To say that the events leading up to and during the Battle of Benghazi were confusing and complex doesn’t even begin to cover it. Since the actual U.S military didn’t have a presence at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, they were effectively not allowed to be a part of it, even as reinforcements. Since one of the two compounds that was attacked by Libyan Islamic militants on September 11, 2012, was a “secret” CIA operation, the U.S. government had its hands tied as well in responding to outside force attempting to get in. Intervening would have meant acknowledging that certain clandestine activities were afoot. In many ways, Benghazi was the perfect storm of national interests trumping personal protection of U.S. citizens.
Michael Bay’s gripping, tense and disturbingly authentic 13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI captures the reality of modern warfare, without glorifying it or throwing blame at any one target for letting it get as bad as it did, since it becomes clear early on that a series of terrible decisions made everything go to hell in a matter of hours. Working from a screenplay by Chuck Hogan (adapting the book by Mitchell Zuckoff), Bay zeroes in on a handful of independent (but all former military) CIA contractors working private security for the CIA installation, acting primarily as bodyguards and protection details for CIA agents negotiating in Benghazi. As the film opens, Jack Silva (John Krasinski) is arriving for yet another tour after attempting to jump-start a civilian career as a real estate agent to support his wife and children. But with the market still struggling, he is forced (at least that’s what he tells himself) to return to what he knows best and its guaranteed pay.
One of the most interesting and telling moments of 13 HOURS involves Silva deep in the Benghazi battle telling a fellow security officer that he doesn’t want anyone to have to tell his wife that he died in a place he didn’t care about for a cause he didn’t understand. That’s a powerful statement in a film like this that many will assume is some jingoistic, pro-military action movie. These men are not military, so they aren’t obliged to tow the line about national security; they are there to do a job and get paid, even if they are hobbled at almost every step by a weaselly CIA section chief known as Bob (David Costabile). Even when a separate compound housing the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher), is under attack, Bob refuses to let his security team go rescue them because it would expose the CIA’s presence in the city.
Bay is careful not to portray these men (played by James Badge Dale, Max Martini, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, and Dominic Fumusa) as some sort of superheroes; they aren't defying gravity and physics or hitting every target with pinpoint accuracy. This point is never more clear than when Silva is almost sidelined right as the battle is getting heated because his contact lens falls out. Certainly, these highly trained men are far better at shooting and avoiding getting shot than the loosely organized militia outside the walls, but as far as the actual fighting goes, the emphasis in 13 HOURS appears to be believability. There’s an injury to one man’s arm that is so gruesome, I’m still having nightmares about it, but I absolutely believe that’s how he was wounded.
The film’s most glaring problems have to do with not just the Islamic enemies—none of whom are named or given subtitles—but with the entire population of Benghazi, who are treated like faceless, nameless beings with about as much significance as the furniture. I get that if you’re telling this story from the point of view of the American security team, then not speaking the language or being able to tell one bearded man or covered woman from another is one of the building blocks for the tension. The one exception to this is a local translator named Amahl (played by the great Iranian actor Peyman Moaadi, from A Separation), who is the only link between the Americans and Libyans (most of whom seem glad to have the Americans on hand) and becomes an invaluable asset during the course of this story.
Say what you want about Michael Bay, but the man knows how to stage an action sequence and, most importantly, he knows how to stage a battle. In 13 HOURS, he makes the geography of every gunfight surprisingly clear. We know what direction the threat is coming from, and what new variety of weapons the attackers are using during each wave of assault. There are certainly times when things are boiled down to flashes of gun muzzles, smoke and explosions (all Bay specialties), but when the fighting stops, we’re given a quick assessment of the damages and what needs to be fortified for the next attack. For as much ammunition as is spent in this movie, the resulting sequences feel like an exercise in efficient use of weapons and patience, as the enemy gets close enough where you effectively can’t miss.
People (critics chief among them) love to take shots at Michael Bay, and admittedly he sometimes makes it easy. But it’s lazy to dismiss his body of work wholesale, and it’s certainly ill-advised to assume that the director’s often glossy, slick style and quick-paced editing are simply applied to 13 HOURS. They most certainly are not the norm here. If anything, he’s toned down his usual bag of visual tricks in favor of down-and-dirty filmmaking.
Bay is probably at his weakest when he introduces emotion into his films (usually in the form of awkward love stories in the middle of action), but here, there is enough downtime (and running time: somewhere just shy of 2.5 hours) to allow his strong cast to talk about their fear, their families, their inability to make it in the real world, and what keeps pulling them back to these blazing desert locations. It’s wonderfully honest and leads to some fairly raw moments. 13 HOURS is an exercise in Bay defying expectations, but it goes far beyond that. It’s brutal storytelling, laced with a tinge of emotional honesty that you rarely get from a film about war. But the Battle of Benghazi was a war like few others of late; it was off the books; it wasn’t part of an ongoing campaign; it sprung up and was done in half a day. Weeding out the politics, 13 HOURS is eye opening and pays tribute to a small group of fighters being brave because that’s all they knew how to do.
