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.
