12 Strong is a well-made war movie that features strong (no pun intended) performances and delves into a remarkable fact-based story despite its conventionality to the genre.
It stars Chris Hemsworth as an Army captain who leads a team of soldiers into enemy territory against the Taliban after 9/11. Michael Shannon and Michael Pena costar as a Warrant Officer and a Sgt. First Class who join him along with nine others.
The team eventually encounters an Afghanistan general (Navid Negahban) who provides the Intel they need to succeed in their mission. Negahban offers the best performance in the movie as a man who is a supposed enemy yet his adversaries are relying on him to get the job done and he showcases a great degree of morality towards his supposed enemies.
The rest of the movie is a by-the-numbers war film that we’re used to seeing played out numerous times before. However, there are some incredible action sequences showing the American troops attacking the Taliban and some of the events surrounding the action, particularly this mission, would be hard to believe if we didn’t know this story was true.
Hemsworth, Shannon, and Pena lead a great cast in a story that doesn’t sensationalize its story and keeps it afloat with gripping action.
From Zero Dark Thirty to American Sniper to 13 Hours, the War on Terror genre has given us many different perspectives on what our troops go through and what they are willing to sacrifice to preserve our way of life.
This film isn’t a major one that will be in the top tier of a couple of the aforementioned ones I said, but it gets its job done with honor.
Grade: B
(Rated R for war violence and language throughout)
