13 HOURS - THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI
Cert 15
144 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong injury detail, strong language, strong violence
"When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right," extols the publicity poster for 13 Hours,
But when the typical American rah-rah-rah-ing stops, the question left hanging is whether they should have been in Libya in the first place.
Michael Bay's film does have a flicker of moral indignation but is essentially a movie which champions the heroism of a special security outfit which was assigned to Benghazi in the wake of the removal from power of Colonel Gaddafi.
The unit was faced with fending off scores of marauding Libyans who attacked two US compounds in the lawless city.
John Krasinski plays one of the men who is torn between his family back home and his work abroad.
By the way, we should remember that each of the men on his detail is a paid sub-contractor. They are not regular members of the Armed Forces.
In other words it is their choice to be in a conflict zone and that would be driven by their high wages.
Anyway, James Badge Dale, Pablo Schreiber and Max Martini join Krasinski as members of the unit which is employed to watch the back of undercover CIA operatives.
Their brief is then extended when the American ambassador to Libya arrives, sparking their worst nightmare.
The battle scenes are Bay at his best. I felt myself flinching as gunfire seemed to be ricocheting around the cinema.
And, while it is not top of his agenda, Bay does try to address the "what are we fighting for?" question.
My problem with 13 Hours is the heavy manner in which the Americans' cute families back home are juxtaposed with the Libyan hell-hole.
If the film-makers felt this was so important they needed to dig deeper into the psyche of the security officers to find why they were doing what they were. Remember, they were not conscripts.
I left the cinema torn on my thoughts about 13 Hours. As an action movie it is intense and exciting but it falls into too many cliches to challenge the better pictures currently on release.
Reasons to watch: its intense battle scenes
Reasons to avoid: its unnecessarily Islamophobia
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: yes
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7/10
Star Tweet
John Krasinski Can't thank everyone enough who saw #13hours today for their kind kind words. It means the world.