I am not totally sure how my book to
movie comparisons should go so I am just going to start writing and see what I
come up with. For my first book to movie comparison this year I decided to go
with Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost
Heroes of Seal Team 10 written by Marcus Luttrell.
As I was going through the book I found
myself on more than one occasion thinking that the book read just like a movie.
It wasn’t long after that though that I remembered it wasn’t a movie and
instead it was a true story. A good portion of the book is about Operation
Redwing which took place in June 2005. I really enjoyed the backstory that
Marcus wrote about which included his family life growing up and the training
he went through in order to become a Navy Seal. His description of what Seal candidates
go through made me realize right away that I would have never made it as a Navy
Seal. The book does a good job of going back and forth between what Marcus is
going through during the Operation and what his family is dealing with at the
same time back home not knowing his whereabouts or health status. Once the bullets
stopped flying the book didn’t end, Marcus still had to find a way home.
My friend Lexi put it best when she told
me the movie Lone Survivor felt like you were watching a video game. The
actions scenes really did remind me a bit of playing Modern Warfare. Director
Peter Berg did a great job of making you feel like you were in the gun battles
but I wish he would have paid closer attention to the other parts of the movie.
The pre and post battle scenes felt a bit hurried along. I did like that the
author of the book Marcus Luttrell made two appearances in the movie. Peter Berg
of course made an appearance too, he loves showing up in his own movies.
I know that people always say that the
book is better than the movie and I hope to prove that wrong this year at least
once, but this will not be that time. I have two problems with the movie and
how it compares to the book. First, the family side and the Seal training aspect
is removed completely. They tried to add a bit of family in via some of the
other characters but it barely scratched the surface and I didn’t feel a true connection.
My other problem was how rushed the last act of the movie felt. Marcus did a
great job of writing everything down that happened during Operation Redwing and
I thought that the director decided the last third of the book wasn’t as
important because he sped through it with just 15 minutes of film.
Had I watched the movie without knowing
anything about the book I would have liked the movie a lot more because of the
action scenes and the characters. But there were too many things cut out or
changed from the book that in the end disappointed me. I just feel that in the
process of making a good action movie the truth of what really happened in the
summer of 2005 was altered.
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