It's because AS is a Clint Eastwood film; the Hollywood and the critics always go gaga over an Eastwood film whether deserved or not and that's a fact. I personally also prefer LS myself and the dislike for the writer/protagonist or hi lack of credibility is another problem altogether and does not effect the film badly at all. I too disliked Wahlberg in the title role mainly for two reasons. One, he's too old for the part and at times this became more and more noticeable and distracting especially given how young the other guys are. But the bigger problem was his star status. This was not a role for a star. It was meant as a four role cast on equal footing. By casting Wahlberg, the group was lopsided for apart from the ending, the leading actor of the group was Taylor Kitsch, the group's natural leader. Now by having Wahlberg, the star/leading actor in a non leading or supporting role, created confusion and added lack of credibility to the Navy team by constantly giving him more lines and making him a de facto leader by having him be a go to person, the one whose advice is always sought out, to whom updates are given and who ultimately had the last word and the most lines, simply by sheer star value, untrue to real life. It felt wrong unless this was true In real life which Luttrell might have been arrogantly advocating being the lone survivor, but something I seriously doubt about our Seals and its clear, serious chain of command and everything I read and heard about the real Mike Murphy and his known strong leadership skills. If they needed a star actor to help sell the film then Wahlberg should have been cast as Murphy not Luttrell. That way, he'd be a lead without rewriting history and a hero who truly saves the day, albeit for much less screen time than Luttrell and less credit as a hero. But that's both Hollywood and human nature, in case of a real Marcus Luttrell who proved to be less than trustworthy and very inconsistent, prone to exaggeration in his accounts of the story unfortunately.
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thebabe3
9 years ago
I agree with your post very much. I do think that they needed a star in that sense and he is a Star, maybe a bit old, but an action star.
The ensemble worked well and I thought they worked well together.
But the whole time I kept thinking why did they not just take the herders with them. and this is so much more compelling a story than Sniper.
If Kyle had not been killed it would be forgotten.
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