I thought it was an amazing film but they would have been better off labeling it fiction. They changed so many major details that to call it non-fiction just serves to turn it into a massive propaganda piece, a lot like what happened to Zero Dark Thirty.
The amount of Taliban went up every time the story was told, from 8-10, to 20-30, to 30-40, to 50, and then to upwards of 200 in the book. It went back down to 50+ for the movie, and you could argue that Luttrell had the numbers wrong in the beginning for whatever reason, but I saw it as an excuse to show just how badass American soldiers were compared to the Taliban; showing the good side win despite a massive disadvantage.
The scene in the village was completely fabricated to show that the locals were ready to die fighting to protect Americans. The Taliban were there but they never tried to behead Luttrell, but that was thrown in to show just how badass and unafraid he was.
The guy did crawl 7 miles though after fucking up his legs, which I guess wouldn't have fit in the movie. He never flatlined on the way to the hospital, they actually stopped for tea on the way home because he was in such stable condition.
Despite all that it was a fantastic movie, just a horrible message. Foster and Kitsch were both amazing in their roles, Wahlberg and Hirsch were solid too. The filming was some of the best I've ever seen, I felt like you really got the immensity of the Hindu Kush range. If it wasn't pretending to be non-fiction I'd think it was one of the greatest war films I've ever seen.
The amount of Taliban went up every time the story was told, from 8-10, to 20-30, to 30-40, to 50, and then to upwards of 200 in the book. It went back down to 50+ for the movie, and you could argue that Luttrell had the numbers wrong in the beginning for whatever reason, but I saw it as an excuse to show just how badass American soldiers were compared to the Taliban; showing the good side win despite a massive disadvantage.
The scene in the village was completely fabricated to show that the locals were ready to die fighting to protect Americans. The Taliban were there but they never tried to behead Luttrell, but that was thrown in to show just how badass and unafraid he was.
The guy did crawl 7 miles though after fucking up his legs, which I guess wouldn't have fit in the movie. He never flatlined on the way to the hospital, they actually stopped for tea on the way home because he was in such stable condition.
Despite all that it was a fantastic movie, just a horrible message. Foster and Kitsch were both amazing in their roles, Wahlberg and Hirsch were solid too. The filming was some of the best I've ever seen, I felt like you really got the immensity of the Hindu Kush range. If it wasn't pretending to be non-fiction I'd think it was one of the greatest war films I've ever seen.