There are many thought provoking, artful and compelling war films — “12 Strong” is not one of them. Throughout its two hour run time, I was amazed by how blatantly bland and formulaic the film was, especially because it was based on a compelling true story.
“12 Strong” dramatizes the actions of a dozen American Special Forces operatives who were sent into Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11 to aid Afghan fighters battling the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Their story stands out from the thousands of other declassified missions by Special Forces in what we have come to call the War on Terror because, at a crucial point, these 12 fighters made a charge on horseback against the Taliban. The charge cleared a path for Afghan fighters to liberate the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a key victory in the fight against the Taliban. The city was taken and the soldiers returned home, resulting in the movie ending on a high note.
On paper, the film boasts an impressive cast, yet their talent is wasted by a shoddy script. Chris Hemsworth plays the team’s leader, and it appears he was cast with the purpose of looking rugged and not much else. The Hemsworths are not actors who are hired for their emotional range, and Chris is no exception. Veteran actors Willaim Fichnter and Rob Riggle both appear as senior U.S. Army officers, and yet their theatrical talent is squandered since they spend almost the entire film standing in a tent explaining the plot to each other.
The movie buys into all the popular American tropes of a film about modern war. The popular subplot of the benevolent American soldier mentoring a local kid, the one-dimensionally evil Muslim antagonist whose motivations are never explored and the incompetent local allies are all popular tropes seen before that are repeated in “12 Strong.”
The expected flag waving occurs; the Americans are, after all, the heroes of the movie, and this is accomplished by writing the Afghan characters so they come across as petty and at times downright cowardly. In the climactic battle, it is the Americans who lead the Afghans to victory.
In the end, what stood out to me the most was the film’s hollow message of revenge. Hemsworth’s character is handed a metal fragment from World Trade Center before he leaves on the mission. At one point, he turns to his men and says, “If we don’t stop these guys, what happened back home will happen again and again.” After the climactic battle, he buries the fragment in the Afghan soil as if to say that he has avenged the 9/11 attacks. No mention is made of the fact that tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers would soon enter Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, a war that continues to this day with no end in sight, and a death toll that conservative estimates put at 125,000 and counting.
In addition to this, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have by no means stopped terror attacks from happening. Therefore, the film rings hollow as we the audience know that while this battle was a success, the war was not, and no Hollywood puff piece can change that.