They gained steam in May 2013, when members of the Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee spoke to the media about the testimony of Greg Hicks, the deputy chief of the USA mission in Libya during the attack. Among other findings, it determined that there was no delay in sending a Central Intelligence Agency rescue team, and no missed opportunity for a military rescue. “He was saying when Michael Bay signed on for the movie, he essentially said (to Bay) if you don’t get this right, I’ll be waterboarding you”, Woods joked.
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“There never was a stand-down order”, the officer – the former chief of the so-called Annex who identified himself as “Bob” – told the Washington Post. Secretary Clinton is never invoked by name in the film, and the president is only mentioned in passing, when a character says that “POTUS has been briefed”. “At no time did I ever second-guess that the team would depart”. It claims the title of “true story”, not “based on” or “Inspired by” (two of the security team were consultants), and the resulting film feels so grounded, human and honest that I’m happy to believe it. When it happened I heard all the news reports about Benghazi, but for the first time I got some sense of what it was really like to be there. It also seems to make a difference to Trump who is willing to pay for Iowans to further understand the backstory of Benghazi. “It’s shameful that, in order to highlight the heroism of some, those responsible for the movie felt the need to denigrate the courage of other Americans who served in harm’s way”. “The CIA spokesman’s comments are predictable but not remotely credible”.
Although Bob has not yet seen the film, which is based on a book co-written by USA contractors hired to protect the Annex, he said he was familiar with the contents of both the film and the book. You can not help from walking away feeling very proud and yet very sad at the same time asking, why did this happen and why didn’t they send anyone to help sooner?
Zuckoff, who teaches journalism at Boston University, said he wasn’t surprised that the movie has sparked political discussion. “But it’s not what we set out to do in the book or movie”. And that’s the story I’m telling: the guys who were on the ground. And so I sat through the entire battle and when I left, I felt as though I had been in one myself, but it was a good feeling which I did not regret as the six men I had met had been heroes and I would not have known about them unless I had seen this film.
Apart from its regional success, this is an underwhelming performance for Bay: The most recent Transformers movie cracked $100 million on its opening weekend.
Much to my surprise, Bay has instead delivered a poignant and harrowing view of the events of September 11, 2012 from the perspective of the people who were there in Benghazi as it unfolded. “We just had to get it right”. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
