Every time I see something for 13 Hours, I have to remind myself that this is a Michael Bay movie. Sure the Baysplosion Master is well known for his almost pornographic love of the US military in his movies, but those slow-mo shots of choppers in front of sunsets are usually either preceded or followed by exploding robots or vapid mannequin-like actresses or even vapid mannequin-like actresses that turn into exploding robots.
But what we have here is actually a true-story military drama, with a solid cast of actors who can actually, y’know, act. The film, whose recently revealed (mouth)full title is 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, was adapted by Chuck Hogan (The Town) from Mitchell Zuckoff’s novel. Here’s the blurb for the novel:
“13 Hours” presents, for the first time ever, the true account of the events of September 11, 2012, when terrorists attacked the US State Department Special Mission Compound and a nearby CIA station called the Annex in Benghazi, Libya. A team of six American security operators fought to repel the attackers and protect the Americans stationed there. Those men went beyond the call of duty, performing extraordinary acts of courage and heroism, to avert tragedy on a much larger scale. This is their personal account, never before told, of what happened during the thirteen hours of that now-infamous attack.
“Those men went beyond the call of duty, performing extraordinary acts of courage and heroism, to avert tragedy on a much larger scale”. Okay, I take it back, this sounds exactly like your typical flag-waving Michael Bay movie. And there’s no denying all the Bayisms in play in a pair of new trailers – red-band and green-band versions – that have just been released. I mean, just because it’s based on a true story, doesn’t mean it can’t be crazy. Or have BWAAAAAP!!! sounds. Check them out below.
Huh. While I expect this movie to be about as subtle as, well, the image of people literally shooting up the American flag, I can’t deny that I kind of want to watch that. Yes, I know it’s going to be wall to wall jingoism, but it also looks kind of exciting in places. Also, I will watch virtually anything with James Badge Dale in it.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi also stars Pablo Schreiber, John Krasinski, David Denman, Max Martini and Dominic Fumusa. It’s out in US theaters on January 15, 2016.
Last Updated: November 5, 2015
Rock789
November 5, 2015 at 16:22
Still think it looks good… Wanna check it out when it’s released.