American ‘horse soldiers’ ride to feel-good victory
Proudly and narrowly, “12 Strong” is a good-news war story, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by first-time feature director Nicolai Fuglsig, of Denmark. Fuglsig trained as a photojournalist and covered the war in Kosovo; in the last decade his commercial resume includes sleek, digitally savvy and actionoriented spots for Corvette and Xbox’s Halo 4.
“12 Strong” is a goodnews story in that the facts and personnel constitute an early victory over the Taliban — not a comprehensive or lasting one, but a victory nonetheless. In the weeks following the destruction of the World Trade Center, as part of the Bush administration’s Operation Enduring Freedom, a 12-man U.S. Army Special Forces task force, code-named Task Force Dagger, was dropped into northern Afghanistan.
The Green Berets were charged with joining and advising Northern Alliance tribal warlords and their troops, fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida. The strategic early battle involved control of the city of Mazar-iSharif. With U.S. Air Force bombing support, and American soldiers traversing some extremely treacherous mountain terrain on horseback en route, the results were decisive. Also, the optics were terrific. The movie includes the moment when then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held up the picture of the “horse soldiers” (this was in late 2001) and found them very useful in selling the early stages of the war in Afghanistan.
New Mexico locales double for Afghan and Uzbek locations. The movie was made on a mediumrange budget (in other words, it isn’t “Black Hawk Down,” in any respect). “12 Strong” follows the production blueprint established by the gripping 2013 film “Lone Survivor,” which depicted a no-win 2005 Navy SEAL operation against the Taliban.
The stalwart cast is led by Chris Hemsworth. He plays the group’s captain, here named Mitch Nelson (based loosely on the reallife Mark Nutsch). Michael Shannon plays Chief Warrant Officer Hal Spencer, based on Bob Pennington. Trevante Rhodes, Michael Pena, William Fichtner and Rob Riggle work their scenes to advantage, though screenwriters Ted Tally and Peter Craig often seem stranded in a noman’s land between quasidocumentary reality and Hollywood cliche.
The key relationship here is between Nelson and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance, played by Navid Negahban of “Homeland.” Nelson’s characterization is familiar, stripped of detail and, as written and depicted here, Our American Hero, period. Dostum, by contrast, is the most interesting element of “12 Strong.” Scenes that seem far-fetched, such as Dostum goading the Taliban forces by telephone moments before an air strike, actually happened.
Much of the movie, as shot by Fuglsig and cinematographer Rasmus Videbaek, favors clear, adrenaline-pumping action beats and rousing, against-all-odds triumphs. Throughout the film, we’re reminded of the peculiarity of fighting men on horseback going up against all manner of military hardware. It’s not a bad movie, as far as it goes. In terms of context, though, it goes virtually nowhere. Granted, “Lone Survivor” stayed similarly close to a specific mission, albeit one with a very different outcome. But that movie stuck with you, relaying a stronger, truer sense of desperation. “12 Strong” is a straight-up, unalloyed shot of movie patriotism for the Make America Great Again sector of the American movie audience.