Michael Bay puts us on the front lines of war in his new film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.
This isn’t Transformers or even Armeggedon, there is nothing Hollywood-ish about this true story that took place four years ago. When Hilary Clinton announced her run for the democratic nomination, Benghazi was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. What wasn’t on their tongue was the six soldiers that saved Americans when America didn’t even come to their rescue. If you are reading this article to learn the story or find out the actors names, you are in the wrong place. I am giving you three reasons why you need to go see this movie TONIGHT!
The Story
3. Pretty self explanatory right? Real life heroes rarely get recognized for their bravery, theres always some commando or higher up who receives the awards. These men fought (and some died) to keep alive Americans and succeeded. The story needed to be told a long time ago. There is no possible training that can prepare you for bombings, lost of limbs, etc. Even when the world trade center twin towers fell, there were some “trained” fire-fighters who decided saving lives were not for them. Facing death is a very scary thing but to volunteer for death is on another level. Their story matters for them, the people they saved, and their families.
Cinematography
2. Definitely Oscar worthy, Bay doesn’t disappoint in this area and neither does the actors. It is rumored that Bay has been wanting to shoot a film like this for sometime and it shows. The quality is impeccable. He places you in the war with his cinematic idiosyncrasies. War isn’t meant to be pretty, so the gruesomeness of the fighting opens our senses to what it means to truly face death and the struggle to survive. Camera angles and slow shots keeps us on the edge of our seat. There are even some comical scenes that float thorough the movie to keep us from figurative experiencing PTSD afterwards.
Truth-Telling
1.If you don’t watch this film for anything else, watch it for its truth telling. The truth-telling is so beautiful in this film that for a moment I thought I was watching a Michael MOORE documentary. I read a couple of reviews on this film that criticized Bay for using the term bad guys many times throughout the movie as abetting anti-American hatred. I totally disagree. Did this film tell the motives of the terrorist? Of course not, why would it? This isn’t their story. However, Bay did show the other side of the grass when at the end those who had loss family members in the battle that took place came to mourn for their dead loved ones. He showed that war isn’t just their side my side. The people of Benghazi lost brothers, husbands, sons, uncles, and nephews as well. Nothing is more painful than burying your dead loved one. He also showed how the people thousands of Benghazi citizens mourned over the dead Americans as well as apologized for the behavior of some of their people. As mentioned earlier, he also showed how American wasn’t the hero, those six soldiers were because no one came to their aid outside of the Tripoli station.
The movie premieres tonight at 7pm! Comment and let me know how you enjoyed it!
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Run Time: 144min
Genres:
Action | Drama | Thriller | War
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for strong combat violence throughout, bloody images, and language