13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Review By: John Delia

After seeing the film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi my feelings for the incident could be summed up as unnerving, unthinkable, unnecessary and horrifying. The reenactment presentation of the true story material becomes so real that it mystifies watching our embassy and military outpost get helplessly attacked. Not for the faint of heart, this movie makes you want to scream “Why?!’ and “What were we doing there?!” in, what the movie declares, is the number one world hot spot in the world?

Director Michael Bay takes us into the middle of Libya in the city of Benghazi where the audience finds Jack Silva (John Krasinski), an ex-Marine, arriving at the airport. Now working as a contract bodyguard attached to the CIA along with five others, his assignment seems to be without too much danger. Watching over intelligence gatherers (US Spies) as they meet with Islamic militant insiders he notices a lot of suspicious activity.

Weeks have gone by and with the arrival of the US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher), the locals are chanting to get his attention outside the gates of the US Embassy. In a matter of minutes Islamic militants storm the gates in an attempt to get to Sevens. Turning up the violence, Director Bay shows the easy takeover of the defenseless embassy with its undermanned security guards and waste high walls. It’s no match for the heavily armed militants who are hell bent on getting to the Ambassador.

He shows the nearby Chief of Staff at a CIA Annex not taking a stand to try and save the embassy as he doesn’t have the “authority” to send any of his trained security. The six ex-military are at odds with the Chief over his power as he tells them to stand down. When they spot a fire breaking out at the embassy, the six Annex Security Team decide to go in without permission.

The firefight between the Security Team and the Islamic Militants gets so intense that you can feel the bullets whizzing by, ordinance exploding all around and RPG missals taking down walls. If anyone knows how to ramp up a war scene, it’s Michael Bay and in 13 Hours he explodes enough gun powder that it could be considered a mini war! He uses special effects, make-up and prostheses to show the effects of the combat on both sides of the conflict. And in the finale, Bay turns up the heat even more in a relentless raid that rival’s Black Hawk Down.

A point of interest: Most people will walk out of the theater in a trance because of what they just watched. A good majority will have felt the pain and abandonment by our nation during this travesty. Some may even feel it’s just entertainment and rightly so. There are many unanswered questions brought up by the film, especially about how the invasion of the consulate was so easy. Then the way the CIA Chief was saddled with not being able to take charge and deciding to stand down when the embassy was being attacked. Pleading for help, a CIA operative gets turned down by our nearest military forces. Finally, our Federal Government’s lack of involvement in the whole situation even as a drone passes above the conflict. And here’s the kicker: “U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, as well as foreign embassies and consulates in the United States, have a special status. While diplomatic spaces remain the territory of the host state, an embassy or consulate represents a sovereign state. International rules do not allow representatives of the host country to enter an embassy without permission –even to put out a fire — and designate an attack on an embassy as an attack on the country it represents”.

http://diplomacy.state.gov/discoverdiplomacy/diplomacy101/places/170537.htm.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi has been rated R by the MPAA for strong combat violence throughout, bloody images, and language. Be very cautious when deciding to allow immature teens see the film as it does scenes that are inappropriate for adolescents.

FINAL ANALYSIS: One of the better depictions of a true story in many years. (A)