13 HOURS: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi…a movie review by Toni Susskind

 Email this story

Print

2 Comments

Directed by Michael Bay of Transformers fame, 13 hours attempts to retell the attack on a visiting US diplomat and a CIA compound that did not officially exist in Libya in 2012.The fast paced tone of the movie is set from the start, when the narrator explains that Benghazi Libya is the most dangerous place on Earth and the film is a retelling of true events.

Unfortunately Bay focuses purely on a retelling of the violence, rather than explaining why it occurred. As a result, the Libyan Militia and allied soldiers are portrayed in strictly two-dimensional terms, with no attempt at building depth or character analysis.

There is a greater attempt at fleshing out the roles of the Americans, with a focus on the 6 ex Navy Seals who are hired to protect the CIA compound, specifically John Krasinski as a war veteran who returns to the conflict for the 12^th time. However, as much as he tries, Bay still fails to create anything more than partially evolved characters.

The result is that 13 hours is a “Holywoodised” movie. It often falls back onto the standard “us versus them” mentality and leaves the audience wondering whether the film is striving to describe a conflict, or entertain its audience with patriotic violence.

If taken as face value, 13 hours is an enjoyable, shoot ’em up bad guys versus good guys movie. The Americans are the cowboys, whilst the Libyans are the Indians. No need to understand why.

Rating –R 

Run Time- 2 hours, 24 minutes

Release date- 25/2/16

Rating  3.5/5