Four stars. Rated R, for war violence and profanity
By Derrick Bang
It’s easy to see why Jerry
Bruckheimer and his co-producers were drawn to author/journalist Doug Stanton’s
2009 non-fiction best-seller. The title alone is an eyebrow-lifter:
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who
Rode to Victory in Afghanistan.
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| Despite his best efforts, Capt. Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth, left) has trouble gaining the trust of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum (Navid Negahban), who doubts that such a young American, who lacks "killer eyes," can become a true warrior. |
Stanton’s book details the
jaw-dropping, just-then-declassified exploits of the 12-man Operational
Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595 Green Berets team, one of the first American units
sent to Afghanistan in the immediate wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
(Bruckheimer obtained the book in galley format, prior to publication.)
This big-screen adaptation,
saddled with the appropriately gung-ho title of 12 Strong, is a suspenseful and riveting depiction of the events
that took place during the 23 days that the ODA 595 team was “in country.”
Director Nicolai Fuglsig, scripters Ted Tally and Peter Craig, and a solid cast
appropriately honor the actual men, while delivering a thoroughly entertaining
film that frequently feels like a slice of old-style Hollywood, while building
to one helluva climax.
Indeed, this film stands tall
alongside “impossible odds” classics such as Seven Samurai, Blackhawk Down,
Saving Private Ryan and, most
particularly, 1964’s Zulu. The latter
also focuses on the mis-matched resources — albeit the other way ’round — that
prompted this famous on-site quote from Afghanistan’s Capt. Will Summers: “It
was as if the Jetsons had met the Flintstones.”
Add more than a passing nod to Lawrence of Arabia, and you’ve got a
genuinely awe-inspiring war epic.
Tally and Craig have changed the
names, and no doubt other details have been amplified for cinematic impact. But
the core mission, the manner in which it went down, and the outcome are
impressively faithful, and why not? This saga was made for splashy, big-screen treatment.
The drama is anchored solidly by
Chris Hemsworth, who has emerged as one of cinema’s most stalwart and charismatic
actors. His rise is quite impressive: only six years since an attention-getting
supporting turn in The Cabin in the Woods,
and now sliding with equal persuasiveness from the comic book larkishness of Thor and Ghostbusters, to more serious dramatic fare such as In the Heart of the Sea and, now, 12 Strong.
We believe it, utterly, when one
of Nelson’s men tells him, with complete sincerity, “I’d follow you anywhere.”
Hemsworth’s Nelson radiates that level of command charisma.
Fuglsig opens his film with brief
slices of Nelson, Chief Warrant Officer Hal Spencer (Michael Shannon) and Sgt.
First Class Sam Diller (Michael Peña) at home, with their families. Tally and
Craig sketch these scenes economically but efficiently, telling us everything
we need to know about these men and their wives. (Kudos to, respectively, Elsa
Pataky, Allison King and Lauren Myers, as the women in question: equally
credible during brief appearances.)
The world changes on 9/11; Nelson
volunteers to lead his team into Afghanistan, in order to strike back against
the Taliban. His request is a hard sell: Despite having spent two years
training with the team that would follow him anywhere, Nelson lacks actual
combat experience. The more seasoned Spencer gets them an audience with senior officer
Col. Mulholland (William Fichtner), who can’t help being impressed by Nelson’s
grasp of tactics and geographical impediments.
The resulting mission is as much
diplomatic as military. Nelson’s team is assigned to liaise with Gen. Abdul
Rashid Dostum (Navid Negahban), an Uzbek leader and one of many warlords
uneasily banded together as Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, united solely by
their mutual hatred of the ruthless Taliban.
The latter is personified by
Mullah Razzan (Numan Acar), who serves as this saga’s primary opponent. For
once, garbing the bad guy in black is appropriate to the story, and Acar makes
a particularly brutal villain; he’s introduced during a memorable encounter
with frightened Afghan villagers, and we loathe him from that point forward.
Negahban, in turn, has presence. He makes Dostum a fascinating
study, with a seasoned, philosophical attitude that recalls Anthony Quinn’s
Auda Abu Tayi, in Lawrence of Arabia.
Dostum is a strong, stalwart and instinctive leader who has opposed invaders
since he was a teenager fighting the Russians, and who therefore has little
patience for “arrogant” Americans apparently sent to tell him how to save his
country.
The men of ODA-595, in turn, are
uneasy in the presence of their new allies, worried that any one of Dostum’s
men might betray them, in order to collect the massive bounty the Taliban has
placed on their heads.
The Americans offer the military
advantage of an essential air-to-ground interface, which allows for precision
bombing runs by overhead B52s awaiting orders ... but it’s necessary to get
close enough to enemy fortifications, to call in accurate coordinates.
Assuming the two sides can learn
to trust each other, the shared goal is to drive Al Qaeda and the Taliban out
of the strategically crucial city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The core problem: Access
to the city is limited to a road that runs through the Tiangi Gap, an easily
defended chokepoint where Dostum, Nelson and their men would be sitting ducks.
The secondary issue: Travel through
the various mountain passes is possible only on horseback ... and Nelson is the
sole American with riding experience.
This is the premise that made
Stanton’s book such a gripping read, and which is re-created so faithfully
here: For the first time in 60 years, American soldiers headed into battle on
horseback ... knowing they were riding into combat against missile launchers
and T-72 tanks.
Despite the often grim
surroundings and events, Tally and Craig induce occasional smiles with mordant
one-liners, many of them deftly delivered by Peña. But one of the best comes
from Dostum, when he insists that their horses won’t be frightened by the
bombing runs, because “they know they’re American bombs aimed at the Taliban.”
The comment elicits a chuckle,
but — once things kick into high gear — we can’t help wondering if Dostum spoke
truth.
Shannon’s Spencer exudes the
grizzled wariness of a hardened soldier: a paternal stalwart whose input means
a great deal to Nelson. It’s nice to see Shannon in a positive role, playing a
character with such integrity, after his chilling turn in The Shape of Water. It’s therefore almost tragic, and ironically
amusing, that Spencer is the least able to deal with riding a horse.
Trevante Rhodes also stands out
as the lollipop-sucking Ben Milo, a big, burly demolitions expert who inherits
a shadow: Najeeb (Arshia Mandavi), a young Afghan boy determined to “protect”
this American visitor. The resulting dynamic is both droll and poignant, at
first embarrassing Milo, who doesn’t know what to do with the kid.
The rest of the men who make up
this “band of brothers” don’t get as much screen time, but the respective
actors nonetheless carve out identifiably individual characters.
The entire film was shot in New
Mexico, and production designer Christopher Glass rose to the challenge with
numerous arresting settings: Karshi-Khanabad, the military base situated in
southern Uzbekistan, from which ODA 595 deploys; the Afghan village dubbed “The
Alamo,” which becomes their temporary base; Dostum’s Cobaki and Shulgareh cave
command posts; and the infamous Tiangi Gap (actually Thurgood Canyon).
Special effects supervisor Mike
Meinardus similarly had his hands full, and the results — particularly the
climactic battle — are flat-out awesome. Fuglsig and editor Lisa Lassek pace
this sequence for maximum impact, and they get it; the result is crackling,
edge-of-the-seat intensity.
You’ll
not soon forget this drama ... and I’ve no doubt Stanton’s book will enjoy
renewed sales success.
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