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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Hello MoFo’s! It is once again time for At the Theater with The Gunslinger45. What can be said about Michael Bay… Actually, check that. Here is how I described Michael Bay in the last movie of his I reviewed, Pain and Gain.
I also go to say I thought The Rock was a good movie and how I rank The Bad Boys movies among my favorite guilty pleasures. So we have now established how I feel about the director. And when I heard that a Benghazi movie was going to be directed by Mr. “Let’s blow everything up” Bay, I was very concerned. I saw Pearl Harbor in the theaters. That was the last and only time Bay attempted to direct a serious movie. And he failed. Miserably. He gave us a historically questionable POS movie that was trying to cash in on the Titanic formula of jamming a love story into a tragedy. And it BLEW! To top it off, he directed one of my all time most HATED movies, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Needless to say, I was worried. This is a very politically hot and sensitive subject, and Bay is not known for subtlety. So with me seeing the movie you are probably asking, “Was this a good movie?” And I can’t believe I am saying this…
No. Bay did not make a good movie. He made a legitimately GREAT movie!
LET THAT SINK IN! The guy who directed 4 crappy Transformers movies, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and whose Platinum Dunes company has churned out S**T remakes of classic horror movies ACTUALLY DIRECTED SOMETHING THAT WAS REALLY WELL MADE! And I mean this was beyond the action scenes which I expected to be well done. He was able to capture heart breaking moments, suspense, thrills, tragedy, and lose. It was like he was an actual director or something! And cherry on top the guy made the movie and was pretty damn apolitical about it! So the real question is where the hell did Michael Bay hide all of this talent and how the hell did he pull this movie off? Well gear up and haul asses and elbows as we examine 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.
We begin the movie with an opening title sequence that sets the stage. It is 2012, Libya has overthrewn Gaddafi and proceeded to go full Mussolini on his ass. Problem is now you have a bunch of gangs who have looted Gaddafi’s armories. Said gangs are now fighting a civil war to achieve power and skirmish over local turf. The USA has two embassies in the country: one in Tripoli and another in Benghazi. The “embassy” compound in Benghazi is guarded by local Libyan forces. Now they do have a few American security forces to guard Ambassador Chris Stevens, but they are not the most experienced of operators and are under staffed. About 1 mile from the compound is a secret CIA compound where agents conduct various intelligence operations. The compound itself is guarded by the CIA’s own security detail provided by CIA contractors called the GRS. These are guys who are ex-operators in various military special operations units including ex SEALS, ex Marines, and one former US Army Ranger. These 6 men are paid to protect the compound and any members of the CIA staff who happen to go out to collect intel or meet with contacts. And they happen to butt heads a bit with a man only referred to as “Chief.” Chief is the head CIA officer at the local and is not thought of favorably by the GRS. The GRS see him as a paper pusher and the Chief thinks the GRS are a bunch of morons. But they learn to live with each other. That is until the day reaches closer to the anniversary of 9-11. Naturally the compound and embassy are on high alert due to obvious reasons. It is the anniversary of the biggest terror attack in US history, someone might want to repeat history. Problem is the embassy’s security is still pretty low compared to what embassy protocols state they should be. And that comes back to haunt them on September 11, 2012. Anyone who followed the news knows what happened next. The embassy was attacked, the local security fled or was killed, and hostile Libyans stormed the embassy. The GRS contractors were ready to move out, ordered to stand down, eventually stormed out to save Ambassador Stevens, then had to hole up in the CIA compound until they could be evacuated from Benghazi. The siege lasted approximately 13 hours; hence the title of the book. And the movie follows that hellish night.
Again, I have to say this: Michael Bay made a really great movie. I this was not just a “Holy crap this totally exceeded my expectations so I mistake it for amazing” sort of reaction. I mean I totally get the exceeding the expectations part, but this was a legit war movie. I mean this was as good as Black Hawk Down and Lone Survivor. In fact this movie reminded me a lot of Black Hawk Down. We have Americans in need of rescue, we have an attempt to get everyone out, and we focus on the struggle just to get out alive in one massive firefight. Only instead of a massive cast like in Black Hawk Down, this cast is a lot smaller. This allows for a lot more build up to the fight and we get to know these 6 men a lot more then the various elements in Black Hawk Down. In fact that was another shocking element. Usually Bay opens his movies with action scenes then just follows a bunch of action beats for the rest of the movie. Optimus Prime jumping out of a jet into a crowded city like in Transformers 2, a raid on a military base for missiles in The Rock, or a fire fight at a Ku Klux Klan rally like Bad Boys 2. The rest follows the Bay formula. This movie actually does not open like those other movies. It opens with the contractor Jack riding on a plane to Libya. Top it off the movie spends the majority of the first part of the film establishing the setting, characters, and their relationships with only a few instances of some minor action sequences. And neither of those sequences had any explosions! Let that part sink in too. Michael Bay opting to focus on character relationships, setting, and plot rather then explosions?!?!? Clearly this is a sign of the End of Days. Now sure 13 Hours is not as good as say American Sniper, Apocalypse Now, or Saving Private Ryan; but the movie is certainly worth the price of admission.
One of my biggest surprises was how well Bay was actually able to capture these characters. Each has a wife, a family, and a history in the service. And we get to know a little bit about each of them in the movie: especially Jack De Silva. Jack is the first of the contractors we meet. We see him on the plane coming to Libya in the opening scene. We learn he has a wife and two little girls. Times are tough financially and much to his wife’s displeasure he goes back to contracting to make additional money. We know he is trying to provide for his kids the best he can, and contracting brings in BIG TIME pay. But his wife naturally is scared he will not come home, and just wants her husband to be there for their children. And on that note, Jack has one of the biggest and most emotional scenes in the movie. He is talking to his wife and kids at a McDonalds drive through, and she drops some big news on him.
This results in tears starting to flow for Jack, his wife, and this entire scene creates a wave of emotion that washes over me as the viewer. A heartbreak stemming from separation, pains of regret for not being home, and Jack himself beginning to question what was really important in his life. All of which is perfectly captured in an incredibly poignant scene. And then I remembered… wait a second, Michael Bay is the director of this movie right? WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS?!?!?!?!? And it is not just with Jack. We see various minor and supporting characters grow throughout the course of the movie. Characters with little screen time who are not part of the main GRS team, but who Bay felt the need to see their characters grow. And wouldn't you know it one of them is a woman who is enlisted for her brains and not her body. Again, I had to remind myself Michael Bay is directing this movie. It is actually truly impressive.
So we have a surprising amount of character development and emotional investment in a Michael Bay movie that was not a Pearl Harbor and Bruce Willis is not saying goodbye to Affleck. What about the action? It is a Michael Bay movie. The action scenes were great. And this time he did it with very little CGI. No giant robots and no asteroids. The action scenes are incredibly well done while still carrying certain Bay finger prints. We get plenty of explosions (but they are on a much smaller scale than the Transformers movies), plenty of fire fights, lots of scenes of military personnel assembling, the cuts are very quite with lots of sweeping shorts, and a few vehicles getting shot up. I gotta say this movie played to the man’s strengths as a filmmaker. Because when the attack on the embassy started, the action was perfectly paced. The fight scenes had a perfect ebb and flow to them. It never felt drawn out or too long. Something I always thought was a problem in the Transformers movies. This flick was just right. And unlike the Transformer’s movies, you could actually tell who was who resulting in an engaging and thrilling siege movie sequence.
That being said, this movie does have some controversy around it because of the subject matter. The biggest issue some critics have with this film is over the “stand down” order. This movie and the book the film was based on stated that the CIA base Chief, also known as "Bob” directly told the GRS contractors to stand down. This stand down caused a delay in the GRS acting and lead to the death of Ambassador Michael Stevens. Now “Bob” claims there was no “stand down order” and that is backed up by the Federal Government. Naturally the author of the book Mitchell Zuckoff and the team members of the GRS said there was. One member Tonto even did an interview with Politico and stated they were told to stand down. Now I was not there, and I doubt anyone reading this review was there. I guess the people you would believe depends heavily on whether or not you think the government would ever lie to you. I leave that up to you. Either way the author of the book 13 Hours said Bay nailed the book’s authenticity. In addition, of all the topics that could have been talked about in the movie the stand down order was the only thing of controversy discussed. Sure they hinted at the initial reporting of the attacks spawning out of protests over some internet videos (which turned out was incorrect) but a lot of the other more hot button topics are left out of the movie: namely Hilary Clinton. Whether or not she knew the security was sub par in the embassy, had any intelligence reports about credible attacks, how much did they know, why did they continue to blame the anti Islam video and non-existent protests, etc were never discussed in the movie. This movie is after all made by Michael Bay. Bay is here to show the viewer an action movie and not be political. That is Michael Moore’s job. And Bay delivered action in spades.
I know I have already said it but I am floored that Michael Bay made this movie. Somewhere after all this time Bay found a movie that plays to what he does well and somehow created a well crafted movie. I used to say Bay’s only legitimately good movie was The Rock. Well I can’t say that anymore. Michael Bay deserves all the praise he gets for this flick. Now sure this movie will still get panned by enough critics because Bay directed it, but he seems to have won over enough that he might actually get a positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Now does this mean I am a fan of Michael Bay and that he might actually be on his way to a new film making direction? I say no, and I doubt it. While I really liked this movie, Bay has to make a lot more of these kinds of movies to wash away the stain of a lot of his other crappy movies. I can’t call myself a fan, but I think he earned a little more respect, and I need to cut him a little slack. At least for a little while. His next movie is Transformers 5. *SIGH* Well he has earned my praise for now. Whether or not he keeps it is debatable. We shall see.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Hello MoFo’s! It is once again time for At the Theater with The Gunslinger45. What can be said about Michael Bay… Actually, check that. Here is how I described Michael Bay in the last movie of his I reviewed, Pain and Gain.
He is a man whose entire career is based upon summer blockbusters with huge budgets, an over emphasis on explosions and CGI, female characters whose one dimension is that they are hot, third act shoot outs on massive scales, and sadly huge box office numbers. He is Spielberg without the talent. Instead of classic movies like Jaws, he has Armageddon; instead of an awesome franchise like Indiana Jones, he has those God awful Transformers movies. And while Spielberg can make serious movies like Schiendler’s List, Amistad, and Lincoln; the only time Michael Bay tried that we got Pearl Harbor. Obviously, I cannot call myself a Bay fan. But at the same time, I am not a knee jerk hater.
No. Bay did not make a good movie. He made a legitimately GREAT movie!
LET THAT SINK IN! The guy who directed 4 crappy Transformers movies, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and whose Platinum Dunes company has churned out S**T remakes of classic horror movies ACTUALLY DIRECTED SOMETHING THAT WAS REALLY WELL MADE! And I mean this was beyond the action scenes which I expected to be well done. He was able to capture heart breaking moments, suspense, thrills, tragedy, and lose. It was like he was an actual director or something! And cherry on top the guy made the movie and was pretty damn apolitical about it! So the real question is where the hell did Michael Bay hide all of this talent and how the hell did he pull this movie off? Well gear up and haul asses and elbows as we examine 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.
We begin the movie with an opening title sequence that sets the stage. It is 2012, Libya has overthrewn Gaddafi and proceeded to go full Mussolini on his ass. Problem is now you have a bunch of gangs who have looted Gaddafi’s armories. Said gangs are now fighting a civil war to achieve power and skirmish over local turf. The USA has two embassies in the country: one in Tripoli and another in Benghazi. The “embassy” compound in Benghazi is guarded by local Libyan forces. Now they do have a few American security forces to guard Ambassador Chris Stevens, but they are not the most experienced of operators and are under staffed. About 1 mile from the compound is a secret CIA compound where agents conduct various intelligence operations. The compound itself is guarded by the CIA’s own security detail provided by CIA contractors called the GRS. These are guys who are ex-operators in various military special operations units including ex SEALS, ex Marines, and one former US Army Ranger. These 6 men are paid to protect the compound and any members of the CIA staff who happen to go out to collect intel or meet with contacts. And they happen to butt heads a bit with a man only referred to as “Chief.” Chief is the head CIA officer at the local and is not thought of favorably by the GRS. The GRS see him as a paper pusher and the Chief thinks the GRS are a bunch of morons. But they learn to live with each other. That is until the day reaches closer to the anniversary of 9-11. Naturally the compound and embassy are on high alert due to obvious reasons. It is the anniversary of the biggest terror attack in US history, someone might want to repeat history. Problem is the embassy’s security is still pretty low compared to what embassy protocols state they should be. And that comes back to haunt them on September 11, 2012. Anyone who followed the news knows what happened next. The embassy was attacked, the local security fled or was killed, and hostile Libyans stormed the embassy. The GRS contractors were ready to move out, ordered to stand down, eventually stormed out to save Ambassador Stevens, then had to hole up in the CIA compound until they could be evacuated from Benghazi. The siege lasted approximately 13 hours; hence the title of the book. And the movie follows that hellish night.
Again, I have to say this: Michael Bay made a really great movie. I this was not just a “Holy crap this totally exceeded my expectations so I mistake it for amazing” sort of reaction. I mean I totally get the exceeding the expectations part, but this was a legit war movie. I mean this was as good as Black Hawk Down and Lone Survivor. In fact this movie reminded me a lot of Black Hawk Down. We have Americans in need of rescue, we have an attempt to get everyone out, and we focus on the struggle just to get out alive in one massive firefight. Only instead of a massive cast like in Black Hawk Down, this cast is a lot smaller. This allows for a lot more build up to the fight and we get to know these 6 men a lot more then the various elements in Black Hawk Down. In fact that was another shocking element. Usually Bay opens his movies with action scenes then just follows a bunch of action beats for the rest of the movie. Optimus Prime jumping out of a jet into a crowded city like in Transformers 2, a raid on a military base for missiles in The Rock, or a fire fight at a Ku Klux Klan rally like Bad Boys 2. The rest follows the Bay formula. This movie actually does not open like those other movies. It opens with the contractor Jack riding on a plane to Libya. Top it off the movie spends the majority of the first part of the film establishing the setting, characters, and their relationships with only a few instances of some minor action sequences. And neither of those sequences had any explosions! Let that part sink in too. Michael Bay opting to focus on character relationships, setting, and plot rather then explosions?!?!? Clearly this is a sign of the End of Days. Now sure 13 Hours is not as good as say American Sniper, Apocalypse Now, or Saving Private Ryan; but the movie is certainly worth the price of admission.
One of my biggest surprises was how well Bay was actually able to capture these characters. Each has a wife, a family, and a history in the service. And we get to know a little bit about each of them in the movie: especially Jack De Silva. Jack is the first of the contractors we meet. We see him on the plane coming to Libya in the opening scene. We learn he has a wife and two little girls. Times are tough financially and much to his wife’s displeasure he goes back to contracting to make additional money. We know he is trying to provide for his kids the best he can, and contracting brings in BIG TIME pay. But his wife naturally is scared he will not come home, and just wants her husband to be there for their children. And on that note, Jack has one of the biggest and most emotional scenes in the movie. He is talking to his wife and kids at a McDonalds drive through, and she drops some big news on him.
This results in tears starting to flow for Jack, his wife, and this entire scene creates a wave of emotion that washes over me as the viewer. A heartbreak stemming from separation, pains of regret for not being home, and Jack himself beginning to question what was really important in his life. All of which is perfectly captured in an incredibly poignant scene. And then I remembered… wait a second, Michael Bay is the director of this movie right? WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS?!?!?!?!? And it is not just with Jack. We see various minor and supporting characters grow throughout the course of the movie. Characters with little screen time who are not part of the main GRS team, but who Bay felt the need to see their characters grow. And wouldn't you know it one of them is a woman who is enlisted for her brains and not her body. Again, I had to remind myself Michael Bay is directing this movie. It is actually truly impressive.
So we have a surprising amount of character development and emotional investment in a Michael Bay movie that was not a Pearl Harbor and Bruce Willis is not saying goodbye to Affleck. What about the action? It is a Michael Bay movie. The action scenes were great. And this time he did it with very little CGI. No giant robots and no asteroids. The action scenes are incredibly well done while still carrying certain Bay finger prints. We get plenty of explosions (but they are on a much smaller scale than the Transformers movies), plenty of fire fights, lots of scenes of military personnel assembling, the cuts are very quite with lots of sweeping shorts, and a few vehicles getting shot up. I gotta say this movie played to the man’s strengths as a filmmaker. Because when the attack on the embassy started, the action was perfectly paced. The fight scenes had a perfect ebb and flow to them. It never felt drawn out or too long. Something I always thought was a problem in the Transformers movies. This flick was just right. And unlike the Transformer’s movies, you could actually tell who was who resulting in an engaging and thrilling siege movie sequence.
That being said, this movie does have some controversy around it because of the subject matter. The biggest issue some critics have with this film is over the “stand down” order. This movie and the book the film was based on stated that the CIA base Chief, also known as "Bob” directly told the GRS contractors to stand down. This stand down caused a delay in the GRS acting and lead to the death of Ambassador Michael Stevens. Now “Bob” claims there was no “stand down order” and that is backed up by the Federal Government. Naturally the author of the book Mitchell Zuckoff and the team members of the GRS said there was. One member Tonto even did an interview with Politico and stated they were told to stand down. Now I was not there, and I doubt anyone reading this review was there. I guess the people you would believe depends heavily on whether or not you think the government would ever lie to you. I leave that up to you. Either way the author of the book 13 Hours said Bay nailed the book’s authenticity. In addition, of all the topics that could have been talked about in the movie the stand down order was the only thing of controversy discussed. Sure they hinted at the initial reporting of the attacks spawning out of protests over some internet videos (which turned out was incorrect) but a lot of the other more hot button topics are left out of the movie: namely Hilary Clinton. Whether or not she knew the security was sub par in the embassy, had any intelligence reports about credible attacks, how much did they know, why did they continue to blame the anti Islam video and non-existent protests, etc were never discussed in the movie. This movie is after all made by Michael Bay. Bay is here to show the viewer an action movie and not be political. That is Michael Moore’s job. And Bay delivered action in spades.
I know I have already said it but I am floored that Michael Bay made this movie. Somewhere after all this time Bay found a movie that plays to what he does well and somehow created a well crafted movie. I used to say Bay’s only legitimately good movie was The Rock. Well I can’t say that anymore. Michael Bay deserves all the praise he gets for this flick. Now sure this movie will still get panned by enough critics because Bay directed it, but he seems to have won over enough that he might actually get a positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Now does this mean I am a fan of Michael Bay and that he might actually be on his way to a new film making direction? I say no, and I doubt it. While I really liked this movie, Bay has to make a lot more of these kinds of movies to wash away the stain of a lot of his other crappy movies. I can’t call myself a fan, but I think he earned a little more respect, and I need to cut him a little slack. At least for a little while. His next movie is Transformers 5. *SIGH* Well he has earned my praise for now. Whether or not he keeps it is debatable. We shall see.