Dozen quite work
A fascinating story from the days immediately after 9/11 is a natural for the big screen: In October 2001, a small task force of US Army Special Forces troops traveled to Afghanistan, forged a partnership with the Afghan Northern Alliance and vanquished a series of Taliban strongholds, liberating the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and creating bonds between the warring factions of the Alliance — a complex achievement honored at Ground Zero with a statue of a soldier on horseback. Pity that “12 Strong” is the film tribute they got. An overlong hash of generic violence, gratuitous gore and hackneyed dialogue, it’s the kind of war film in which you can imagine the special effects crew high-fiving one another for their work with fake-blood squibs — the ones that explode when a combatant is shot in the head. (This happens so often I lost count.) It’s macho eye candy: endless scenes of gunfire and explosions and rugged, handsome actors running while shooting and yelling. Chris “Thor” of them Hemsworth as Capt. Mitch runs Nelson. and yells But with Mark the best Nutsch, the real-life soldier Nelson is based on, is reduced to a John Wayne type who makes a vow to the little lady (Elsa Pataky) waiting at home that he’ll make it back in one piece. Nelson’s men, including Michael Peña, Geoff Stults and Trevante Rhodes, are mired in lines such as, “S-- t goes south, I’m dying with my boots on!” Director Nicolai Fuglsig also shows us the Taliban execution of a teacher who is shot in the head as sobbing grade-school girls watch. For anyone still on the fence about whether the Taliban are good guys, this will be instructive. For the rest The of film us, it’s is at pointlessly its best when sadistic. centered on Gen. Dostum (Navid Negahban), the weathered Afghan officer working with the Americans. He has some good lines about the futility of a foreign power going to war in his country (you’re a coward if you leave, and you become the enemy if you stay). Too often, however, he’s relegated to delivering stale platitudes about warriors’ hearts. Nelson’s Michael fellow Shannon, officer. always But in an a asset, film where plays scores of Afghan men fighting alongside the Americans are killed with little fanfare or actual relish, his is the only war wound that’s actually treated with concern. “12 Strong” should find an audience in anyone who wants to cheer on the life-and-death stakes of military revenge missions, but it’s pretty narrow-minded about which lives matter. Running time: 130 minutes. Rated R (violence, profanity). Now playing.