13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi ««½
R, 144m. 2016
Cast & Credits: John Krasinski (Jack Silva), James Badge Dale (Tyrone ‘Rone’ Woods), Pablo Schreiber (Kris ‘Tanto’ Paranto), David Denman (Dave ‘Boon’ Benton), Dominic Fumasa (John ‘Tig’ Tiegen), Max Martini (Mark ‘Oz’ Geist), Alexia Barlier (Sona Jilliani), David Costabile (Bob), Matt Letscher (Ambassador Chris Stevens). Screenplay by Chuck Hogan based on the book 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff. Directed by Michael Bay.
R, 144m. 2016
Cast & Credits: John Krasinski (Jack Silva), James Badge Dale (Tyrone ‘Rone’ Woods), Pablo Schreiber (Kris ‘Tanto’ Paranto), David Denman (Dave ‘Boon’ Benton), Dominic Fumasa (John ‘Tig’ Tiegen), Max Martini (Mark ‘Oz’ Geist), Alexia Barlier (Sona Jilliani), David Costabile (Bob), Matt Letscher (Ambassador Chris Stevens). Screenplay by Chuck Hogan based on the book 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff. Directed by Michael Bay.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a noble but half-hearted attempt by director Michael Bay who’s known more for the dreadful critic-proof Transformers franchise and explosive box office blockbusters (Armageddon – 1998 and Pearl Harbor – 2001).
Up until now, I did not know the full story of what happened on Sept. 11, 2012 when Islamic militants attacked the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and U.S Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith were killed along with two CIA contractors during a separate firefight. When I heard the attack was attributed to a anti-Muslim video no one heard of I knew this was nothing more than a load of crap the Obama administration and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sold to the American public in hopes we’d believe them.
What I didn’t know and what the film covers in great detail is the chaos that ensued following the attack where six CIA contractors led by Jack Silva (John Krasinski) and Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale) protected their CIA base just a mile away from the attack from the same militants into the early morning hours on Sept. 12 before they and their staff were whisked away by American/Libyan forces.
I wanted to yell at the IMAX screen telling military serviceman Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) to stay home and play a computer game with his son instead of going off to a gun range the morning of Feb. 2, 2013, to help 25-year-old U.S. Marine veteran Eddie Ray Routh, who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as dramatized in American Sniper (2014).
I experienced a lot of emotions watching 13 Hours but they were all the wrong ones. When Silva tells one of the contractors to go left when driving out of the compound with wounded and instead goes right, I wanted to yell at the screen the minute they are stopped by militants and tell them to either drive around or run them all over and ask questions later. I wished someone could have punched out the cowardly CIA chief (David Costabile) who refused to let the contractors help Stevens and the others in the attack.
“We have no jurisdiction in this country,” the Chief says. “We’re not even supposed to be here.”
The most I got though were the words from contractor Woods who tells the Chief, “You’re not giving orders anymore. You’re in my world now.” That got cheers from the audience. I did shed a tear or two seeing pictures of Ambassador Stevens and the three servicemen who died that night when they were shown during the end credits.
“I haven’t thought about my family once tonight,” Silva says. “Thinking about ‘em now, up here in the middle of all this. Thinking about my girls, man. Every time I go home to Becky and those girls I think this is it, I’m going to stay. And then something happens and I end up back here.”
That line echoes what Martin Sheen’s CIA assassin Col. Willard said at the beginning of the Vietnam epic, Apocalypse Now (1979).
“I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said yes to a divorce,” Willard said. “When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.”
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi belongs alongside Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and 2016: Obama’s America (2012) where the only reason audiences are interested in them is because they are shown during an election year and hope what the films have to say will help sway in this case the outcome of either who the Democratic presidential nominee will be or a presidential election. The “Bush bashing” filmmaker Michael Moore provided in Fahrenheit 9/11 and the “Obama bashing” seen in 2016: Obama’s America did not prevent Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from winning a second term in office.
The same can be said for 13 Hours, which will not stop Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton from getting the nomination nor will it expedite her possible indictment in the email server scandal, if that even happens. The film is just another by-product used to promote the right wing views of the conservative pundits of Fox News’ The Five, and TV/radio talk show host Sean Hannity, along with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who earlier this month rented out a movie theater in Iowa offering free tickets to see the film.
©1/22/16
Up until now, I did not know the full story of what happened on Sept. 11, 2012 when Islamic militants attacked the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and U.S Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith were killed along with two CIA contractors during a separate firefight. When I heard the attack was attributed to a anti-Muslim video no one heard of I knew this was nothing more than a load of crap the Obama administration and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sold to the American public in hopes we’d believe them.
What I didn’t know and what the film covers in great detail is the chaos that ensued following the attack where six CIA contractors led by Jack Silva (John Krasinski) and Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale) protected their CIA base just a mile away from the attack from the same militants into the early morning hours on Sept. 12 before they and their staff were whisked away by American/Libyan forces.
When I see films based on real life accounts where I already know how the story ends, what I look for most is not just the false sense of hope, regardless of the tragic outcome but to be emotionally drawn to the characters and their predicament. I can name off countless films that kept me on edge or gave me the funny feeling in my stomach that made me think something bad was going to happen.I felt that way watching United 93 (2006), for example. The minute the passengers broke into the cockpit I kept hoping they’d be able to wrestle the plane out of its death spiral from the hijackers on 9/11. I was pissed to see our American forces get their asses kicked by Somali militants in Black Hawk Down (2001).
I wanted to yell at the IMAX screen telling military serviceman Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) to stay home and play a computer game with his son instead of going off to a gun range the morning of Feb. 2, 2013, to help 25-year-old U.S. Marine veteran Eddie Ray Routh, who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as dramatized in American Sniper (2014).
I experienced a lot of emotions watching 13 Hours but they were all the wrong ones. When Silva tells one of the contractors to go left when driving out of the compound with wounded and instead goes right, I wanted to yell at the screen the minute they are stopped by militants and tell them to either drive around or run them all over and ask questions later. I wished someone could have punched out the cowardly CIA chief (David Costabile) who refused to let the contractors help Stevens and the others in the attack.
“We have no jurisdiction in this country,” the Chief says. “We’re not even supposed to be here.”
The most I got though were the words from contractor Woods who tells the Chief, “You’re not giving orders anymore. You’re in my world now.” That got cheers from the audience. I did shed a tear or two seeing pictures of Ambassador Stevens and the three servicemen who died that night when they were shown during the end credits.
I just didn’t get that false sense of hope watching the film that maybe at the last minute the contractors would be able to rescue Ambassador Stevens and the others. Instead what I got was a chaotic, often times, confusing play by play account of what occurred with little character development in what could be referred to as the Alamo of the 21st century where it’s six contractors against an army of militants, and like those Texans from back in 1836 who were left to fight off General Santa Anna’s Mexican army to the bloody end with no reinforcements, the contractors, along with the 30 plus other individuals they protected received no air support or military assistance. Ironically, one of the contractors midway through the film during the battle compares their predicament to the Alamo.The trouble is while Chuck Hogan’s screenplay, based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s book of the same name, pays close attention to the events, the film didn’t give me a chance to personally get to know, much less care about these six heroes. The most I learned about them was through the little conversations they have with each other in between the firefights. The character with the most depth is Krasinski’s Jack Silva who I learned has a family back home.
“I haven’t thought about my family once tonight,” Silva says. “Thinking about ‘em now, up here in the middle of all this. Thinking about my girls, man. Every time I go home to Becky and those girls I think this is it, I’m going to stay. And then something happens and I end up back here.”
That line echoes what Martin Sheen’s CIA assassin Col. Willard said at the beginning of the Vietnam epic, Apocalypse Now (1979).
“I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said yes to a divorce,” Willard said. “When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.”
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi belongs alongside Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and 2016: Obama’s America (2012) where the only reason audiences are interested in them is because they are shown during an election year and hope what the films have to say will help sway in this case the outcome of either who the Democratic presidential nominee will be or a presidential election. The “Bush bashing” filmmaker Michael Moore provided in Fahrenheit 9/11 and the “Obama bashing” seen in 2016: Obama’s America did not prevent Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from winning a second term in office.
The same can be said for 13 Hours, which will not stop Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton from getting the nomination nor will it expedite her possible indictment in the email server scandal, if that even happens. The film is just another by-product used to promote the right wing views of the conservative pundits of Fox News’ The Five, and TV/radio talk show host Sean Hannity, along with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who earlier this month rented out a movie theater in Iowa offering free tickets to see the film.
©1/22/16
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