Horse Soldiers

The book and story upon which this Hollywood flock is based is awesome, and even important. The movie is a fairly standard Hollywood-version military exercise, and I can't fully fault the production team or actors because they have to tell a big story in 2 hours about a major event that should be well known to Americans and Afghans alike, let alone the rest of the world. Plus, no one behind the special effects or acting or script or direction were there. Much like Lone Survivor it's a pretty decent depiction of a true story for a film production, but also much like Lone Survivor, I wish it had taken the source material a tad more seriously, and attached much more telling and brutal realism (like Saving Private Ryan and The Hurt Locker) in terms of mood and dialog and acting, and even equipment and battle scenes. I don't want a Tears Of The Sun fairy tale with my war movies. I want something that transports us there. More realistic tactics, weapons that fire and report realistically, bombs that aren't full of fireballs all the time, etc... All could have been done here. But many would have lost interest in the drama... It's been dumbed down, and 90% of the audience will have no idea.

Maybe I demand too much, or am too picky, or just don't accept the "average" like "average" Americans who don't look any deeper at stuff like war other than action films and headlines. I feel like our veterans deserve better.

Meanwhile, the negative reviews here are by folks who really have no idea what they're talking about, especially when they call it "propaganda". Politics produce propaganda. This is a story based on actual accounts...as in: it happened. Doesn't matter what your politics are. Read the book Horse Soldiers. Talk to more vets. Talk to some Afghani people who know a bit about their own country and the Taliban.

This movie could have been WAY better, but it was sinply "good" as what we've come to expect from Hollywood most of the time. I think it was wasted on misguided and detached production values and sensationalism that can only be provided by limited knowledge and devotion. Had Spielberg made this flick? Might have been an all-time great. And I say MIGHT, because it would be almost impossible to bring the reality and education to the screen that the book was able to portray and provide, and the reality on the ground these men experienced. Why we settle for pop culture education on important matters and historical events as our ONLY education is beyond me. But it seems the American audience wouldn't know the difference if REALITY ran over them in the form of a stampede of horses with a team of US special forces and Afghan militia on their backs. So I guess there's no real hard done, right?

Now I'm not doubting these guys existed or downplaying their killing abilities but that is really all you get.

The basic plot of US special forces/green berets going to Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 and joining up with an Afghan commander (General Dostrum) to defeat the Taliban is simple enough and that bare outline is true enough it would seem.

Left to it's own devices this could have been a worthy testament to the skills of the Americans and a rare chance to focus on the Afghans fighting alongside them and doing the dying, instead we have Hemsworth being, well, Hemsworth, spouting some pretty poor duty and honour dialogue which in some scenes is just cringeworthy. We have no real idea what this guy is about or why his men follow him, similarly with Shannon's grizzled veteran who is obviously placed there as some kind of counter point but his considerable acting abilities are just wasted. As for everyone else, they are just walking through a series of constructs aiming for the pay cheque at the end. The real failure is to recognise who the hell General Dostrum was and his place in modern Afghan history, instead we have a caricature that belongs to a different era of film making.

In terms of the battles it starts well and does at least show that the real battle winner was the ability of these guys to call in massive air support. However in the final battle where we have Hemsworth leading a cavalry charge of Dostrum's men against truck borne rocket launchers "before they reload" is ludicrous these things fire into the sky, they can't be levelled so charge whenever you like. In fact this whole overly long final act is what spoilt the film for me, it is riddled with cliches and inaccuracies; we have Russian BMP's referred to as tanks when they're not, we have actual tanks referred to as T72's when there were no T72's in Afghanistan, we have Hemsworth firing an M4A1 single handed from horse back and hitting everytime including at a guy firing a tank turret machine gun straight at him, the scenes of Hemsworth and co' up close on charging horses are clearly on rigs not horses, really embarrassing and in the aftermath of the battle the amount of destroyed armour littering the field is just way over the top and to some extent devalues the victory.

If you want a bit of flag waving and bonding and stuff blowing up then go for it but there are better films set in this conflict out there.

12 Strong is based on truth and it would seem that in itself goes a long way as it took until a decade later for this story to become known through the book on which it was based. Quite simply it deserves the big screen treatment as it was a first victory in a war which goes on as I write this. The heroism is off the charts as everything changed the minute the 12 dropped in. Importantly the movie gets this point across. If it often seems like a lunatic's gamble as the small group of 12 immediately were split due the lack of trust by the Northern Alliance's war lord. Again the movie pulls no Hollywood bombast in depicting this. It seems like even our supposed allies are so distrustful the operation is doomed. As far as the battle scenes go there's that suspicion it may have received some of the Hollywood action movie push. I say don't over analyze this as it gets the point across of how desperate the situation really was and how focused, disciplined, and well trained our brave 12 were. The bottom line is this is a good homage based on real events and that always hovers large. If it could have been better depicted I'm certainly not sure exactly how as the victory was near impossible and that is captured on film quite realistically. I have nothing but praise for these fearless 12 warriors and I'm proud their story is now displayed for all of us who they put it over the line for. See the film and don't pick it apart, rather, be proud there is another great generation and just be glad we have soldiers like these 12.

The film could have been better if there is a stronger cast and more balance between the action sequences and drama.

But it is true, this really did happen. Obviously the movie makes some artistic, social and political changes but it seems like a mostly faithful retelling of the story.

Now, true story aside, the movie itself was very enjoyable, the actors made believable SF soldiers, the locations, the equipment, everything looked good.

I am so glad that they did not make a Lone Survivor clone, this is a movie that can stand up in it´s own.

Some other reviews here are saying that they are disappointed that it is predictable story. I suppose that they don´t realise that it is a true story, such is the epic and frankly absurd bravery of these men in the field, it´s almost too good to be true.

It´s a great story and it is well told in this movie.