JediG60racer
Sr Member
The falls down the cliffsides are pretty accurate. Agreed, they wouldn't have jumped up and out, it would be more of a slide and tumble. Having gone 300 feet down a similar cliff myself, albeit inside the relative protection of a german car, I can attest to gravity being a cruel master of your fate in those moments.
There were plenty of problems with the mission that neither the film nor book go into. Many of which I'm not at liberty to discuss either, but suffice to say the powers that be are well aware of many mistakes made, and this particular community is rather good at learning from mistakes so as to not repeat them. Enough said there.
The end of the film is very dramatic, totally Hollywood. The reality is that Marcus spent quite a long time hiding in a cave before his protector in the village was able to get word out to US forces and organize a recovery. During that time he was constantly under threat of being turned over to Taliban, given dirty water to drink and rotten food to eat. He suffered more than a year afterward with various internal parasites as a result, not to mention the horrible physical condition he was in. There was no heroic run to a chopper under fire. He was barely able to walk at all with assistance. That's where the movie falls short of depicting how horrific the experience truly was.
There are other moments the movie falls short and the Hollywoodizing really didn't add to the story but took away from it. Mike didn't wander to the edge of a cliff rock to make his sat phone call for help, according to Marcus. Instead, they were in the bottom of the valley, and he stood and walked into fire in the middle of the kill zone to make the call, because he had no signal while in cover. He knew exactly what was going to happen, and made the sacrifice for his men. That seems to be corroborated by the physical evidence (blood, bullet impacts, etc) examined later at the scene by US forces.
I would have liked the movie to show how crappy Marcus was treated by some of the yahoos in his own home town after his return... he was provided with a CSA (comfort service animal) - a nice big fluffy dog, to help with his PTSD. Some local jerks decided it would be a good idea to break into his home and kill his dog.
They were pretty fortunate Marcus exercised restraint, because I can't see a court in America convicting him of anything, had he retaliated when he caught them.
Our heroes who have sacrificed deserve better than to be picked on and picked apart. Ultimately, Marcus is the only one who knows exactly what happened, but if he didn't make it back, the families would have none of the story at all. Speaking as one who is family of the fallen, I'd rather hear a colored story than be left wondering about it with no closure indefinitely.
There were plenty of problems with the mission that neither the film nor book go into. Many of which I'm not at liberty to discuss either, but suffice to say the powers that be are well aware of many mistakes made, and this particular community is rather good at learning from mistakes so as to not repeat them. Enough said there.
The end of the film is very dramatic, totally Hollywood. The reality is that Marcus spent quite a long time hiding in a cave before his protector in the village was able to get word out to US forces and organize a recovery. During that time he was constantly under threat of being turned over to Taliban, given dirty water to drink and rotten food to eat. He suffered more than a year afterward with various internal parasites as a result, not to mention the horrible physical condition he was in. There was no heroic run to a chopper under fire. He was barely able to walk at all with assistance. That's where the movie falls short of depicting how horrific the experience truly was.
There are other moments the movie falls short and the Hollywoodizing really didn't add to the story but took away from it. Mike didn't wander to the edge of a cliff rock to make his sat phone call for help, according to Marcus. Instead, they were in the bottom of the valley, and he stood and walked into fire in the middle of the kill zone to make the call, because he had no signal while in cover. He knew exactly what was going to happen, and made the sacrifice for his men. That seems to be corroborated by the physical evidence (blood, bullet impacts, etc) examined later at the scene by US forces.
I would have liked the movie to show how crappy Marcus was treated by some of the yahoos in his own home town after his return... he was provided with a CSA (comfort service animal) - a nice big fluffy dog, to help with his PTSD. Some local jerks decided it would be a good idea to break into his home and kill his dog.
They were pretty fortunate Marcus exercised restraint, because I can't see a court in America convicting him of anything, had he retaliated when he caught them.
Our heroes who have sacrificed deserve better than to be picked on and picked apart. Ultimately, Marcus is the only one who knows exactly what happened, but if he didn't make it back, the families would have none of the story at all. Speaking as one who is family of the fallen, I'd rather hear a colored story than be left wondering about it with no closure indefinitely.
