Image: www.thirteenhoursmovie.com
Michael Bay is a fist-pumping filmmaker. He might not indulge in the action himself, but it is easy to imagine that he would as he watches his features. Making audiences physically react with excitement is the intended aim of his work, with tales of good triumphing over evil his primary mechanism. When friendly robots topple nefarious adversaries in the Transformers franchise, or the rule-breaking cops of Bad Boys solve their cases, viewers are supposed to applaud at the very least.
Such an approach may seem cartoonish when applied to fanciful situations based on children’s toys or exaggerating the law-and-order divide for action-comedy purposes — and can be pushed to not just gleeful but satirical extremes when paired with a true tale of crime and stupidity in Pain & Gain, the helmer’s smartest effort to date — yet it has, so far, remained largely innocuous in its obnoxiousness. Bay’s films typically offend in their repetition, thematic laziness and aesthetic excess more than anything else; when his cheering, blinkered outlook is layered over a complicated story of conflict and combat that deserves much more detailed and delicate treatment, however, the director’s worst tendencies border upon reckless.
Indeed, while it may be based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s historical action book and adapted for the screen by writer Chuck Hogan (TV’s The Strain), 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi represents Bay at his most fervent, pushing a concept he is clearly feverish about. The heroism of the Americans battling hostile assailants is thrust onto the screen and into viewers’ faces with such force and enthusiasm that it almost feels like the filmmaker is working in 3D. He’s not, nor does he even offer a two-dimensional account of the real-life circumstances he depicts. There’s one perspective on offer, one gung-ho attitude and one pumped-up style of visual flourishes as a group of covert contractors swoop in to save the day during attacks on U.S. outposts in Libya on September 11, 2012.
The six central operatives, working for the CIA in Benghazi at a time when threat levels are considered critical, all fall from the standard mould of noble men doing a tough job with good, old fashioned grit, gumption, courage and a can-do attitude. Fresh arrival Jack Silva (John Krasinski, Aloha) might be the ostensible point of focus, and his family back home given slightly more attention, but he’s emblematic of his comparable cohort. Largely, they watch their leader, Tyrone ‘Rone’ Woods (James Badge Dale, The Walk), lock horns with disapproving station base chief Bob (David Costabile, Billions) — until the U.S. Ambassador visits the city, inciting violence, chaos and an over-night siege.
Early in proceedings, Silva is told ‘you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys’; however, that statement rings false for anyone watching. With the bulk of the 144-minute feature concerned with bullets flying, grenades bursting and dead bodies piling up, those in the thick of the fray as protectors rather than aggressors are championed, and anyone not explicitly on their side — even those who try to stop them doing their duty to protect American lives from within their own side — is branded the enemy. Here, a diplomatic tragedy becomes a case study in one kind of patriotism, regardless of the intricacies of actuality. Forget the moral murkiness of Zero Dark Thirty, the empathy of Lone Survivor or even the unsuccessful honour of American Sniper — though 13 Hours is clearly Bay’s attempt to follow in their footsteps. Instead, he renders the latter subtle by comparison.
Bay’s penchant for making his films resemble extended video game sequences certainly doesn’t help matters, nor does the constantly panning, tilting, zooming, roving and circling camerawork, or the inability to hold any single shot for more than a few seconds. In the heat of the battle, his relentless visual energy imparts a sense of immediacy, though that fades with time to prove exhausting. When emphasising a burned family portrait or scorched flag, it stands out as the pushing of style as substance he has become known for.
Depth doesn’t arrive via the cast that also includes Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is the New Black), David Denman (The Gift), Dominic Fumusa (Nurse Jackie) and Max Martini (Fifty Shades of Grey) — as well as Alexia Barlier (What We Did on Our Holiday) and Peyman Moaadi (Melbourne) as token friendly female and Middle Eastern inclusions — either, though they’re not asked to do anything more than play archetypes and spout blunt dialogue. Bay might be badly matched with a true story that demands better, but he knows what he does and doesn’t need to tell the tale his way. If you’re not pumping your fists along with him, then you’ll probably have ‘America, Fuck Yeah!’ from Team America: World Police stuck in your head. It’s not on the soundtrack, but it wouldn’t have been out of place, and — ignoring its original parodying intentions — it all-too-accurately encapsulates Bay’s usual mindset.
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Director: Michael Bay
USA, 2016 144 mins
Release date: February 25
Distributor: Paramount
Rated: MA
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