Review of 12 Strong

12 Strong (2018)
9/10
Well Told
4 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Predictable, yes, because it's a true story

I swore I wasn't going to watch movies or do reviews on Seal Team this and that and similar titles, but this one caught my eye because the mission was completed using horses in Afghanistan. Yes, horses.

Yes, most of the movie is about a Green Beret Team of 12 that needs to capture this town and that town in Afghanistan to get to the objective Mazar-i-Sharif (Taliban Stronghold) which would put a serious crimp in Taliban operations. So we will see a lot of war fighting with CGI, of course, and these scenes are absolutely brilliant. Yes, we must keep in mind that this is not just a movie, but what we see on the screen had actually happened, maybe not in the exact same way, but happened nevertheless. We are looking at true heroes as we would have seen in those other war movies I chose not to watch. Because of the success of Seal Team 6, we will be inundated with these war movies for some time.

The area of contention in here, besides all the fighting is the small war between Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), the leader of the Green Berets and General Dostum (Navid Negahban), the leader of the Afghanistan Army (actually a tribal War Lord). They go at each other mostly because the General won't tell Captain Nelson all he needs to know. That spilling of info was a long time in coming, but it finally did. Then later they differed on strategy. Hey, can't have everything to run smoothly and this is a serious war, don't you know?

The acting all around was excellent and very convincing . The cinematography and overall photography was stunning.

Yes, they used horses to knock out the big missile battery and now there is statue of a Green Beret on a horse near the site where the Twin Towers used to be. Why? The 12 Green Berets that went on that mission were bound not to talk about it because it was a very classified mission. Also, this was the First foray into Afghanistan after the 911 attack. Now you know.

Notables: William Fichtner as Col Mulholland who sent Captain Nelson on that mission even though Capt Nelson had never been in combat; Rob Riggle (Yes, that "comedian" on NFL Today) as LTC Bowers, Capt Nelson's Commander; Michael Pena as Sam Diller a key member of the Team; and Michael Shannon as Warrant Officer Hal Spenser, 2nd in command to Capt Nelson.

Even though you know most things that happened, this is still worthwhile movie to see. The conversations between Capt Nelson and General Dostum are worth hearing. This is history and we must never forget 911 and the reason we went to war. (9/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Some. Language: Yes. Rating: A
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