Patterico's Pontifications

1/18/2016

A Non-Review Of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:15 pm



[guest post by Dana]

I have been trying to write a proper review of the new film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, based on the book by Mitchell Zuckoff and screenplay by Chuck Hogan, but have been unable to pull it together. I attribute that to still being overwhelmed by it, as it is quite simply, that fine of a movie. Gripping, harrowing, agonizing, and heroic. It’s all of that and more.

As I sat in the packed theater, I watched the events unfold on screen with a silent dread because I knew I wasn’t just watching a piece of fiction created up by some Hollywood screenwriter, or something based on a true story, but was, in fact, watching the true story of what happened that fateful night in 2012. And I knew how it would end.

Further, knowing how those ultimately responsible for the safety of Ambassador Stevens and the Americans at the CIA compound dodged and lied to the public concerning the attacks, made it that much more difficult to watch.

While the film is not political in the sense that it doesn’t specifically mention Hillary Clinton or President Obama, there are several exchanges between characters that raise the vexing questions we’ve repeatedly asked: Why was there no assistance provided to the team of operators as they tried to save the ambassador and tried to fight off repeated attacks by Al Ansar and Al Qaeda terrorists (and with that, *why was the stand-down order given?)? Why wasn’t there enough security assigned to the ambassador when it was quite obvious his geographical location, and the residence itself, were both extremely unsafe and dangerous? And why were the attacks blamed on a video? The moments were enough to enrage viewers all over again.

Now briefly: the lead characters are superbly brought to life by very skillful actors, especially John Krasinski (Jack Silva) and James Badge Dale (Tyrone ‘Rone’ Woods), who fleshed out their characters so well, both as operators in a very dangerous place and as family men, that as a viewer who already knew the ending, I nonetheless was willing all of them to survive the night so they could make it back home. The surrounding characters are equally well acted, and if an intense loathing of a character is an indicator of acting abilities, David Costabile’s turn as CIA annex chief “Bob” takes the cake.

Everything, from the taut writing, stellar acting, locations, sound, and urgent tempo of the film worked to great effect.

Yesterday on CNN, Jake Tapper asked Hillary Clinton if she planned on seeing the movie. Clinton answered that she was too busy campaigning. But now having watched the movie, I think that no matter how much Clinton keeps trying to convince the American people that she is a serious and worthy candidate, if enough people see the film, there is little doubt that the true story of what happened during those 13 hours of chaos in Benghazi will undoubtedly impact her chances for the presidency. She should be very concerned. Even those generally supportive of Clinton have referred to it as the movie Hillary Clinton doesn’t want you to see. And for good reason.

I think this is an important movie. As someone who was fairly well informed about Benghazi before seeing the movie, and now having watched it play out on the big screen brimming with raw emotion and intense sights and sounds, I can say that it has made everything all the more real and impacting. It sounds silly, but it evoked an emotional response on a different level having a face to go with the name and a serious visual taste of the awfulness of that night. Consider how much more the impact might be to those with just a “network news” level of knowledge about Benghazi. Finally, seeing what really happened contrasted with the claims made by the State Dept. and the White House, one is aghast (all over again) by the outrageous dishonesty. Especially the dishonesty of Hillary Clinton. The woman who wants to be our next president.

I’ll just note, too, that in reading several reviews of 13 Hours from mainstream media outlets, one might suspect there is a move afoot to quickly dismiss the movie and get it out of the public eye as quickly as possible. Now, why do you think that might be??

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
Directed by Michael Bay
Rated R | 144 minutes

Go see it.

*Do not miss David French’s excellent piece on the “stand down order” in Benghazi.

–Dana

61 Responses to “A Non-Review Of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi””

  1. Hello.

    Dana (86e864)

  2. In the famous words of Hillary, “We’ll make sure that whoever was responsible for making this film is arrested and prosecuted!”

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  3. The facts don’t make any sense.

    DNF (755a85)

  4. Clinton comes in at about 45 seconds into this: “… We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with. It is hard for the American people to make sense of that because it is senseless…”

    http://youtu.be/QSooz2wXpes

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  5. I just read this tweet and it speaks my thoughts expressed at the end of this post, albeit in a more direct manner:

    #13Hours is not a film about politics, but the campaign to undermine this excellent film is all about politics.


    Absolutely.

    Dana (86e864)

  6. We saw it tonight. It was terrific. I’ve seen a couple of reviews that complain about it being slow, then too much action,

    The first act, as it were, is setting up two themes. Benghazi was a very dangerous place and these guys were doing this for a living and wanted to get home to their families.

    The action was intense but there were periods of calm that emphasized the fact the relief could have gotten there in time. The mortar rounds that killed the two guys at the Annex were about dawn, nearly 12 hours after the attack began.

    The movie reminded me of two other movies. One was “Proof of Life” that had a similar pace. The other was “Rules of Engagement” which has a similar story. Both, of course, are fiction while this was true.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  7. Mike K,

    Do you think Hillary should be concerned about this film or do you think it won’t touch her due to the hep of a complicit media?

    Dana (86e864)

  8. she’s running against a communist to be the standard bearer of the democrat party, and she still might lose.

    It’s a toss up. Right now her minders are advising her she can’t afford to be concerned about this film.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  9. I remember bursting into stunned tears at the end of United 93. It’s an interesting thing: the difference between what we know to be tragic, and what we see to be human.

    Leviticus (c3e73d)

  10. “We’ll make sure that whoever was responsible for making this film is arrested and prosecuted!”
    We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with”

    The sick criminal and despicable RODHAM is QUOTED in the 2 aforementioned quotes,

    What else is necessary to send this b!tch to HELL??
    I challenge any half wit LIBTARD to comment.

    Gus (7cc192)

  11. Mike K, Dana, and Papertiger, Rodhams “advisors” are themselves ideological hacks. They are also interest in the SPOILS of WAR. They want to WIN, they care NOT about truth, facts, issues or details. Each time Rodham is exposed as the LYING SHREW CRIMINAL that she is, they merely change tactics, and find another WAR…..on wymyn, on children, on Blacks on, homosexuals on Grandma’s or some other GROUP they intend to enlist in their cabal. NONE of this is HONEST. None. None.

    Gus (7cc192)

  12. yeah. Hillary’s a fibber. You need a Chinese hacker cracking her personal server to get a truthful Hillary quote.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  13. Will watch it this Thursday.

    NJRob (a07d2e)

  14. My 23 year old son and I saw it this evening. I would say the pace was perfect. It gave time to get to know the characters and then show the horror of the attack. The scene showing the fighter jets sitting empty at the airport made you think. I believe one part where one of the characters says to another that they were blaming it on a video. The other character says something to the effect as that is nonsense.

    The tenor of the movie could stated that upper management are incompetent idiots and it’s the grunts that get the real work done.

    Tanny O'Haley (c674c7)

  15. bill and his wife should be hanging from a sturdy oak branch

    mg (31009b)

  16. Many have said that the presentation/depiction of the fighting is the most realistic ever, with the possible exception of Saving Private Ryan.

    The message at the end of that movie from the dying captain (Tom Hanks) to “Earn it.” fully applies here. As a polity, or society, if we don’t reject the lies of BHO and HRC resoundingly at the polls this year, we won’t deserve the republic created for us. The recent generations have most definitely not earned it. Of course, this was predicted by Franklin. When asked what they’d created, Franklin said, “A republic…if you can keep it.”

    We’re about to find out.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  17. Saw it last week in NYC. Simply a great movie. Agree with much of the above. The most political it gets is the tone that we have been led done the primrose path by Harvards and Yales form “The Farm” trying to save the world with some new utopian ideal. The Jack Disilva (Krasinski) character tells “Bob” (Costabile) to paraphrase, enough of you attempting to save the 3rd world with your mispalaced idealism, because it will only lead to more good military men getting killed pointlessly.

    Costabile should get an award for best douchebag-perhaps the WIlliam Atheton Award (Ghostbusters. Die Hard). He does it again here, as he did in Breaking Bad and The Wire.

    Bugg (fa64ec)

  18. So you’re saying this movie made you angry at Hillary? This is why Hillary has overturning Citizen’s United on her to-do list. How dare anyone suggest the First Amendment allows for criticizing a government official? (Or at least criticizing Hillary – but perhaps in her mind the issue isn’t so much defamation of character as blasphemy.)

    Jerryskids (3308c1)

  19. do you think it won’t touch her due to the hep of a complicit media?

    I don’t know. I suspect that, as long as she seems to have a realistic chance to get elected, fear will dominate the people who know her. If she really slips, we will see a flood of revisionist writing. The Clintons are feared and I have even seen a few references to Vince Foster on the left.

    The MSM are in her camp until she fails, then they will eat her alive. Jackals are a pack until one is wounded. Then the pack eats the wounded one alive.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  20. Notice the Obama Administration is suddenly out to silence former CIA chief, General Petraeus, threatening a retro-active demotion, potentially costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of his retirement.

    Now, ask yourself what information Petraeus might have that Obama, Hillary, Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, Eric Holder, et al are so desperate to keep out of the public arena.

    Hint: it just might be a little bit related to the pre-attack activities at the CIA Annex in Benghazi, the systematic withdrawal of American security forces at the so-called Diplomatic outpost, the continuing dismissal of the Ambassador’s increasingly robust requests for additional security, the sudden in-flight rerouting of the Ambassador’s plane from a planned landing in Tripoli to Benghazi instead – on the eve of September 11th no less, and the provenance of the disputed stand down order the CIA station chief at the Annex attempted to enforce.

    Now, throw in the Administration’s ongoing refusal to identify the physical location and real time activities of the Commander-in-Chief on that fateful night, Hillary’s bald faced lies to the parents of the fallen Americans, and Susan Rice’s parade of disgraceful fabrications on national TV.

    Make of it what you will, but remember You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

    ropelight (86edb7)

  21. ropelight, we’ve had our minor differences, but what the h3ll?

    This country is on the verge of electing a woman who belongs in prison. And the people who
    want to vote for her don’t care.

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/the-views-joy-behar-id-vote-for-a-rapist-as-long-as-theyre-liberal

    Echoes of Nina Burleigh, NPR and Time contributor, speaking of Bill Clinton.

    “I’d be happy to give him [oral sex] just to thank him for keeping abortion legal.”

    They’d effin’ vote for her is she was wearing an ankle bracelet.

    Meanwhile I’m the bad guy. Because I don’t want to see aphrael tossed off a building. Which
    requires making the hard choice. No gay marriage. You want to see aphrael tossed off a building outsource the production of your replacement next-generation to Syria or Iraq.

    I’m the bad guy because I didn’t want to see mass rape in Tahrir square let alone Cologne.

    Does anyone want me to link to the video of women who were eventually rescued from the crowd bleeding from their rectums?

    Didn’t think so.

    Fine. Hopefully someday I’ll make the headlines of the NYT as the most hated man in America.

    But it’s a sorry (expletive deleted) day.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  22. This is presentable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imkhyFhpl3I

    Sex attacks against women in Tahrir Square alarm rights groups

    Now, in an IKEA near you.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  23. “Meanwhile I’m the bad guy. Because I don’t want to see aphrael tossed off a building. Which
    requires making the hard choice. No gay marriage. You want to see aphrael tossed off a building outsource the production of your replacement next-generation to Syria or Iraq.”

    – Steve57

    You are so weird, dude. Why in the world did you need to name aphrael in that comment? Couldn’t get your point across any other way?

    Leviticus (efada1)

  24. The Hildebeest doesn’t need to see the movie. She lived it–and she lied about it.

    Comanche Voter (1d5c8b)

  25. Leviticus @23, no my point couldn’t get across any other way.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  26. It had to be made personal.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  27. Jealous, Levi?

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  28. This is the same “weirdness” that must be brought to bear against those who would seek to exploit the the children of Sandy Hook, by bringing together faces and names of those who weren’t killed because they defended themselves.

    To name but one example.

    But really, what’s your point, Leviticus? You think those guys accused of being gay that ISIS tossed off buildings didn’t have names?

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  29. I’m that weird. They had names.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  30. I know consider the source, but where they poached boehlert from, for being a salafi apologist,

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/19/salon-rubios-disqualified-because-of-his-bizarre-religious-faith-catholicism/

    narciso (732bc0)

  31. http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/anti-gay-anti-alcohol-londons-sharia-patrol/

    I mentioned a name because, how would you like it, if it were somebody you knew.

    I wouldn’t like it. And neither would you, Leviticus.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  32. Steve, you’re a great American, a little long winded at times, but altogether a solid guy with his head screwed on straight. I don’t know you well enough to let you hold my wallet, but along with Hoagie you’re one of the guys I’d feel comfortable with armed and far from civilization.

    You’re one of the good guys. I’ll take my oath on it.

    ropelight (86edb7)

  33. don’t worry i’m a catch him

    happyfeet (831175)

  34. Cue Gil…

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  35. ropelight, you can trust me with your wallet because I haven’t figured out the mysteries of credit card fraud.

    So I can only steal what cash you have on hand.

    And if I’m long winded, it’s because I developed it as a bad habit to keep everybody else on
    midwatch awake. You’ll notice I never surrendered any boats to the Iranians (WTH?!!?).

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  36. By the way, I think I ran across Satan during a working visit in Olongapo.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  37. Greetings:

    Forget it folks, nobody reads, never mind teaches, Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim” amy more.

    And speaking of movies, let’s play this Oscar game: If I win, I earned it, and If I lose, it’s racism.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  38. As Abe Lincoln famously stated, “A tavern divided against itself cannot stand!”

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  39. Satan is holding my liver hostage, if I have things right.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  40. Cue Gil…

    felipe (b5e0f4) — 1/19/2016 @ 8:55 am

    Yes, and please use a leaded one with a vigorous, thrashing motion

    Colonel Haiku (aacf41)

  41. Steve57:

    That’s a salient insight. With a name, most people would find it difficult, and perhaps impossible, to throw Tom off the roof, or to abort Michelle. Familiarity engenders empathy.

    n.n (30eee9)

  42. … and assigning names breeds familiarity.

    n.n (30eee9)

  43. Tahrir Square… women who were eventually rescued from the crowd bleeding from their rectums

    They use rectal intrusion to dominate and humiliate their male and female opponents. And to think, this aggressive, destructive behavior coexisted with the fanfare and celebration of the social justice movement “Arab Spring”. Something similar happened in Benghazi to the natives and Americans alike.

    n.n (30eee9)

  44. Apparently, you must keep their necks underneath your boot or they will be at your throat ass???

    Colonel Haiku (aacf41)

  45. By the way, I think I ran across Satan during a working visit in Olongapo.

    Must have gone South for a visit to Davy Jones. Satan lives on the Eastern slope of Mount Pinatubo where he can keep an eye on Angeles City and Clark Field.

    ropelight (86edb7)

  46. That’s why I need you to stick around, ropelight.

    To remind me of stuff.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  47. If that doesn’t sink that scow, what will?!?!

    Colonel Haiku (aacf41)

  48. Well,
    We may want to be careful what we wish for.
    I would have preferred all of this to come out 8 months from now.
    If she is pushed out too soon, there will be a replacement.

    MD in Philly (not in Philly) (deca84)

  49. You learn something new every day.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx1zYCYQu6w

    Royal Australian Navy frigate ANZAC Breakaway song

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YybLOFKPwfM

    emergency break away U.S. Navy ship USS Mitscher

    Here I was thinking all this time it was an emergency breakaway song. When traditionally it wasn’t just for emergencies.

    Do I feel stupid or what?

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  50. Can someone look at that picture and identify a remotely fired mast mounted .50 cal. I don’t see it.

    I just need confirmation it’s not there.

    Then maybe I can move on with my life.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  51. narciso?

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  52. It would look something like this.

    http://i.imgur.com/OEqRW9H.jpg

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  53. Thanks for the link, narciso.

    …North of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, the offshore Saudi islands make it necessary for a transiting pair like the Navy boats to pass through Saudi waters for some distance (between 15 and 25 nautical miles, it appears, depending on route), in order to get from international waters northwest of the islands to the Manama, Bahrain approach on the other side…

    These boats wouldn’t threaten Saudi national security by any stretch and if we were enthusiasts could have been refueled in a Saudi port.

    Not buying any of it.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  54. Enthusiasts about national security, that is, maybe not leaving sailors out to dry on the short end of a stick.

    Steve57 (f61b03)

  55. So you’re saying this movie made you angry at Hillary? This is why Hillary has overturning Citizen’s United on her to-do list. How dare anyone suggest the First Amendment allows for criticizing a government official? (Or at least criticizing Hillary – but perhaps in her mind the issue isn’t so much defamation of character as blasphemy.)

    Jerryskids (3308c1) — 1/19/2016 @ 5:21 am

    No. The movie never mentions Hillary Clinton. My dislike for Hillary comes from her serial lying, abusive treatment of others, and belief that her policies are bad for the United States.

    Tanny O'Haley (c674c7)

  56. How about a movie about the 4,000+ americans he got killed in iraq.

    xeke (da8355)


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