This tribute to the defenders of the US outposts shows Michael Bay can make a film about human beings.
By Jim Vejvoda
A blow-by-blow, “you are there” account of the events that took place on September 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi follows the six-man team of former special forces ops-turned-security contractors as they defend a pair of American installations there from a series of overnight attacks by armed militants. The six-man security team includes Jack (a bulked up John Krasinski, whose character’s real name has not been revealed), Rone (James Badge Dale), Oz (Max Martini), Tanto (Pablo Schreiber), Tig (Dominic Fumusa), and Boon (David Denman).
All are former military and combat veterans, several have known or served with each other before. Later in the story we meet Glen Doherty (Toby Stephens), another former military friend who became a Global Response Staff (GRS) officer. While the six men are under fire in Benghazi, Doherty is trying to launch a rescue/support mission from Tripoli but also finds himself running into bureaucratic resistance and delays both there and stateside.
Director Michael Bay’s movie relied on the surviving members of the team for their insights, and they’ve subsequently said while promoting the film that it’s a faithful, detailed account of the lead-up to the attacks, the battles themselves, and, briefly, their aftermath. The movie begins with Jack’s arrival in Benghazi as the newest member of the security detail working at the (ultimately not very secret) secret CIA outpost.
We want to hear it.
US Ambassador Chris Stevens (The Flash’s Matt Letscher), a true believer in winning hearts and minds, arrives later, causing security concerns for the team. Then, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi is attacked. Protected only by a few State Department agents and some unreliable hired locals, the compound repeatedly calls for help from the CIA outpost. Rone and his team are good to go but are repeatedly told to stand down by the CIA station chief, Bob (David Costabile).
The why of all that, of course, has been hotly debated and investigated in the years since as has the subsequent lack of air support despite desperate calls for help. In the end, four Americans were killed in the Benghazi attacks, several more wounded, and dozens of attackers were also slain. While there’s definitely a political undercurrent and ever-present anger in the film, 13 Hours doesn’t become a diatribe, focusing instead on what was happening there in the moment. This “just the facts, ma’am” approach will likely irritate those hoping the movie would be a polemic (then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is never mentioned to the best of my recollection).
The CIA station agent is the closest thing to a non-combatant bad guy here, and the outpost personnel occasionally come across as either incompetent or at least not truly understanding of what the security team requires of them. But both Bob and his personnel are given moments to show their competence in other areas so you can see them as people doing their job and not just as suits impeding the tough guys.
We want to hear it.
Bay’s spent much of his career as an imitator of Top Gun director Tony Scott, but 13 Hours offers him a chance to mimic Tony’s brother Ridley and his similarly intense account of US personnel under siege, Black Hawk Down. (That film is even mentioned in 13 Hours, which may make this the most self-aware of the recent fact-based US military dramas.)
Bay delivers a pulse-pounding, tautly told account and, along with Pain & Gain, his most human movie to date. These are actual people and not just sounding boards for CGI robots in disguise or dull action heroes along for the ride. Visually, however, it was often difficult during the nighttime battle scenes to tell the team members apart. They’re all big, burly, bearded guys around the same age and height and dressed similarly. Thankfully, Tig wears glasses so you can at least tell him apart from the rest of the squad.
While Bay gets kudos for furthering his dramatic chops here and keeping the viewer invested in the humanity of the story, the abundance of “shaky-cam” action becomes a bit much at time. It’s an overused stylistic technique in action films by now. There are plenty of explosions and Bay-hem, but unlike in his other films Bay keeps you aware that these are all human beings involved here. There’s even a sequence of local women running out after the battle to mourn their dead, an acknowledgment of an opponent’s humanity that many other war films don’t even try to do.
We want to hear it.
While each of the six men get their moments, Rone and Jack are definitely the two leads and Krasinski and Dale make them relatable. We get some scenes establishing who they have waiting for them back home, moments that lend these otherwise hard-as-nails guys some vulnerability. Another character remarks that he’s fine when the bullets are flying past him; it’s the lull in-between gunfights that he dreads because that’s when he thinks of his family.
With 13 Hours, I heard something I’d never heard before at the end of a press screening of a Michael Bay movie: applause, and not because the movie was finally over. If there was even a hint of Bay seeking approval as an artist from film snobs and the industry he’s made billions for, he’s likely finally won some thanks to 13 Hours.
Usually with Michael Bay movies, the breathless pacing and non-stop action make them emotionally numbing, a merely relentless sensory onslaught. But this by-the-throat approach works for 13 Hours, as the brief moments of down time in-between shoot ’em-up set-pieces is at least spent with characters this time instead of talking cutouts passed off as humans.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Releases Jan. 15th
