13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

[Sir T]

In before politics. Get your shit show in now!!!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/07/28/13-hours-trailer-is-michael-bays-benghazi-action-pic-the-next-american-sniper/

Paramount has slotted Michael Bay’s Benghazi-based action thriller on the same weekend that American Sniper debuted last January. That’s not a coincidence.

It is not surprising that Paramount/Viacom VIAB +0.79% Inc. would choose the opening weekend of Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation to unveil the first trailer for their early 2016 release 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. We now have the first trailer to what will surely be the first water cooler movie of 2016. The film is based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s acclaimed moment-by-moment account of what went wrong when the embassy was attacked by armed militants on September 11th, 2012.

Oh yes, we are all going to be talking about this one on January 15th, 2016. I won’t pretend I am an expert on the book or the incident just because I read some lengthy reviews of the book in order to prepare for this piece, but the book seems to focus on the handful of private security officers who attempted to defend the trapped civilians, as opposed to throwing partisan blame in one direction or another. I’m sure we’ll see Paramount, director Bay, and stars John Krasinski and James Badge Dale stressing the non-political nature of the story, how it’s about the bravery of the men who fought regardless of who was to blame, etc, etc. But that won’t mean that this film won’t be something of a lightning rod basically a month away from the Iowa caucuses which will basically kick off the primary election process for the 2016 presidential race.

And, as someone who plans on voting for Bernie Sanders in the primary and then presumably Hillary Clinton in the general election, to that I say: good. I don’t care if I end up agreeing with the points that may be made in Michael Bay’s 13 Hours, and I will try my hardest not to care about how the likes of Big Hollywood tries to spin its likely success as having greater political meaning than it does (remember when Fahrenheit 9/11 totally swung the election to John Kerry?). I can only presume from Bay’s politics (The Island was an “abortion = holocaust” parable, Bad Boys II cheerfully embraces the abuse-of-authority of its reckless cop heroes, and the Transformers sequels are Neocon fables) that it won’t exactly be The Nation‘s favorite action picture.

But better to have a viewpoint I disagree with then not have any viewpoint at all. Diversity doesn’t just mean films about women and minorities but also pictures expresses viewpoints that you or I may disagree with. Moreover, I like when movies actually stir the national dialogue, be it American Sniper, Fifty Shades of Grey, or Gone Girl. That I may or may not eventually agree with the film politically doesn’t mean I am not rooting for it to be quality entertainment. Michael Bay is a superb action filmmaker. The amount of insanely high quality special effects-infused action spectacle that is utterly taken for granted in the Transformers films is a little mind boggling, akin to we critics and fans writing off the audio/visual wonders to be found in the Star Wars prequels just because we don’t like Jar Jar Binks.

He may let his id go hilariously unchecked in the Transformers movies, but in terms of action directors I would gladly put him up there (or maybe a notch below) the likes of (offhand) James Cameron, John Woo, Steven Spielberg, Martin Campbell, Peter Jackson, and Kathryn Bigelow. That his films are, as a whole, often less successful than those filmmakers shouldn’t negate the sheer “make it look easy” action artistry on display. So when Michael Bay decides to make a movie based on a real-life war story, one rife with indirect political connotations to boot, I get very excited. He’s very good at what he does best, and I’m interested to see him play in an environment that reins in some of his quirkier, self-sabotaging impulses.

But anyway, Paramount clearly sees this as the first really big modern day war story to capitalize on the eye-popping success of American Sniper. It’s obviously a less primal portrait, and I am presuming that the narrative won’t be pretzeled into a somewhat generic action story narrative (complete with a anthesis supervillain picking off Chris Kyle’s friends) as was Clint Eastwood’s adaptation. No one should be expecting a $108m Fri-Mon opening weekend or a $350m domestic total come next year, but the $37m debut of Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor (and eventual $125m final) seems a good guess this far out.

For one thing, it’s perhaps telling that Paramount isn’t platforming the picture for 2015 Oscar contention. But then they probably know that the Academy is going to have a tough time rewarding a politically volatile movie  (and potentially indirectly anti-Hillary Clinton propaganda) in the middle of an elections season from the director who made the last four Transformers movie. Platforming Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor was a waste of time and money in 2013/2014 for Universal/Comcast Corp. and I presume Paramount/Viacom Inc. thinks that’s the case here.  Now onto the actual trailer, it’s a bit more of a generic sell than that all-time classic American Sniper teaser from Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. This basically establishes the history and the primary conflict and then concludes with a token amount of action to close out the proceedings. I’m more thrilled by the movie in theory than by anything offered in the trailer, but I imagine that the trailer will play just fine for those who want a movie about American heroes saving American lives during the embassy siege of 9/11/12.

And for those critics reading this, I’d suggest preparing your thinkpiece now. Because remember, service is citizenship! 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi opens January 15th, 2016 from Paramount Pictures/Viacom Inc. As always, we’ll see. But how much fun it will be to read all of the think pieces!  The horror… the horror!

Its BEEEENGHHHAAAZI BAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!

oh you wanna see a trailer? Ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CJBuUwd0Os

[Shannow]

Military porn for the masses.

[HaemishM]

Military porn for the masses.

Or most of Michael Bay's movies ever.

I can't take it seriously, especially knowing how much of a right-wing douche Bay is, as well as how painfully nationalistic most of his movies are with their military fetish.

[Malakili]

Michael Bay does Benghazi? Even The Onion couldn't have thought this one up.

[Evildrider]

Is this 2 hours of Obama and Clinton saying "Nothing to see here, move along."? 

[NowhereMan]

I'm expecting a strong element of State Department 'We won't risk a diplomatic incident for the sake of saving American lives. We will let the ambassador die because we trust Mulsims local security forces more than mercenariespatriotic American troops' Followed by a big fuck you! Risk our lives to save theirs type speech and possibly the State department guy getting punched in the face at some point.

[shiznitz]

As I understand it, there is very little attention paid to the policymaker side of the incident. This is just about the events on the ground, a la Lone Survivor.

[Sir T]

So you're saying there wont be the traditional scene with the lone hero screaming down the phone at the bungling evil bureaucrats who refuse to act to save the place, and therefore he and his band have to go it alone against orders to save the day?

Damn :(

[HaemishM]

That scene isn't on the phone but it is in the trailer. 

[Comstar]

I'm surprised that they didn't use the line Vilerat posted when it started- having a simple line of text start the whole thing off. Maybe that'll come in the remake.

[shiznitz]

This was in the preview collection for MI V. That strikes me as quite a coup.

[Merusk]

I'm surprised that they didn't use the line Vilerat posted when it started- having a simple line of text start the whole thing off. Maybe that'll come in the remake.

That'd require acknowledging them as people with lives and dreams and beliefs that might not align with the agenda being pushed rather than martyrs for a political cause.

[Surlyboi]

Pretty much that.