Tuesday, April 26, 2016

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

For the 2014 book on which the film is based, see 13 Hours (book).
13 Hours:
The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
13 Hours poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Bay
Produced by
Screenplay byChuck Hogan
Based on13 Hours
by Mitchell Zuckoff
Starring
Music byLorne Balfe[1]
CinematographyDion Beebe
Edited byPietro Scalia[2]
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • January 12, 2016(Arlington premiere)
  • January 15, 2016(United States)
Running time
144 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million[4]
Box office$68.5 million[4]
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (also known simply as 13 Hours) is a 2016 Americanbiographical war film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay and written by Chuck Hogan, based on Mitchell Zuckoff's 2014 book 13 Hours. Billed as being based on a true story, the film follows six members of a security team who fight to defend the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi,Libya after waves of terrorist attacks on September 11, 2012. The film stars James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Freddie Stroma, and Alexia Barlier. Filming began on April 27, 2015 in Malta. The film was released on January 15, 2016, by Paramount Pictures.

Plot[edit]

In 2012, Benghazi, Libya is named one of the most dangerous places in the world, and countries have pulled their embassies out of the country in fear of an attack by militants. The United States, however, keeps a Special Mission (Embassy) open in the city. Less than a mile away is a not-so-secret CIA outpost called "The Annex", which is protected by a team of Private Military ContractorsGlobal Response Staff made up of former military special operations personnel. New to the detail is Jack Da Silva (Krasinski), who arrives in Benghazi and is picked up by Tyrone S. "Rone" Woods(Dale), a member of the team and a personal friend of Da Silva. Arriving at the Annex, Da Silva is introduced to the rest of the team and the chief (Costabile), who constantly gives the team strict reminders to never engage the citizens to avoid conflict with local militants in the area.
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens (Letscher) arrives in Benghazi to maintain diplomatic connections amidst the political and social chaos. Despite warnings, Ambassador Stevens decides to stay at the Special Mission with limited protection from a pair of Diplomatic Security Agents and guards hired from the local 17-Feb militia. On the morning and the eleventh anniversary of theSeptember 11 attacks, Stevens notices suspicious men taking pictures of the compound and notifies his security detail. Back at the Annex, the GRS team communicates with their families and Da Silva finds out that his wife is pregnant.
That night, a group of Islamic militants assault the compound. Unwilling to die for $28 a day, the local 17-Feb guards quickly surrender their posts, allowing the attackers easy access to the Special Mission compound. Scott Wickland (Giuntoli), a Diplomatic Security (DS) agent, takes Stevens and an officer, Sean Smith, into the safe room. Unable to breach the safe room, the attackers set the building on fire hoping to burn the men out. Wickland is able to escape but loses both Stevens and Smith. At the Annex, the GRS team desperately wants to go to the compound to help, but the chief refuses, fearing that the GRS team's departure would leave the Annex vulnerable. Refusing to listen, the GRS team dispatches to the compound and meet up with the DS agents. Da Silva and Woods go into the building to try to find Stevens and Smith, but are only able to find Smith who has died from smoke inhalation. The team retreat back to the Annex. The team from the compound also follow suit, but after Wickland goes the wrong direction, they are followed back to the Annex.
Knowing an attack by the militants is imminent, the staff of the CIA Annex make several desperate calls for help. The only help they can get is fromGlen "Bub" Doherty (Stephens), a Global Response Staff officer, who forms a team including two Delta operators that flies to Benghazi after several delays. Meanwhile, the GRS team fends off the militants as they try to breach the Annex perimeter late into the night. As the attackers regroup after failed assaults, the GRS team takes time to regroup as well, and the down time allows them to think about their families while considering the gravity of the situation. After repulsing the largest attack wave, the Annex receives word that help is en route, but before it can arrive, the militants launch a mortar attack that wounds one of the DS agents and kills both Woods and Doherty.
With the GRS team compromised, and the Annex now vulnerable, the remaining GRS operators watch as a convoy of vehicles rolls toward the Annex. Fearing the worst, the operators prepare to make a final stand, until it is revealed that the convoy is an element of the Libyan army escorting the GRS reinforcements. They also find out that Stevens was found behind the compound, but was pronounced dead at the hospital from smoke inhalation. As the remainder of the team wait at the airstrip with the bodies of Stevens, Smith, Woods and Doherty, they reflect on the events that happened and how they will most likely receive no recognition for defending the Annex as they were off the books. Closing titles reveal that all of the members of the Annex security team received medals in a private ceremony and have since retired from the GRS team and live with their families.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

On February 10, 2014, it was announced that Paramount Pictures was in talks with 3 Arts Entertainment to acquire the film rights to the book 13 Hours, written by Mitchell Zuckoff, with Erwin Stoff to produce.[17] Chuck Hogan was set to adapt the book, based on the true events of theBenghazi attack by militants on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on the evening of September 11, 2012.[17] The film would focus on six members of a security team that fought to defend the Americans stationed there.[17] On October 29, 2014, Michael Bay was set to direct and produce the thriller.[18]

Casting[edit]

On January 14, 2015, John Krasinski was cast in the film, to play one of the lead roles, a former US Navy SEAL.[7] On February 3, Pablo Schreiberalso signed on to star in the film, playing Kris "Tanto" Paronto, one of the six-man security team.[11] On February 6, James Badge Dale was set to star, as the leader of the security team.[5] Max Martini was cast as another member of the security team on February 17, 2015.[9] David Denmansigned on to star in the film on March 3, 2015, playing Boon, an elite sniper.[12] On March 5, 2015, THR reported that Dominic Fumusa also signed on, to play John "Tig" Tiegen, one of the members of the security team, who is also a former Marine with weapons expertise.[10] Freddie Stromawas added to the cast on March 17, 2015 to play the role of an undercover CIA officer in Libya.[15] On May 7, 2015, Toby Stephens was set to play Glen "Bub" Doherty, another of the security team members.[14]

Filming[edit]

Principal photography began on April 27, 2015 in Malta and Morocco.[12][19] A large film set was built in March 2015 in Ta' Qali, Malta.[20]

Release[edit]

On June 30, 2015, Paramount announced that the new title would be 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, and set the film to be released on January 15, 2016, on the MLK Holiday weekend.[21] The film premiered on January 12, 2016, at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas,[22]benefitting the Shadow Warriors Project, which supports private military security personnel and other groups.[22]
Unusually for a major American film, the film was given only a limited release in Canada during its American wide opening weekend, playing in select theatres in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa. The film expanded to a wide release in Canadian theatres the following weekend, January 22–24.[23][24]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

13 Hours grossed $52.9 million in North America and $15.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $68.2 million, against a budget of $50 million,[4] making it Michael Bay's lowest-grossing directorial film to-date.[25]
The film was projected to earn around $20 million in its four-day Martin Luther King weekend debut. It faced competition from fellow newcomerRide Along 2, as well as holdovers The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[26] Other films in a similar vein that had opened on the MLK weekend in previous years, American Sniper ($107.2 million in 2015) and Lone Survivor ($37.8 million in 2014), found success, although they had faced weaker competition, and were considered less politically divisive.[27] However, The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film could outperform expectations if it was buoyed by waves of patriotism.[27] The film made $900,000 from 1,995 theaters during its Thursday previews and $16.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing fourth at the box office.[28]

Critical response[edit]

13 Hours has received mixed reviews from critics.[29][30][31][32][33] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 51%, based on 181 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's consensus reads, "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a comparatively mature and restrained effort from Michael Bay, albeit one that can't quite boast the impact its fact-based story deserves."[34] On Metacritic the film has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[35] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[28]
Soren Andersen, writing for The Seattle Times, gave the film 3 stars out of 4, criticizing the lack of distinctive characters but ultimately summarizing13 Hours as "engrossing" and "a ground-level depiction of heroism in the midst of the fog of war."[36] Richard Roeper similarly praised 13 Hours in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times. Although he lamented the script, Roeper found the film to be a "solid action thriller with well-choreographed battle sequences and strong work from the ensemble cast."[37] Like Roeper's review, New York Daily News' Joe Dziemianowicz was less receptive towards the script, but applauded the film's focus on the real-life attack, summarizing: "War is gritty here, not glamorous... [Michael Bay] delivers a gripping, harrowing, and heartfelt film."[38]
In a mixed review, Inkoo Kang of TheWrap praised 13 Hours for its action scenes, but panned Bay's direction as "myopic". She writes: "13 Hours is the rare Michael Bay movie that wasn't made with teenage boys in mind. But that doesn't make his latest any less callously juvenile."[39] Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press was critical of the film's direction and cinematography, and found the screenplay to be confusing.[40] Similarly, The Economist described the film as "a sleek, poorly scripted and largely meaningless film."[41]

Partisan marketing[edit]

Paramount specifically marketed the movie to conservatives,[42][43] in a method similar to previous movies Lone Survivor and American Sniper, both of which had beaten box office expectations.[44] This included screening the movie for key Republican Party figures in order to generate endorsement quotations.[45]

Historical accuracy[edit]

The film's historical accuracy has been disputed. In the film's most controversial scene, the CIA chief in Benghazi (identified only as "Bob") tells the military contractors there, who seek permission to go defend the embassy, to "stand down", thus denying them permission. The real-life CIA chief stated that there was no stand-down order.[46] His statement was echoed by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee's finding that there was "no evidence of intentional delay or obstruction by the Chief of Base or any other party."[47]
However, former Army Ranger Kris "Tonto" Paronto, one of the CIA contractors who fought that night, has stated, "We were told to 'stand down'. Those words were used verbatim — 100 percent. ... If the truth of it affects someone's political career? Well, I'm sorry. It happens."[48] When another of the soldiers, John Tiegen, was asked about the alleged stand-down order at a screening for military families, he said that "it was harder to sit there and obey it than to disobey it."[49] Responding further to the claims by "Bob" that no stand-down order was given, Paronto elaborated:
"We could have been a lot harder on him (Bob). He gave us a total of two ‘waits’, and a ‘stand down’. We gave him a chance to explain why he said to stand down, maybe there actually was a good reason, but he didn’t want to talk to us. I mean, there is a video feed of us in the compound that night. You can see us getting in and out of cars for twenty-five minutes. It is obvious that we tried to leave multiple times, and that there was a lot of verbal back and forth between him and us. We were exceedingly fair to him in the movie."[50]
Also disputed is the film's portrayal that air support was denied. A House Armed Services report found that air support was unavailable, or it would have arrived too late to make a difference.[41] Commentator David French defended the film's references to air support, writing that even if resources could not have been flown in during the time available, this would itself be "scandalous", given Libya's known instability.[51]
Columnist Deroy Murdock wrote that the film confirmed his view that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were lying when they initially blamed the YouTube video Innocence of Muslims for the attacks in the weeks after they occurred. The video led to protests among Muslims around the world, and Obama and others initially stated publicly that the Benghazi attacks emerged from such a protest. Murdock noted that 13 Hours does not mention the video, and instead portrays the attacks as having been initiated by, in Murdock's words, "well-armed jihadists who know exactly what they are doing."[52]
Zack Beauchamp criticized the movie overall, writing that its depiction of the alleged stand-down order and the availability of air support indirectly promoted "pernicious conspiracy theories" that President Obama and/or Secretary Clinton did not want the embassy to be defended.[47]Conversely, Paronto praised the movie's accuracy, stating that he and several of the other soldiers depicted in the movie served as advisers throughout the production, including for the script and the set design, and that the film had only minor deviations from reality.[50]

Washington state shooting

An intoxicated moviegoer in Washington state shot a woman during a screening of 13 Hours.[23]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ "Official credits list/billing block from the film's website.".
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  3. Jump up^ "13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI (15)". British Board of Film Classification. January 19, 2016. Retrieved January 19,2016.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
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  6. Jump up^ Zeitchik, Steven (January 13, 2016). "'13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,' from Michael Bay, revisits a battle". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
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  8. Jump up^ "Benghazi as Zombieland". National Review. January 15, 2016.
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  11. ^ Jump up to:a b Kroll, Justin (February 3, 2015). "'Orange is the New Black' Actor Pablo Schreiber Joins Michael Bay's '13 Hours' (EXCLUSIVE)". variety.com. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Kit, Borys (March 3, 2015). "Michael Bay's '13 Hours' Finds Its Sniper in 'The Office' Actor (Exclusive)". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  13. Jump up^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0504762/
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  15. ^ Jump up to:a b Pedersen, Erik (March 17, 2015). "Freddie Stroma Has '13 Hours'; Christopher Gorham Lands Lead In 'Po'; 'Exeter' Set For DirecTV Bow".deadline.com. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  16. Jump up^https://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/Benghazi%20Report.pdf
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  22. ^ Jump up to:a b Cieplyjan, Michael (January 5, 2016). "‘13 Hours’ Gives Benghazi Attack Cinematic Treatment". The New York Times. RetrievedJanuary 6, 2016.
  23. Jump up^ "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi". Tribute.ca.
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  27. ^ Jump up to:a b McClintock, Pamela (January 12, 2016). "Box-Office Preview: Michael Bay's Benghazi Movie '13 Hours' Could Be Politically Divisive".The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
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  32. Jump up^ "Fat Guys at the Movies - ’13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ Movie Review". Fat Guys at the Movies.
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  36. Jump up^ Andersen, Soren (January 14, 2016). "13 Hours: a gripping look at what happened in Benghazi". Seattle Times. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  37. Jump up^ Richard Roeper (January 14, 2016). "’13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI': MICHAEL BAY KEEPS FOCUS ON FIGHT AND FIGHTERS". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  38. Jump up^ Dziemianowicz, Joe (January 13, 2016). "Movie review: Michael Bay’s ‘13 Hours’ is a gripping Benghazi story with a ripped John Krasinski".New York Daily News. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  39. Jump up^ Kang, Inkoo (January 13, 2016). "’13 Hours’ Review: Michael Bay’s Benghazi Tale Has Way More Bullets Than Brains". TheWrap. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  40. Jump up^ Bahr, Lindsey (January 14, 2016). "Review: '13 Hours' Is Thrilling, but Too Video Game-Like". ABC News.
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  42. Jump up^ Pulver, Andrew (January 15, 2016), Benghazi attack film 13 Hours is marketed to conservative audiences, The Guardian, retrievedJanuary 24, 2016
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  44. Jump up^ Pazienza, Chez (January 6, 2016). "The Cynical Marketing of "13 Hours" Is Already Giving Conservatives a Benghazigasm". The Daily Banter. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  45. Jump up^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 17, 2016). "'13 Hours' Opens Lower Than Expected; Being Politicized Didn't Help". Deadline. RetrievedJanuary 24, 2016.
  46. Jump up^ Siemaszko, Corky. "Former Benghazi CIA Chief Slams '13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi'". NBC News. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  47. ^ Jump up to:a b Beauchamp, Zack (January 15, 2016). "Michael Bay's 13 Hours promotes some of the worst Benghazi conspiracy theories". Vox. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  48. Jump up^ "New Benghazi movie reignites ‘stand-down’ order debate".POLITICO. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  49. Jump up^ Moons, Michelle (January 12, 2016). "Exclusive: Benghazi Hero Kris ‘Tanto’ Paronto on ’13 Hours’". www.breitbart.com. Breitbart. RetrievedJanuary 31, 2016. An early showing of the film was held at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton on Sunday. Paronto’s fellow team members that fought to save Americans during the Benghazi attack, Mark “Oz” Geist and John “Tig” Tiegen, answered questions for a crowd of mostly military families just before the film started. When asked about the “stand down” order Tiegen told the audience that “it was harder to sit there and obey it than to disobey it.” Geist spoke of wanting to see Ansar al-Sharia–the terrorist group that executed the attack that night –held responsible.
  50. ^ Jump up to:a b Skovlund, Marty (January 25, 2016). "’13 Hours’: The Only Time Hollywood Cared About Accuracy". www.breitbart.com. Breitbart. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  51. Jump up^ French, David (January 15, 2016). "13 Hours: Of Course There’s Evidence of a ‘Stand-Down Order’ in Benghazi". National Review.
  52. Jump up^ Murdock, Deroy (January 21, 2016). "13 Hours Confirms Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s Lies about Benghazi". National Review.

External links[edit]

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