By (Editor’s Note: This review was written before the knowledge that there was a 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer before the movie. Press did not get to see that trailer. If I had the film would have gotten a 10/10 off of the waves of euphoria from that trailer.)
When you heard about 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi you were probably a little confused. Isn’t that the whole Hillary Clinton thing where Republicans made asses of themselves for 10 hours grilling her? Why in the hell is Michael Bay directing a politically charged movie like that? Is that The Office‘s John Krasinski in an action movie playing a soldier?
The simple answers to those questions are: Yes; He isn’t because it’s not; Yes, and, god, those abs.
13 Hours: The Secret Solidiers of Benghazi
Director: Michael Bay
Rated: R
Release Date: January 15, 2016
For anyone running into 13 Hours hoping for some sort of political charged hit piece (on either side of the aisle) you’ll be heavily disappointed. This movie is all Michael Bay and no Michael Moore. While there are a few snide remarks here and there, the movie is surprisingly apolitical, choosing to instead focus on the action-packed adventures of six CIA military contractors who protect a secret CIA base after the attack on the US “embassy” in Benghazi. Of course, if you go into the film believing in a certain narrative of what took place that night this movie is going to do nothing, but reaffirm your beliefs. It is stuffed full of Bay’s die hard patriotism and love of people shooting things to solve problems.
The movie focuses on Jack Silva (John Krasinski) as he arrives in Benghazi just before the attacks on the embassy. He’s introduced to the job by the team’s lead Tyrone ‘Rone’ Woods (James Badge Dale) and then everything starts to catch on fire. The rest of the movie is a beefed up version on what may or may not have happened that night in Benghazi. While the film opens station that this is a true story it is very clearly Michael Bay’s version of a true story.
What does that mean? Prolific gun fights and plenty of explosions that may or may not have actually occurred. Block long drives, that were most likely very tense at the time, are turned into all out car chases. Bodies are mowed down left and right as bullets rip through them. A bus explodes in grandiose fashion. Men all have six packs and women — sorry, make that woman — are all gorgeous. It’s pure Bay or it would be if it wasn’t about an actual attack and incredibly politically charged.
What’s horribly annoying is this is probably Michael Bay’s most competently made action film in quite some time. Despite it running longer than it needs to, Bay actually pieces together his action sequences with some understanding of the basic of film editing and pulls off an impressively decent pace for the film. The characters, while trite at times, are all given surprising emotional depth and handled with even more surprising care. As Pain & Gain showed us, when Bay wants to actually focus on something other than women’s legs and explosions the results can actually be interesting.
However, it is nearly impossible to separate this film from the “true story” it is telling. The producers definitely didn’t want to as they kept the horrendous subtitle attached to 13 Hours for all the promotion. In the case of saying something the movie fails again and again. It’s blind belief in the heroism of the American soldier and inability to get out of its own cookie cutter cliches lead it from something that could offer some actual commentary into a simple, though emotional, action flick. Ignoring the politics of the subject matter might be both the worst and best thing the movie does, simultaneously making it work and fail at the exact same time. It can probably be best summed up by a point near the movies end after a truly tense 30 minutes of film one of the characters turns to the encampments translator and deadpans, “Your country’s gotta figure this shit out.”
It’s deep thoughts like that that rip away at the good parts of the film. Krasinki is probably the highlight and a brilliant bit of casting. His affable nature imbues Jack Silva with a humanity that defies the stereotypical tough-guy stuff. His performance adding layers to the normal bravado we get from patriotic cinema, and in turn pulling out more from the actors around him. It can’t truly elevate the film above what it is, but damned if he doesn’t try.
Despite all the pretense and marketing and “true storying” 13 Hours turns out to be just a decent Michael Bay film made worse by its connection to a political scandal it seems to want nothing to do with. It turns out you can’t have it both ways. Either you’re making a movie about Benghazi or you’re not. Bay tried so hard not to it ironically overwhelms everything else.
