12 Strong (C+ or 2/4 stars)
In the mood for a patriotic, heroic American war tale, then you can check out the well-intentioned, if only so-so/average '12 Strong' (based on a true-events book titled Horse Soldiers & directed by Danish photojournalist, Nicolai Fuglsig). In '12 Strong', the Green Beret Operational Detachment Alpha 595, a Special Forces unit of 12 Americans is sent to northern Afghanistan right after the attacks on 9/11 to assist a Northern Alliance general (Naveed Negahban) & his tribal warriors. This American team includes Capt. Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth, that's Thor to you), Chief Warrant officer Cal Spencer (good 'ole Michael Shannon), Sgt. 1st Class Sam Diller (Michael Pena), & Ben Milo (Trevante Rhodes, so good in last yr.'s Moonlight).
Their extensive objective is to aid in taking the Taliban stronghold city of Mazar-i-Sharif within 3 weeks before the winter snows strike. To execute this, they must overcome distrust btwn. them & the general and navigate tricky terrain in which horses are the most feasible form of travel. And so, we follow these men on horseback across 40 miles of Taliban-controlled territory to liberate small villages and defeat Al Qaeda at all costs. Drama & action ensue.
There's very little that's bad about '12 Strong'. Having said that, this war movie manages to be patriotic while barely scratching the surface of the complexities of our involvement in Afghanistan, or the disillusionment that these men face in the aftermath of their heroism. The director & writers do a fine job establishing what these soldiers have at stake back at home, but the films focus is on the (on-going, generic) action & their joint experience in Afghanistan, rather than on deep characterizations or thematic heft. Fortunately, this film has a solid cast, led by Chris Hemsworth, the always-interesting Michael Shannon, and amiable Michael Peña. That said, the script doesn't do nearly enough to make us care about them as individuals with specific personalities. I was probably most affected by Trevante Rhodes who has a tender subplot with a young Afghan boy.
The action is staged well; the proceedings move along at a semi-decent clip; and the film is easy enough to follow. One other aspect I respected is that although it's easy for films of this ilk to fall into the extreme patriotism trap, '12 Strong' avoids painting the Americans as all-saintly or that all the Afghans were bad/disposable. Don't get me wrong, we certainly see the horrors of the Taliban regime ... but there are many shades of black & white in war and, we see those here, too.
But like I said earlier, there's nothing truly special about the movie. There's no lasting impression. It does its job ... but is that enough? I've seen countless movies like this & nothing truly stands-out for me from any of the rest. It's the same type of proud, anguish-filled characters saying the same type of things over in the Middle East; and its all broken up by the same type of images with the same type of color palette in the same type of rocky topography with the same type of action that clogs up the screen and makes me want to nod off to sleep. The redundancy of these war movie tropes gets to be exhausting. Hell, give me more horses! The story involving these horses is so intriguing, yet the film barely highlights that component of the story. Ultimately, despite the good intentions, & decent acting, '12 Strong' is not absorbing, and only little more than competent.
Their extensive objective is to aid in taking the Taliban stronghold city of Mazar-i-Sharif within 3 weeks before the winter snows strike. To execute this, they must overcome distrust btwn. them & the general and navigate tricky terrain in which horses are the most feasible form of travel. And so, we follow these men on horseback across 40 miles of Taliban-controlled territory to liberate small villages and defeat Al Qaeda at all costs. Drama & action ensue.
There's very little that's bad about '12 Strong'. Having said that, this war movie manages to be patriotic while barely scratching the surface of the complexities of our involvement in Afghanistan, or the disillusionment that these men face in the aftermath of their heroism. The director & writers do a fine job establishing what these soldiers have at stake back at home, but the films focus is on the (on-going, generic) action & their joint experience in Afghanistan, rather than on deep characterizations or thematic heft. Fortunately, this film has a solid cast, led by Chris Hemsworth, the always-interesting Michael Shannon, and amiable Michael Peña. That said, the script doesn't do nearly enough to make us care about them as individuals with specific personalities. I was probably most affected by Trevante Rhodes who has a tender subplot with a young Afghan boy.
The action is staged well; the proceedings move along at a semi-decent clip; and the film is easy enough to follow. One other aspect I respected is that although it's easy for films of this ilk to fall into the extreme patriotism trap, '12 Strong' avoids painting the Americans as all-saintly or that all the Afghans were bad/disposable. Don't get me wrong, we certainly see the horrors of the Taliban regime ... but there are many shades of black & white in war and, we see those here, too.
But like I said earlier, there's nothing truly special about the movie. There's no lasting impression. It does its job ... but is that enough? I've seen countless movies like this & nothing truly stands-out for me from any of the rest. It's the same type of proud, anguish-filled characters saying the same type of things over in the Middle East; and its all broken up by the same type of images with the same type of color palette in the same type of rocky topography with the same type of action that clogs up the screen and makes me want to nod off to sleep. The redundancy of these war movie tropes gets to be exhausting. Hell, give me more horses! The story involving these horses is so intriguing, yet the film barely highlights that component of the story. Ultimately, despite the good intentions, & decent acting, '12 Strong' is not absorbing, and only little more than competent.