13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

This was a GOOD movie that IS theater worthy

            For my first movie viewing of the year I was quite pleased as it was a major hit! Based off the book that’s based on the actual Benghazi incident that took place on 9/11 in 2011, this film is about 6 military warriors defending a secret CIA post. After an American embassy was raided and destroyed, with an American ambassador along with it, these 6 warriors set out to find and protect all that they could. Upon returning to the CIA headquarters they must fortify and defend until help arrives. Unfortunately for them, help doesn’t arrive for quite some time. Whether it’s too late or not is something you’ll have to see for yourself . . . unless you’ve kept up with the news and all.

            Now, there are 3 different points to this movie that stand out among the rest. Yes the action was intense and amazing, the acting was indeed superb, and since this is based off the dramatic true story then you can’t really find any better writing. After all, life always seems to be the greatest author!

            The first point that stood out was the action. Not it’s intensity but it’s pace. It didn’t have the pace that I was expecting from such a movie. Now, don’t misinterpret this, because I loved the action and the pace was fine. It’s just, I was expecting a 0-60, no holds barred, grasping on the handlebars as the ride tries to rip you off the seat kind of pace. That’s what I think most of us have come to expect from military films set in modern day fights and that’s all really due to Hollywood and them over dramatizing everything . . . including the action. To give you some perspective I’d say that the pace was faster than Behind Enemy Lines (Owen Wilson, 2001), but slower, in pace mind you, than Black Hawk Down (Josh Hartnett, 2001). It feels like Michael Bay grounded the action in reality, made it feel more real, more true to life, and I for one enjoyed that. Especially considering the true story the film is presenting. But it isn’t all due to Michael Bay of course. Everyone working production and talent came together to make this military marvel of a movie, but there were 3 men, 3 in particular, who weren’t production or talent but possibly more important to unique outcome of this film.

           The second point has to do with three men who worked on this film as consultants, or as their technical title says, “technical advisors”. Consultants are important to films like this. Films not only based in reality but films that are based off of important real life events. These are what can really ground a film in reality for a unique experience. To have consultants that were actually involved in the incident that the movie portrays is absolutely crucial in making it the filming experience that it is meant to be. Doing this these men were able to go along every step of the way and make sure that everything was legitimized to its full extent. Whenever an actor had a question, these men would have an answer, or

if the cinematographer or camera men needed help then they got it. Whenever anyone had a question of what anything looked like, felt like, smelled like, these men were the only ones in the world who could tell them exactly what they needed to know. When Hollywood doesn’t know something when it comes to a film based off a real life event then they get “creative”. When Hollywood gets creative they can get sloppy or bad, sometimes get lucky and successfully continue the story, but no matter what the one constant is that that feeling of reality is shed little by little. Because these men were here Hollywood didn’t have to be “creative” . . . which was possibly the most important aspect of this film.

            My last point has to do with the absence of politics in the film. This is very important because this is first and foremost an amazing story showing the sheer bravery of 6 Americans in their fight for survival and service. What many people would assume, mostly those who have kept up with politics as of late, is that there would be a lot of talk about, or at least mere mention of, Hillary Clinton. With her being the Secretary of State at the time of the incident it was put forth that she may have been ultimately responsible for the incident. Not directly, but indirectly. With her ignoring these American posts in Benghazi when they asked for more security, with the total inaction when the incident was taking place, and with her saying it was because of some video that surfaced instead of it just being angry terrorist who saw an opportunity she has been interviewed, accused, and most recently was seen by an official hearing in Washington to try and get to the bottom of the incident. All of this while she is also trying to run for President. Why this movie was seen as controversial by liberals or democrats, especially by Hillary, is because it seemed that the controversy of this incident was beginning to dissipate into the back of the public’s mind but now due to this movie the focus on this incident, and Hillary’s involvement, is in as much focus as ever before. She claims that this movie was made and released to try and ruin her chances of becoming the President while the real life men who were consultants for the film, their families, and most of those involved in the production professed that it was just a movie telling a great American story and had no political ambitions.

            Now some of you may scream “BULLSHIT”, and that’s your right, but based off of 2 points of logic I must agree with the latter. For one, there wasn’t one mention, not once throughout the whole film, of Hillary Clinton, her office, or anything of the sort. All that was mentioned, and only once, was the video made which everything was blamed on. That tells me that while this may in fact have political implications that isn’t the films concern. It is just there to tell a story. If that story disrupts someone’s chances of becoming the most powerful person in the world then you know what . . . maybe they shouldn’t BE the most powerful person in the world. And secondly, it’s a well-known and accepted fact that Hollywood is almost completely liberal. So tell me, why would the most powerful liberal tool at Democrats disposal send one of their go-to directors to direct a film, and then release it, when it could do the most damage to their foremost hope at another chance for the White House? They wouldn’t. So no, this wasn’t some republican agenda, it’s not politically driven, it is simply a film telling a story!