“Lone Survivor” burns with the fever of a passion project. Writer-director Peter Berg’s gratitude to United States servicemen for all their sacrifice comes through viscerally, from first frame to last. The film opens with a long montage of real-life Navy SEALs in training and ends with a slide show of SEALs and soldiers living full, happy lives off-duty, set to an emotional power ballad. What’s in between amounts to “The Passion of the Christ” for U.S. servicemen: a bloody historic episode recounted mainly in images of hardy young men being ripped apart, at screeching volume. Though Berg’s source material isn’t the New Testament, he often handles Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell’s account (via ghostwriter Patrick Robinson) of his doomed 2005 reconnaissance mission with the thunderous reverence Mel Gibson brought to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

A veteran actor, Berg shows a much subtler touch with ensemble performances. Scenes of elite warriors busting each other’s chops and joking through the terrifying moments of anticipation between battles capture the essence of jocular group chemistry. I’m thinking of the cocky FBI agents in Berg’s “The Kingdom” and even the high school football players in “Friday Night Lights”. It’s clear that he dug into the Average Joe details of Luttrell’s book, with dialogue that encompasses the boys’ love of the movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and the newlywed jitters of Matthew Axelson (Ben Foster). Mark Wahlberg as Luttrell, Taylor Kitsch as Lieutenant Michael Murphy and Emile Hirsch as Danny Dietz contribute natural charisma and intelligence under Berg’s downright doting eye.