13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Benghazi.

In this age of bitter rhetoric, the name conjures all manner of furor and blame. A small stinging wound to honor and prestige - a name to carry hate and zealotry.

Michael Bay, OF ALL PEOPLE, was able to peer into the 2012 attack on US diplomatic and intelligence resources, and capture one hell of a war story. Going into this movie, I expected a number of things. Among them were gratuitous explosions, jingoistic flag waving, and tough-guy tired clichés. I did not get what I was expecting.

Instead, Bay, his cast, and his filmmaking team have brought out a solid, technically informed, faithfully rendered account of those who were caught in the conflagration - how they found themselves there, how they fought for their lives, and how they made it out...or didn't. There's no political agenda here. The only agenda is to show warriors (who are also real people, with cares, and hopes and flaws) engaged in struggle, with all the courage, and luck, horror, and terrible splendor that is timeless.

And in the end, there's no war worship - only somber reflection on the nature of struggle, and what it does to these warriors. This is a clear and worthy work for that. Bravo.

This movie is based on a true story about the attack on an American embassy and a secret CIA base in Benghazi, Libya, on the 9/11 anniversary in 2012. And how a few numbers of of Ex-Soldiers managed to repel the attack.

Directed by Micheal Bay, I was surprised to see him holding back his Bay-ism and deliver a straight forward focused film. The story got a long build up at the start, setting up the location, the characters and the situation. And then chaos. What I liked most about this film was the fact that you felt just as lost as the soldiers and people in this movie. The confusion, the chaos, the uncertainty, it was delivered quite nicely, creating tension and thrill.

There are a lot of characters in the movie, but ultimately it is focused on these soldiers, and while the movie could have done a better job developing them, what it did was good enough in a sense that it worked for the movie. I liked em. Acting varied, with some delivering pretty good performances. Also, again with Micheal Bay restricting himself, there were no stupid side plots or cringe worthy romance for any of the characters. They all had families back home and we got some moments with them, humanizing the soldiers more.

The action was solid. It felt raw and realistic. There were the occasional Micheal Bay's firework explosions and some exaggerated RPG moments, but that's about it. Everything else was great. And this is the movie to watch on a home theater if you own one because sound effects were terrific. The explosions, the guns firing, the bullet impacts, it all sounded really great. Soundtrack was good. And the cinematography was great, it was a good looking movie.

The movie strayed away from political stuff, and just focused on the incident, which made me appreciate it more. The underlying message it was trying to give might have been too heavy handed at times, especially at the end, but it was a good one.

My issues with the movie, other than the ones already mentioned, were that the movie was too long. It took about 40 mins for things to get started and while the build up created the anticipation for what's about to happen, it got too long and slow in some areas. 20 mins shorter and it would have been a much tighter and cleaner film. Also, there are some, few, but some cringe-y scenes attempting to add humor, which stand out like a sore thumb considering most of the movie has a serious tone.

All in all, it was an entertaining watch and shows Micheal Bay still can control himself. I hope the dude gives up on Transformers and does other things, like this, more. Shame that this turned out to be his least grossing film. Definitely a recommended watch.

7.8/10

It is honestly hard to believe that the guy behind all that transformers crap made a solid, almost flawless war movie with an amazing cast. I have no idea why this is rated so low, acting is on point, pacing is great and the build-up keeps you engaged even on the second viewing.

This movie hit home. Every PMC who signs every contract knows they have no US military support. A PMC or grouping of PMC's is on their own. Only a President can order US military action on a foreign nation without the Senate and House Approval. Had President Obama sent in a military for for support or even ordered air support for those PMC's would have made a single handed de-facto declaration of war against Libya, which at the time out armed forces were engaged in military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Adding a third conflict with another Arab state would have over extended US armed forces resources to one region, complicating a difficult situation already happening. I am glad most of those PMC's made it home alive to their families and did exactly what their contract states, solved the situation by themselves. Great movie ,but brought up horrible memories for me. With the facts I presented keep those facts in mind when sitting down to watch this movie or watch it again. ( Once was enough for me. ) Great directing and acting, pretty close to factual. Watch it or rewatch it with the facts I presented in mind and the movie will make a whole lot more sense to the viewer.

I first saw this film when it opened back in January, 2012. While it's not a "great" film by any stretch, it is a solidly good one. It is also Michael Bay's most *RESTRAINED* film (which isn't saying much, but it's a FAR cry better than the last four Transformers films).

But, getting to the title of my comment, when I went back and watched this film for the second time (today, February 16, 2019), I felt compelled to pull up IMDb on my phone during the viewing and I checked out some of the user reviews. I found one thing shockingly in common among all of the one-star "reviews":

Not a single one of them had any knowledge of the events of the true incident! And it was painfully obvious that they could not have been bothered to do a little research before making their inane comments public. Many did not know the name of the militant group that attacked the compound (Ansar al-Sharia), and just randomly decided that it must be ISIS. Some felt that it was a condemnation on Hillary Clinton and her actions/lack of actions as the events unfolded (there was not a single mention of Secretary Clinton throughout the entire film, good or bad). One did not even understand why the name of the film is "13 Hours" (seriously, did they even bother to actually WATCH the film before adding their "thoughts" in a blatant effort to only try to bring down the rating percentage?)!

Is the film accurate? Of course not. When a movie is based on a true event, dramatic license is and ALWAYS has been used to make the film more compelling to viewers. And say what you will about Michael Bay's films, but the guy can masterfully direct action set pieces; each one expertly realized to get the viewer's heart pumping. Here, he does it again and again. Or, more accurately, two straight hours after the first bullets start flying to the bitter end.

It's not a definitive history lesson on what actually happened, but it is decidedly riveting and Bay's most mature film to date. One can only hope that now he's left the directorial duties of the abyssmally and increasingly brainless "Transformers" franchise to other people, maybe we can start getting more films like this from him so people can remember what he is actually capable of when he gets material to work with that he takes seriously and treats it as such.