13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)

★★★★
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is the kind of movie I want to see Michael Bay make more often. I don't mean he should make more war movies, but rather he should commit to showing respect for the subject matter and audience first, and then deploy the kind of dizzying action scenes on which he has built his reputation. He is certainly capable of it. He made the excellent The Rock early in his career, and the more recent (and grounded) Pain & Gain showed what he could accomplish if he just focused on the story and didn't succumb to his bad habits. He does that more often than not. Pearl Harbor was as bloated as it was overly sentimental, and his five entries of the Transformers franchise are mind-numbingly stupid. I walked into this movie—based on the true story of the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya—knowing full well how much Bay could botch this up, and I was stunned by how well he handles the story, the action and the characters. Just imagine how much better Pearl Harbor could have been if he had brought the same level of commitment to that story as he did here.

The movie is based on the book 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff. The book meticulously covers the history of the region and the events surrounding the siege on the C.I.A. annex that was located one mile away from the consulate, where U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and I.T. expert Sean Smith were killed during an attack by local militants. Author Zuckoff walks us through the entire ordeal. He introduces us to the personnel involved and describes their actions before, during and after the siege. We get a quick primer on the history of Benghazi and the effects of dictator Muammar Gaddafi's policies in the region. It's an engrossing book and makes the perfect companion piece to the movie. In the end, over twenty C.I.A. staffers made it out alive thanks to the heroic efforts of the security contractors tasked with guarding the annex. Michael Bay masterfully directs this tale with the same kind of precision that Ridley Scott brought to Black Hawk Down.

The C.I.A. annex's mission is to track and prevent the sale of weapons that were formerly held in the armory of Gaddafi, who was assassinated the year before following 40+ years of rule. A detachment of G.R.S. operators guards the annex, though the unnamed base chief who goes by "Bob" (David Costabile) sees the men as a nuisance rather than an asset. The operators are all former military Special Forces members. As the movie opens, the newest arrival, Jack Silva (John Krasinski), arrives at the airport and is greeted by friend Tyron Woods (James Badge Dale), who leads the operators and introduces him to the mean streets of Benghazi. Back at the annex, Jack meets the other members: Mark Geist (Max Martini), John Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), Kris Paronto (Pablo Schreiber) and Dave Benton (David Denman). Another member, Glen Doherty (Toby Stephens), works at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli and will play a crucial role later as the attack on the consulate and annex gets underway. The consulate is located in what was then one of the most dangerous places in the world, yet the ambassador was willing to travel there for a series of meetings. He was what Zuckoff described as a workhorse.

On September 11, 2012, while the ambassador (Matt Letscher) is staying at the consulate with his own security detail, the attack commences. Hundreds of militants storm the compound and trap everyone inside. The call goes out to the annex, and the operators have to defy orders from "Bob" to come to the rescue. What follows is a series of confrontations that culminate into a standoff between the annex and the militants over a very long night. Bay's direction reaches what I believe is the apex of his career. With a sure hand and a skillful adherence to time and place, the director simultaneously captures the situation on the ground and the efforts of those far away who are coordinating rescue attempts and staging military assets to be deployed when given the word, which never comes for reasons not covered here but debated on news programs in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Bay doesn't jump into that fight. He focuses instead on the fight in and around the annex, faithfully recreating the battle with all the blood, sweat and tears that went with it.

I've read reviews complaining that the operators have largely indistinguishable personalities. Now, there are movies where featuring distinguishable personalities is necessary, but 13 Hours is not one of them. It certainly isn't needed in the heat of battle. That said, the men receive plenty of individual screen time to give us an idea of who they are. This is important, because once the fighting starts, they are decked out in body armor and carrying high-tech weaponry into the night. Their gruff voices and steely eyes are their most noticeable features, yet we have a good sense of who's who because of the little details. Tiegen is the only one who wears glasses. Benton has the thickest beard. Once we get our bearings, we can follow the action and decipher Bay’s camera angles and fast cuts with little effort. For a change, Bay uses the soundtrack to complement the action instead of using it to overwhelm us, and he ditches his misplaced attempts at humor for a grounded approach. His change in tactics clearly stems from his admiration for the G.R.S. operators and what they did to protect the C.I.A. annex, proving that even he knows when to roll up his sleeves and treat the material with respect.

There was a time when I thought Michael Bay was the perfect director to helm Transformers...until I saw it. Now, I can confidently say that Michael Bay was the perfect director to helm 13 Hours. He finally took all the tools at his disposal and put them to good use. The actors playing the G.R.S. operators are spot on accurate in their portrayal of seasoned Special Forces veterans. We see this in their approach to the consulate and later when the action moves to the annex rooftops. The way they move and recite dialogue is about as authentic as it gets, showing how much care everyone put into this story’s development. The situation outside the annex walls is tense, but the same level of intensity plays out inside. C.I.A. staffers quickly destroy sensitive information. "Bob" orders base destruction procedures with a clear vision of the task at hand and motivates his team like an inspirational leader. The truth behind his actions is murky. Did he order the stand-down that delayed the operators' departure from the annex to save Ambassador Stevens? Bay makes it clear that he did, though the real chief denies it.

What cannot be denied is Bay's electrifying direction of Chuck Hogan's script, which was adapted from Zuckoff's book. For now, Bay is done making those Transformers movies, and with the success of the post-Bay Bumblebee, I think the franchise will do just fine without him. It could hardly get worse. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi closes with an epilogue detailing the fates of the surviving G.R.S. operators and honors the fallen members. These final minutes contain more poignancy than the entirety of Pearl Harbor, another sign of Bay's gigantic leap forward. Whether he keeps leaping forward is up to him, but with this adaptation he demonstrates the capacity to make a movie without hammering the audience with an incomprehensible visual assault on the senses. 13 Hours is a tale of heroism cast in a positive light, but there is still tragedy. Four men didn't make it home. This movie honors them as much as those who held strong against overwhelming odds and returned home.

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