Bombastic Benghazi siege thriller
Print Edition
THE most surprising thing about “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” is how Michael Bay makes 144 minutes pass so quickly.
His excitable camera is always doing something, whether shaking with hand-held authenticity to capture moments in battle or floating through scenes instead of staying static. It gives the entire experience a waterfall effect. This can be a little dizzying but it certainly keeps the energy up when the rounds aren’t firing.
“13 Hours,” which Chuck Hogan adapted from Mitchell Zuckoff’s book, is about many things, but Bay tries to zero in on that moment when those six contract soldiers tried to do the right thing in a difficult situation.
It is neither as grossly gratuitous as Peter Berg’s “Lone Survivor” nor as gripping as Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down.” Instead “13 Hours” is a bombastic, vulgar and often thrilling exercise in red, white and blue machismo that relies too much on romanticized video game aesthetics and corny sentimentality to be a great film.
Bay’s heroes are the brutes — the big, hulking, bearded security guys who know the country and the threats more keenly than anyone.
There’s Jack Silva (John Krasinski), Tyrone “Rone” Woods (James Badge Dale), Kris “Tanto” Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), Dave “Boon” Benton (David Denman), John “Tig” Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), and Mark “Oz” Geist (Max Martini).
But they’re all basically noble bros. Some read Joseph Campbell, some Facetime with their kids and wives, some quote “Tropic Thunder” and all look out for one another.
They tolerate the sniveling condescension of doughy CIA analysts who often remind them that they are only hired help and that he and his fellow agents are the best and the brightest. He even rattles off the names of their Ivy League credentials. It’s ridiculous and over the top, but it sets up Bay’s point — that the soldiers know best and no one else can see as clearly what’s going on in Libya.
They gripe about how things were different in Iraq, where they had a purpose that they understood, they had support in desperate situations, and their compounds were up to standards.
These guys know before anyone that the unofficial consulate housing Ambassador Christopher Stevens (Matt Letscher) just down the road from their base isn’t safe, and that the small security unit at the consulate won’t be able to defend the grounds under attack.
Depending on what you’re looking for, “13 Hours” can function as a decent actioner, a tribute to those who died, an indictment of the power structure, or all three. It’s not a subtle movie, nor is it anywhere close to being as elegant and dread-soaked as something like Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty.”
This movie is a bellowing love letter to the guys on the ground, and it sees them as they probably want to be seen.
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