If there is one overriding theme director Michael Bay wants
you to take away from 13 hours it is that the military is good, and bureaucrats
are bad.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, directed by
Michael Bay and starring John Krasinski, and James Dale, is the story of 6
contracted CIA ex-special forces operatives during the 2012 Benghazi attack on
both an American Diplomatic and CIA compound. The movie explains how the men
tried to save the American Ambassador and then defend their compound throughout
the night of the attacks. 13 hours has gripping action showcased throughout the
entire film.
The action sequences are intense and I was on the edge of my
seat each time the tension was ratcheted up. Bay can direct action, and for the
most part you could always follow what was going in each action scene. There
was some shaky cam sequences, which I personally don’t care for, but they didn’t
take too much away from the movie. Each time the action did pick up you never
truly felt like you knew what was going to happen or who was going to survive.
Bay did a great job of capturing the confusion and fluidness of what it must
have been like during the attacks.
The performances for the most part are well done. John
Krasinski, of The Office fame, is good in the role. I don’t know if I buy him
as an ex-navy seal, but I did buy into him being a father who deeply cared
about getting back to his family. James Dale plays the commander of the group
and does a good job as well. His family story was a little contrived to me and
seemed forced into the movie. The same with the other backstories of the other solders.
I know each truly had a backstory and family, they just didn’t fit well into
the framework of the movie. Each of their family scenes is introduced right
before the action starts, and it just screamed, CARE ABOUT ME PLEASE!
Then we have the CIA section chief of the compound Bob,
played by David Costabile. He is complete one note bureaucratic non-understanding
boss, who won’t let the soldiers just do their jobs. Are their people like this
in the world, yes there are, but not to this degree. I would prefer to have
more nuance from a role like this, rather than someone for the audience to just
hate. He does have one good sequence during the middle of the movie, which I
hoped was going to showcase a redemption for the character, but he ends in the
same place he began. I really did not like the last two scenes he had in the
movie. This being said I’m going to try and stay away from the political
message the movie is trying to hammer home and just focus on the characters and
their actions in the film.
The action, again, is amazing in the movie. It does get tedious
by the end though. As an audience you are exhausted after watching every scene
of action. This may have been the point to showcase just how tough these individuals
truly are. The movie is two hours and
twenty four minutes and it seemed to drag in places as well. Twenty to thirty
minutes of the movie could have been cut out and trimmed down to pick up the
pace a bit. There are scenes in-between the action which are good character
development, and I liked. Then there are
cut scenes back to Washington and briefing rooms that are not needed. They don’t
add to the story being told and nothing is followed up on during the course of
the film. We at one point see fighters getting prepped and army personal on a
plane, but after one shot they are never shown again. There was no reason to
put it in the movie if the narrative doesn’t go anywhere.
Confusion is both a blessing and a curse of the movie. Bay
does a good job of confronting the confusion of what is happening on the ground
and how it is affecting the soldiers. They don’t know who they can trust
locally to either help them or kill them. This same confusion is applied to the
overall government and military. This is probably an accurate assessment of
what was going on during the course of the events, but it isn’t needed for this
story. It sidetracks and pulls you out of what the main focus of the movie
should be; what was in fact happening to the people on the ground in Benghazi. A
few cutaways of when the CIA compound called for help would have been enough to
show how confused the overall government was at the time. There was too much
shifting of focus in the last part of the movie, and it lost some of its
overall impact
I still enjoyed watching this movie, but I think depending
on where you fall on the political spectrum might affect your overall enjoyment.
I would say this movie is Worth Seeing. If you lean to the left politically go
see it in theaters at a matinee price, or wait to rent. Still worth watching
though. If you lean to the right politically I don’t think you’ll be disappointed
in paying full price to see it in theaters.
Just my personal perception though.
Are
you planning on seeing 13 Hours this weekend? If you have seen it let me know
what you thought. Let me know your favorite and least favorite Michael Bay films.
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