutes of Lone Survivor could have been Berg’s entire movie. Instead, they comprise a dismaying set piece that aligns the movie with emptier blockbusters: more unexamined waste. This is Luttrell’s life, but at the movies his life has become another Hollywood ending.
via Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg, and ‘Lone Survivor’ – Grantland.