Sixteen years after U.S. troops landed in Afghanistan, the conflict there might be summed up as a violent holding pattern, or a stalemate we’re still mired in, or — if you squint hard enough — a slow-motion qualified success. But only the producer Jerry Bruckheimer would seek to portray it as a victory decisive enough to be called a triumph of the kick-ass American spirit.
“12 Strong,” one of those rare “serious” Bruckheimer productions, tells the story of the first U.S. soldiers to land in Afghanistan in the days after 9/11: the members of ODA 595, an elite Special Forces unit that was ordered to link up with a local warlord and fight its way, village by village, to the Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif (the country’s fourth largest city). There, they would theoretically gut the Taliban’s nexus of power and topple the ability of Afghanistan to serve as a training ground for Al Qaeda troops.
Chris Hemsworth, in thatchy dark hair and a G.I. Joe scruff, speaking in a manly low voice of superstar resolve, plays the team’s captain, Mitch Nelson, who has never been in combat before. Yet he’s the kind of gung-ho volunteer who’s got sharpshooting in his blood. He may not have “killer eyes” (the warlord’s description of Michael Shannon’s Chief Warrant Officer), but he’s got a killer heart. A family man who only recently arranged to become a desk jockey, Nelson, as the movie presents it, gets slapped awake by 9/11 and fights the bureaucracy to win his shot on the ground. As soon as he arrives, he’s a master of everything: the weather patterns, how to map bombing coordinates for the B-52s that are going to blow Taliban-infested villages into the afterlife, and — of course — how to ride into battle on a horse while blasting a machine gun like a badass medieval knight.
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The American soldiers of ODA 595 defeated the Taliban fighters they were up against, scoring an early blow against the forces of Islamic terrorism. Yet the Taliban, the last time anyone checked, hasn’t exactly jumped ship, and the whole issue of what we’ve accomplished in Afghanistan — forcing the enemy, to a degree, to go elsewhere — remains more than a little murky. “12 Strong,” though, builds a hermetic screen around the first three weeks of the conflict, holding it up to the light as if to say, “Don’t believe the nay-sayers! American heroism still rocks!” I believe that American heroism still does, but that doesn’t make “12 Strong” an illuminating, or overly exciting, war film. It’s more like cheerleading with ballistics. On its own terms, the film is watchable enough, but it’s blunt and stolid and under-characterized, and at 130 minutes it plods.
If there’s anything that great war films like “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Hurt Locker” have taught us, it’s that victory in combat doesn’t look like a street-fight action movie set in a wilderness hellhole. But “12 Strong” is a war film that wants you to feel good about the invincibility of American power. The film is built like a grungy combat video game, with each village treated like a new level and the agony of battle taking a backseat to the pounding thrill of force. The villain is a dastardly Taliban commander (Said Taghmaoui) who looks like a ratty guttersnipe Frank Zappa in black rags; he’s introduced executing a woman in front of her two tearful daughters for the crime of reading. That’s not an exaggeration of Taliban cruelty, but the way the film uses this brute to personify evil is at once reductive and uninteresting. (He’s scary, though not as scary as William Fichtner as a shaven-headed colonel who glowers like Gollum. )
That said, “12 Strong” is only mildly demagogic. It salutes the freedom fighters of Afghanistan, building token hints of drama around the relationship between Capt. Nelson and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum (Navid Negahban), the Northern Alliance warlord he fights alongside but clashes with when it comes to military strategy. The two have something to teach each other, and I kept thinking how much this relationship would have popped in a David Lean film. But the script of “12 Strong,” written by Ted Tally and Peter Craig (adapting the 2009 bestseller “Horse Soldiers”), is pretty bare bones. When the general accuses Capt. Nelson of being a soldier and not a warrior, we’re eager to see Nelson grow into one, but the film barely bothers to demonstrate the difference.
The novelty that’s the chief selling point of “12 Strong” — the fact that the members of ODA 595 rode horses to make it through the treacherous terrain — doesn’t amount to very much; they all seem to know how, and it’s not as if contemporary soldiers on horseback look any more exotic than cowboys and Indians. The film’s most impressive aspect is its arid landscapes. “12 Strong” was shot in New Mexico, with the mountains there doubling for Afghanistan’s famously craggy and forbidding tableaux, and the director, Nicolai Fuglsig, and cinematographer, Rasmus Videbaek, use the locations to conjure what it might look like to wage war in an endless sprawling no-man’s land.
Visually, the terrain comes close to raising an existential question: What, exactly, are we fighting for in Afghanistan? The film slips in the pointed and now rather outdated argument that if the Taliban can be defeated, and Afghanistan eliminated as an Al Qaeda base, then there will be no more attacks like 9/11. Well, there haven’t been…but is that the reason why? “12 Strong” lends a shape of supreme purpose to a conflict that is still in search of one.
This Friday will see the release of “12 Strong” about the U.S. Special Forces soldiers who spearheaded the invasion of Afghanistan after the events of September 11th, 2001. The Jerry Bruckheimer production was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and stars Chris Hemsworth as a fictional Special Forces Captain, likely a composite character such as those seen in other contemporary war flicks such as Black Hawk Down. The movie depicts a stylized version of events that are an important part of Special Forces history and perhaps one of the crowning achievements in the War on Terror.
Of course the movie also carries some baggage and controversy, some of which may be warranted, but others are simply rumors that have spun out of control on the internet. One of the stories going around in Special Forces circles is that 5th Special Forces Group soldiers who participated in the 2001 invasion were kicked off the set or that one stormed off it himself after a confrontation with a Vietnam-era Navy SEAL turned technical advisor. SOFREP reached out to the actual former SEAL who did the technical advising on the film as well as two former Green Berets who have situational awareness of what was happening on set, this rumor turns out to be just that. These events simply did not take place.
From what SOFREP was told, the 5th Group Green Berets who actually participated in the events that 12 Strong attempts to depict were brought on set late in the game. The script had already been written and the movie was well into production so by then it was too late to make any big changes. In the end, the 5th Group veterans had little if any input into how the film was made. When the script was first submitted to SOCOM it was initially laughed at because it was so inaccurate, but in the end it was blessed off on by the Pentagon for the simple reason that it makes Special Forces seem really, really cool. The book that the film is based on, written by Doug Stanton, is also said to be wildly inaccurate according to SOFREP’s sources.
The real life horse soldiers were not consulted when the script was written. In the end, 12 Strong is a cowboy movie that could do for Special Forces what Top Gun did for aviators or what Act of Valor did for Navy SEALs.
The moniker, “‘Based on true events’ leaves the door open to make whatever movie you want,” Scott Zastrow, who served as a Special Forces medic (18D) on ODA 555 during the invasion, told SOFREP. “Already saw it at the Tampa screening,” Zastrow continued describing the movie as, “entertaining and full-on Hollywood. Never expected it to be remotely accurate. Still a better love story than Twilight.”
Back in the day there were perhaps less than a 100 Special Forces soldiers and other U.S. government employees who were inserted into Afghanistan for the invasion. Many of them continue to work for the government or have reputations they need to maintain in the community and won’t speak out publicly. Privately, they expressed to SOFREP that they are not offended by the film in anyway and acknowledge that it is a fun movie that takes liberties with the facts for the enjoyment of the audience.
What some of the Special Forces veterans find interesting however is that only two real life Green Berets are mentioned in the film. The two named Green Berets are both officers, John Mulholland who was the 5th Special Forces Group commander at the time and Max Bowers who commanded 5th Group’s 3rd Battalion. The actual horse soldiers, those who served on the ODAs that inserted into Afghanistan are not named supposedly because the studio did not want to have to pay them for the permission to do so.
Who gets named and who doesn’t exposes a rift between the senior ranking officers and essentially everyone else. Early in the War on Terror, the Special Forces Colonels blocked attempts that the media made to interview those who had boots on the ground using the excuse that there were PERSEC issues involved that would put their lives in jeopardy. In this way, senior officers got to go on television and claim credit for what the ground pounders felt was a pretty ill-planned invasion which left the ODAs to improvise and overcome on their own initiative. Of course, many Green Berets could care less who gets credit for what, but why the real life horse soldiers are not mentioned shows who gets the privilege of writing the history books and it isn’t those who had boots on the ground.
“They don’t mention Max Bowers losing an MBTR [military radio] and shutting down satellites for the whole theater while we were in active combat,” Zastrow commented about the film. Other Green Beret veterans mention Bowers later being removed from Afghanistan due to a separate incident at Mazar-i-Sharif. From the a technical standpoint, the film appears to have dropped the ball as the gear used is incorrect, reflecting SOF around 2005 rather than in 2001 when Special Forces soldiers had LCE’s and really basic tac-vests. This is par for the course with Hollywood and very few movie goers will ever know the difference.
Controversies and rivalries aside, 12 Strong sets out to positively depict some real life American soldiers who did something incredible. These 12-man Special Forces teams were inserted into Afghanistan not long after the 9/11 attacks, fighting for their country and taking charge of the situation when most Americans were frightened and confused. Some of these soldiers even rode into combat on horseback. On a day-to-day basis they survived by their wits, their training, and with teamwork. These Green Berets overcame every obstacle thrown in front of them and set a high watermark for how modern unconventional warfare is conducted, one which stands to this day.
It is too bad that Hollywood didn’t make that movie and produced a work of creative fiction instead. A lot of what really happened when CIA officers and US Special Forces invaded Afghanistan remains a hidden, unwritten history. More can be learned about what really happened during the invasion of Afghanistan by reading SOFREP’s in-depth interview with Scott Zastrow.
(Lead image courtesy of Warner Brothers)
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Thor has been promoted to Captain America.
By putting Chris Hemsworth in charge of the dozen-person Army Special Forces unit at the heart of “12 Strong,” director Nicolai Fuglsig and producer Jerry Bruckheimer ensured their war movie would not be marching through any morally ambiguous minefields that would come to surround the War in Afghanistan.
The is, after all, based on the real covert mission undertaken by the men of ODA 595 — one chronicled in Doug Stanton's non-fiction book “Horse Soldiers.”
Chris Hemsworth saddles up and rides high in "12 Strong." (Warner Bros.)
Launched just two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the plan was to embed with Afghan rebels to strike a blow against the Taliban forces that helped support Al Qaeda. It harkens to a time when the vast majority of the American public rallied behind the military response, before the War on Terror got more complicated.
And that's fine: the real-life Captain Mark Nutsch, played by Hemsworth as “Mitch Nelson,” and his heroic men certainly deserve their close-up 16 years later. Leave the handwringing about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the politicians and more nuanced films like “Stop-Loss” or “The Hurt Locker.”
The movie is based on the real covert mission undertaken by the men of ODA 595 — one chronicled in Doug Stanton's non-fiction book “Horse Soldiers.” (Warner Bros.)
“12 Strong,” perched on the strong shoulders and wobbly American accent of its star, succeeds in its mission. Having his real-life spouse Elsa Pataky play his on-screen wife adds a little emotional nuance.
Battle sequences on horseback are executed perfectly for maximum pulse quickening. It helps to have a few good men — with apologies to Army vets disgusted with the Marine reference — cast in the supporting roles. Michael Shannon and Michael Pena have yet to accept a script that they don’t make better. It’s good to see Iranian actor Navid Negahban defect to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance after playing Al Qaeda mastermind Abu Nazir on “Homeland.”
In a politically divided climate outside the theater, there’s nothing wrong with saddling up for a patriotic thrill ride.
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Proudly and narrowly, “12 Strong” is a good-news war story, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by first-time feature director Nicolai Fuglsig, of Denmark. He trained as a photojournalist, and covered the war in Kosovo; in the last decade Fuglsig’s commercial resume includes sleek, digitally savvy and action-oriented spots for Corvette and Xbox Halo 4, among other clients.
“12 Strong” is a good-news story, in that the facts and personnel constitute an early victory over the Taliban — not a comprehensive or lasting one, but a victory nonetheless. In the weeks following the destruction of the World Trade Center, as part of the Bush administration’s Operation Enduring Freedom, a 12-man U.S. Army Special Forces task force, code-named Task Force Dagger, was flown and then dropped into northern Afghanistan.
The mission was simple, the process, complicated. The Green Berets were charged with joining and advising Northern Alliance tribal warlords and their troops, fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida. The strategic early battle involved control of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. With U.S. Air Force bombing support, and American soldiers traversing some extremely treacherous mountain terrain on horseback en route, the results were decisive. Also, the optics were terrific. The movie includes the moment when then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held up the picture of the “horse soldiers” (this was in late 2001) and found them very useful in selling the early stages of the war in Afghanistan.
In 2009, producer Bruckheimer got ahold of the galleys of Doug Stanton’s nonfiction account “Horse Soldiers.” It took a while, but “12 Strong” has come to fruition, with New Mexico locales doubling for Afghan and Uzbek locations. The movie was made on a medium-range budget (in other words, it isn’t “Black Hawk Down,” in any respect). “12 Strong” follows the production blueprint established by the gripping 2013 film “Lone Survivor,” which depicted a no-win 2005 Navy SEAL operation against the Taliban.
The stalwart cast is led by Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth. He plays the group’s captain, here named Mitch Nelson (based loosely on the real-life Mark Nutsch). Michael Shannon, in a shrewdly modulated turn, plays Chief Warrant Officer Hal Spencer, based on Bob Pennington. Trevante Rhodes, Michael Pena, William Fichtner and Rob Riggle work their scenes to advantage, though screenwriters Ted Tally and Peter Craig often seem stranded in a no-man’s land between quasi-documentary reality and reassuring Hollywood cliche.
The key relationship here is between Nelson and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance, played by Navid Negahban of “Homeland.” The former’s characterization is familiar, stripped of detail and, as written and depicted here, Our American Hero, period. Dostum, by contrast, is the most interesting element of “12 Strong,” which probably should’ve added up in its title to 13. Scenes that seem far-fetched, such as Dostum goading the Taliban forces by telephone moments before an air strike, actually happened. For the script’s purposes, however, Dostum is there to remind Nelson that he can be more than a soldier; if he fights from the heart, he will become the warrior this war needs to vanquish their common foe.
Much of the action, as shot by Fuglsig and cinematographer Rasmus Videbaek and edited by Lisa Lassek, favors clear, adrenaline-pumping action beats and rousing, against-all-odds triumphs. Throughout the film, we’re reminded of the peculiarity of fighting men on horseback going up against all manner of military hardware. It’s not a bad movie, as far as it goes. In terms of context, though, it goes virtually nowhere. Granted, “Lone Survivor” stayed similarly close to a specific mission, albeit one with a very different outcome. But that movie stuck with you, relaying a stronger, truer sense of desperation. “12 Strong” is a straight-up, unalloyed shot of movie patriotism for the Make America Great Again sector of the American movie audience.
As proven by, among others, “American Sniper,” that sector is huge. “12 Strong” producer Bruckheimer also financed “Black Hawk Down,” a film that made war feel and look viscerally exciting, even at its bloodiest, but never lost sight of the larger picture and the ultimate cost of armed conflict. While director Fuglsig trained as a photojournalist, his movie’s action style owes as much to gaming aesthetics as it does to the real world. That cheapens the real-life heroism. And the disinterest in what came afterward feels suspicious. Once the Bush administration thought Afghanistan was good to go, the fiasco in Iraq began. Recent, varying estimates put the Taliban’s influence or control of Afghan districts at anywhere from 14 to 45 percent of the country. Meantime, U.S. spending in Afghanistan is nearing the trillion-dollar mark; some experts put the figure over $2 trillion.
No war movie can tell more than one primary story and a few underneath that one. “12 Strong” sticks to the basics, without much interest in the differentiating specifics of the men involved, or anything on a geopolitical scale beyond the impulse these Special Forces veterans shared in the wake of 9/11. It seems to me a qualified, limited success.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
mjphillips@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @phillipstribune
'12 Strong' -- 2.5 stars
MPAA rating: R (for war violence and language throughout)
Running time: 2:09
Opens: Thursday evening
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