12 Strong features Chris Hemsworth as an American soldier riding a horse in the Afghan desert. Cowboys in the modern Middle East? Sounds absurd? Wait until you see him maneuvering with horses to fight tanks and missile launchers. Not to mention the fact that his troops lost much on an almost impossible scale; 12 people against thousands of people, he said. This is the only unconventional aspect of 12 Strong .
The rest of this film plays like a very old-fashioned war movie. This type of war movie which, if released for the past three or four decades, will be just like that with his era; the standard premise of almost all the old school action films that the champion is the team, including the cowboy movie as well. The conflict is simple: [champion team name] plunge into [battlefield] against [enemy hordes], without any weight in the middle. The focus is just war. Is the enemy eventually conquered? Is there a possibility of our hero losing? You know better.
It may be a cowboy film with modern artillery.
Interestingly, the only fresh touch on top turns from a true story. Correct. American soldiers once fought with horses. Not for the cool-kerenan, but as a form of adaptation of territories that they have never met. But about cool, yes too. After the 9/11 tragedy, America intends to muzzle al-Qaeda suspected of being responsible for the tragedy. But they do not know what they are dealing with. So at that time, sending 12 soldiers from a special unit was judged to be the right choice.
So how can we just hear this amazing real story? The reason is because this operation is a super secret mission. Even a high-ranking military officer ( William Fichtner ) says there will be no prizes or parades when these heroes return home. However, many years later, the government built a special monument for them at the site of the tragedy of 9/11. The story is summarized by Doug Stanton into a book that later became material for this film
My review will not reflect my views on the political or relational perspective of the film. The film is obviously made by Americans to chlorinate America, so let's not debate which party is right or wrong, kuy? We are positioned to see from the side of the hero, where all the enemies are purely evil - there is a scene where Al-Qaeda members torture two girls, just because they learn to read. The film is not interested in discussing the complexities and implications of war. The purpose of the film is to give an idea of the struggles of American heroes, so I try not to get out of context.
Hemsworth plays Captain Mitch, a mission leader who is anxious to take up arms even though he has never been directly on the battlefield. His team was assigned to establish contacts with the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan commanded by General Dostum ( Navis Negahban ), who both wanted to crush Al-Qaeda. Among Mitch's team members, there is Vice Captain Hal ( Michael Shannon ) who has eaten a lot of war salts. Then there are figures played by Michael Pena and Trevante Rhodes .
Regarding the movie with the formulaik premise, we feel like we've seen it somewhere, so with a duration of 130 minutes, the film seemed long-lasting. Of course, there will be scenes where the wives ngedumel against their husband's dangerous mission or a session vent between our heroes who reveal their personal reasons for war. While some films use it to build dramas, 12 Strong is not as successful as its character does not evolve from just a stock character.
These 12 people are not facing away against thousands of Al Qaeda troops. Their mission is actually simpler than I imagined before watching: setting targets. Together with Dostum troops, they must take over one of the villages that became the base of the Taliban. For that, they get help in the form of bombers. But in order not to miss, the target coordinates must be obtained directly on land, which is the task of Mitch et al. You already know that in the movie, there is no such thing as a simple mission.
As a film selling patriotism in war packaging, 12 Strong presents a spectacle full of adrenaline. His war sequences were worked out intently and explosively by debutant director Nicolai Fuglsig . While in war mode, the scenes are full of explosions and bullet scattering. Thank goodness the war was in the middle of the desert, so they could shoot machine guns or launch missiles freely as if they were playing video games.
Despite the title of "12 Strong", in fact this film focuses on the character of Hemsworth, with no significant effort to manifest 11 other figures. Like his character, Hemsworth plays straight against his role. There was little attempt to flick the sentimentality of war through Mitch's character, but the movie did not give us a chance to feel it. One rather complex character may be the Dostum who sees America not as a partner but a temporary ally who happens to have the same enemy.
This movie is about a simple war, with minimal stakes . If to describe the war of Afghanistan, it is not enough. Well, if to give tribute to 12 tough soldiers who became his subject, he is also not quite enough, the thing is actually quite unfortunate (this is a movie about them tho?). What he managed to do was to give tribute to American heroism in general. Points for America.