There were so many things going on.
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“The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” is the title of this newly released movie and it tells the story of what happened during the September 11, 2012, attack on the US consulate from the perspective of American fighters on the ground. Yet, despite all that, there was something about 13 Hours that at least felt true.
Yes, the film is dramatic.
The movie was No. 4 at the box office when it opened this weekend, earning $16 million in receipts, after critics panned the action-drama.
Four Americans died in the attacks, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Presumably to avoid being Zero Dark Thirtied, the parent studio of “13 Hours“, Paramount Pictures, declined to show the film in advance to journalists and policymakers, eschewing the usual program of “influencers” screenings in Washington, which can garner valuable buzz for hot-button films.
Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” contains content that is likely to test the nerves of those who are working for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while simultaneously pleasing those who are supporting Hillary’s chief opponent, the now surging Bernie Sanders. That’s a whopper, even for an industry that has so brilliantly perfected the art of relieving itself on consumers and telling them that it’s raining.
It’s that ironic condescension of “13 Hours” that’s so disconcerting. Despite its dog-whistle marketing, the content of the film might disappoint the most rabid Hillary haters. “You will wait”, Bob says in the movie. But no one thinks of him as a master of subtlety or documentary-style realism. The characters lament the lack of air support and reinforcements, and in one scene, the Central Intelligence Agency station chief absurdly orders his analysts to “find me any carrier battle groups in the vicinity!”
“Any message in the film at all?”
The film paints the Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency personnel as naïve and over-educated idealists who cannot understand that “you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys”. Cruz offered the movie the kind of publicity that’s hard to buy, and he wasn’t alone – Donald Trump even rented out an Iowa movie theater and distributed free tickets to a showing. Hogan humanizes the men by touching on their various domestic struggles and the people for whom they long, but more attention could have been paid to the politics of the situation, which one assumes are of more importance to the average viewer.
Because the news media have mostly treated the Benghazi attack as a partisan political story, most Americans still don’t know what actually happened that night.
I give the movie credit for not blasting the screen with explosions right from the get-go. Notwithstanding Moore’s distress that his strategy worked, for “13 Hours” to succeed with its advocates in the professional political class, the dollars it earns will have to be equaled by votes.
“We were just saying the facts”, Bay told Bill O’Reilly on O’Reilly’s Fox News show.
If the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Hollywood have anything in common, it’s the instinctive understanding of optics, and the unequaled power of images to arouse emotion. But “13 Hours” stars…
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By that time, “13 Hours” will be available and heavily marketed for home viewing – but remember, it isn’t political.
