movie review 13 hours

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

With “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” Michael Bay has done for the attack on Benghazi and those who fought and died there what he did for the attack on Pearl Harbor in “ Pearl Harbor ”—reduce the seriousness of the event and the sacrifices made into another exercise of the kind of slick, soulless excess that is virtually indistinguishable, both stylistically and dramatically, from the rest of his filmography.

Based on the best-selling account by Mitchell Zuckoff (with the participation of five of the survivors of the attack), the film begins as former Navy SEAL Jack Silva ( John Krasinski ) arrives in Benghazi to work as a private consultant on the security detail for a CIA outpost alongside old friend Tyrone “Rone” Woods ( James Badge Dale ). The job isn’t ideal—Benghazi is one of the most dangerous places in the world; he is separated from his wife and young daughters; and all the official CIA people that he is working under, especially outpost chief Bob ( David Costabile ), are constantly reminding all the security guys that they are the ones doing the important work. It brings in more money than staying at home and working as a real estate agent.

In early September 2012, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher) arrives and insists on staying at the diplomatic compound during his visit. While inspecting the premises before the arrival of Ambassador Stevens, Silva, Rone and their fellow security consultants realize instantly that the protection it offers is completely inadequate. They’re further appalled when they see that a once-secret meeting has been made into a public affair, alerting everyone in the dangerously unstable region to the presence of Stevens. Nevertheless, the CIA guys and the security patrol at the diplomatic compound poo-poo their warnings and insist that they have everything under control.

On September 11, the compound, with Stevens inside, is attacked by a heavily-armed mob that quickly storms the building and even sets it on fire in an attempt to smoke the ambassador out. From their vantage point at the CIA outpost a mile or so away, Silva, Rone and four other security men on hand—Kris “Tanto” Paronto ( Pablo Schreiber ), Dave “Boon” Benton ( David Denman ), John “Tig” Tiegan ( Dominic Fumusa ) and Mark “Oz” Geist ( Max Martini )—can see what is going down and are prepared to rush over and assist, but the main CIA guy gives them a direct order to stand down. He continues to repeat that order until the six of them decide to defy it and head out to the compound without authorization. Although they fend off waves of attackers and manage to pull a couple of people out, they are unable to find Stevens in the burning building before returning to their base. It is then that the CIA base becomes the new focus of attack and the guys, along with a handful of others, are forced to single-handedly defend the compound and those inside while calls for air support are ignored and a potential rescue force is stuck on the tarmac in Tripoli mired in red tape.

In the hands of the right filmmaker, a film about Benghazi might have yielded something like Ridley Scott’s “ Black Hawk Down ,” another chronicle of a mission in an unstable land that went horribly wrong. Scott’s film chronicled the horrors of what happened, the heroism of those that fought and the combination of mistakes, misjudgments and plain bad luck that occurred along the way. Alas, Michael Bay has never been known as a director with any sense of nuance, and instead recounts the story in the broadest manner imaginable. The screenplay by Chuck Hogan is about as simplistic and simple-minded as can be—our six heroes are near-gods who can do no wrong while the government operatives on display are cartoonishly dumb, obnoxious and blinkered in their thinking. When he wants viewers to recognize what drives our heroes to put themselves in harm’s way, he not only has one of them read aloud from Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth” but repeats that moment as a flashback towards the end—which is also pretty much the extent of the character development as well. Frankly, the best writing in the film is featured in a clip from “ Tropic Thunder ” that is shown and considering what that movie is about—a group of actors going off to film a war story that proves to be not quite as accurate as advertised—its inclusion comes across as either the sickest joke imaginable or a weird bit of meta-commentary that somehow got slipped into the mix.

As for Bay, he treats the material in much the same manner for everything else—like a hyper-violent video game featuring lots of dazzle and precious little else. Thinking back to “Black Hawk Down,” you will recall how brilliantly Scott evoked the confusion of what happened while still laying everything out in a manner and allowing viewers to follow along and find order in the chaos. “13 Hours” evokes plenty of confusion, but it is less the fog of war and more the fog of a filmmaker who seems incapable of following the basic rules of film grammar when needed. One could argue that Bay is trying for a “you are there” approach that plunges viewers into the mayhem and keeps them as much in the dark as the character were but he just doesn’t have the skills to pull it off. Utilizing his familiar arsenal of rapid edits, slow-motion and showy special effects (including a bit following a mortar as it descends from the skies to hit its target that appears to be Bay’s homage to a similar shot in his own “Pearl Harbor”), he does everything he can to get an immediate reaction (including a bit in which the American flag is machine-gunned in slow-motion that feels like the longest sustained shot in the film) but neglects to give viewers anything else to grasp onto that could give them any understanding of what happened. As bad as the action is, the allegedly character-driven bits are even worse—a scene in which Silva gets some news from his wife and kids over a video chat while the family is at a McDonald’s drive-thru is so badly handled in every possible way that it makes the scene in Bay’s “ Armageddon ” with Ben Affleck , Liv Tyler and some animal crackers seem positively subtle by comparison.

Simply put, “13 Hours” is a pretty dreadful movie and while watching it, I sat there trying to figure out what kind of audience might actually go for it. Those of the liberal persuasion will write it off because it presents elements that have been highly disputed or flat-out denied (such as the stand-down orders) as unquestioned fact. Conservatives may be upset that it doesn’t go far enough in tying Hillary Clinton to the events depicted—unless I missed it, she is never once mentioned specifically. As an action movie and as a historical document, it is a bombastic and wholly inauthentic mess that displays precious little interest in the men whose actions and sacrifices it purports to honor. There is a good and interesting movie out there to be made about the tragic events at Benghazi and the political aftermath but “13 Hours” is definitely not it.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

• Dominic Fumusa as Tig
• Toby Stephens as Glen 'Bub' Doherty
• John Krasinski as Jack
• Max Martini as Oz
• David Costabile as The Chief
• David Denman as Boon
• Alexia Barlier as Sona Jillani
• Elektra Anastasi as CIA Agent
• James Badge Dale as Rone
• Pablo Schreiber as Tanto
• Calvin Wimmer
• Pietro Scalia
• Chuck Hogan

Cinematographer

• Lorne Balfe
• Michael Bay

Writer (novel "13 Hours")

• Mitchell Zuckoff

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Review: In Michael Bay’s ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,’ Clarity Isn’t the Objective

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By Manohla Dargis

• Jan. 14, 2016

Slipped into “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” among the torrential bullets and convulsive mayhem, is a protracted advertisement for a Mercedes-Benz S.U.V. A dramatization of the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic mission in Libya that resulted in the death of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the movie is a pummeling slog — 45 minutes of setup and an eternity of relentless combat. So it’s a relief when the director Michael Bay, amid this bleak fusillade, provides a little zigzagging action-movie-style relief. You can’t help but admire how well the truck holds up with its wheels aflame, like a 21st-century chariot of fire.

Movie Review: ‘13 Hours’

The times critic manohla dargis reviews “13 hours.”.

Those blazing wheels and several nods to Joseph Campbell suggest that there is more going on in “13 Hours” than in the usual Michael Bay conflagration. The king of screen chaos, he is best known for the “Transformers” series, with its battling robots. He makes big, bludgeoning movies stuffed with nonsense, special effects and military fetishism, and while they are ridiculous they can be absurdly entertaining when they’re not boring you out of your mind. A maximalist to the max, he has no interest in artistic niceties like nuance, scale and pacing, but he does know how to blow stuff up. What makes his commitment to mayhem somewhat interesting is that it’s never clear if this aesthetic of bombast originates from self-parody, a lack of self-awareness or maybe both.

His new movie finds him trying something different. It’s based on the book “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi,” written by Mitchell Zuckoff with security contractors who were working for the Central Intelligence Agency. The book is largely an on-the-ground account from five surviving contractors who were stationed at the C.I.A. base, known as the Annex, near the American diplomatic mission. The movie is unlikely to change the minds of those who subscribe to opposing accounts of the attack, its lead-up, how it went down beginning on Sept. 11, 2012, and the continuing political fallout. Then again, anyone seeking clarity on anything shouldn’t look to Mr. Bay; cinematic intelligibility has never been in his wheelhouse.

Mr. Bay likes to go bold and likes to go bonkers, fattening his often-outrageous material with crazed visual strokes and thunderous explosions, helter-skelter angles and scattershot editing. He has moderately scaled back his extreme-cinema approach for “13 Hours,” perhaps realizing that its story or the ordeals endured by the C.I.A. security team merit a level of sobriety rather than showboating. Whatever the case, the results are more about the team’s prowess and less about his. Mr. Bay still wants to drop jaws (hence the fiery Mercedes), and he continues to bring that certain Bay obviousness to each scene. Here, though, his excesses are most apparent in the emphasis on the numbingly endless fighting than on the image plane.

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Review

This tribute to the defenders of the us outposts shows michael bay can make a film about human beings..

Usually with Michael Bay movies, the breathless pacing and non-stop action make them emotionally numbing, a merely relentless sensory onslaught. But this by-the-throat approach works for 13 Hours, as the brief moments of down time in-between shoot 'em-up set-pieces is at least spent with characters this time instead of talking cutouts passed off as humans.

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Movie review: '13 hours: the secret soldiers of benghazi'.

David Greene talks to Justin Chang, chief film critic for Variety , about 13 Hours — the new movie about the 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Film Review: ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’

Michael Bay makes a half-successful bid for seriousness with this harrowing, often willfully confusing account of the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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“I feel like I’m in a f—ing horror movie,” a soldier murmurs as gunfire erupts around him, and his words turn out to be a pretty accurate assessment of Michael Bay ‘s noisy, nerve-frying account of the widely contested 2012 terrorist attacks that claimed four American lives in Benghazi , Libya. Taking a break from the cultural atrocities of the “Transformers” franchise with this half-successful bid for seriousness, Bay approaches his tinderbox of a subject pretty much the way you’d expect from Hollywood’s most aggressively pro-military director: Largely avoiding the political firestorm in favor of a harrowing minute-by-minute procedural, “ 13 Hours : The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” is an experiential tour de force but a contextual blur, a shrewdly dumb movie that captures, and perhaps too readily embraces, the extreme confusion of the events as they unfolded on the ground . Most of all, it’s a tribute to the brave U.S. fighters who kept a horrific situation from turning much worse, and it’s on that support-our-troops score — which propelled “American Sniper” and “Lone Survivor” to surprise-hit status — that this Paramount release will have its best shot at connecting with war-weary domestic audiences beyond Bay’s fan base.

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Adapted by author and first-time feature scribe Chuck Hogan from Mitchell Zuckoff’s 2014 book (which was written with the surviving members of the Annex Security Team in Benghazi), “13 Hours” has already been described by Bay as his “most real movie.” As a dramatization of a deadly real-life ambush on U.S. forces, it’s certainly an improvement on, say, “Pearl Harbor,” even if it shares with that 2001 misfire a scene shot from the inhuman p.o.v. of a falling rocket. Indeed, many of Bay’s tics and tendencies are on worrying display even in the story’s opening stretch in the fall of 2012: Less than a year after the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, tensions are running higher than ever in the perpetually war-torn port city of Benghazi, and “13 Hours” immediately thrusts us into the mayhem with hard-slamming edits and angry, agitated camerawork. The context may be a foreign one, but the muscular visual language is pure Bay; even a tense early standoff between two Americans and a Libyan militia has all the jacked-up macho swagger of a “Bad Boys” meet-cute.

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The two Americans are former Navy SEALs and old friends, Jack Silva ( John Krasinski ) and Tyrone “Rone” Woods (James Badge Dale), private security contractors who have been tapped as part of the CIA’s Global Response Staff to protect U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats in the city. The other ex-military men serving with the GRS in Benghazi are Mark “Oz” Geist (Max Martini), Kris “Tanto” Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), John “Tig” Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa) and Dave “Boon” Benton (David Denman), and while they are given only minimal character shadings — Boon is the bookish one, Tanto the frat boy, Silva the skilled newcomer, Rone the natural leader — the movie neatly limns the difficult personal circumstances that brought each of these men to this God-forsaken outpost, with Krasinski and Dale providing a sturdy dramatic anchor throughout.

Much as they long to return home to their wives and children (as captured in a few gooey flashbacks and video-chat montages), these men are born soldiers, trained to respond to sudden danger with quick-thinking professionalism and unflinching courage. Due to the unrest that has held sway in the region for centuries (only recent events are described in the opening titles), there are plenty of opportunities for bravery even before Islamic militants attack the U.S. diplomatic compound on Sept. 11, penetrating the building’s formidable defenses and setting a fire that will ultimately claim the lives of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens (Matt Letscher) and Foreign Service information management officer Sean Smith (Christopher Dingli). Meanwhile, at the CIA’s Annex a mile away, Rone and his men are ready to respond but are ordered to wait in their vehicles by “Bob” (David Costabile), the top Agency officer in Benghazi, which almost certainly keeps them from reaching Stevens and Smith in time.

That delay was the most damning and controversial revelation in Zuckoff’s book, and Bay, never one to prioritize thought over action, offers a fairly blunt indictment of the bureaucratic thumb twiddling that kept a few good men from saving American lives. Wisely, this is about as far as “13 Hours” goes in pointing the finger of blame. There are a few vague nods to the lack of adequate security, preparation and response: the reliance on unarmed Libyan guards who quickly fled their posts, the realization that the Annex’s location isn’t nearly as classified as originally thought, and the grim discovery that the attacks were not spontaneous but premeditated. Still, the movie generally avoids trafficking in the conspiracy theories and partisan agendas that have turned the word “Benghazi” into a conservative battle cry against the Obama administration and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Whether due to lack of time or inclination (or perhaps the realization that the much-disputed Benghazi narrative calls for greater political nuance than “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”), Bay seems to have determined that simply dramatizing the details of the attack will be challenge enough.

It’s a challenge he accepts, but doesn’t always rise to meet, amid the frenzy of an unrelenting combat sequence that consumes most of the film’s 144-minute running time. Still, under the circumstances, that lack of clarity feels both deliberate and at times appropriate. Bay has a genius for incoherence, and this is one historic crisis that feels uniquely suited to his dubious talents: As the GRS soldiers make their way to the diplomatic compound and then back to the Annex, taking and dispensing heavy fire along the way, “13 Hours” all but revels in its own inscrutability. The men never know whether the Libyans approaching their compound or stopping their car might be hostiles or “friendlies,” and their unease is only exacerbated by lousy communication with U.S. forces back home and at another key base in Tripoli (400 miles away from Benghazi).

Scene after scene, the movie is an exhausting, pulverizing thing to experience, by turns immersive and continually disruptive. Every element of the filmmaking — from the jittery, rapid-fire cutting to the intensely saturated hues of Dion Beebe’s digital lensing, from the cacophonous, bullet-riddled sound design to Lorne Balfe’s equally percussive score — seems to push us out and pull us in with the same hectoring force. It’s a nail-biter and a head-scratcher rolled into one: The mind may initially race to keep up with logistics, but eventually one acknowledges the futility of trying to make sense of a situation that Bay himself hasn’t managed to clarify.

Really, it’s best to let “13 Hours” come at you like a piece of hyperkinetic abstract art, drenched in diesel, blood and testosterone. Beebe, doing his most striking handheld work since Michael Mann’s “Collateral” and “Miami Vice,” captures images of staggering brutality, but there’s an eerie seductiveness to his palette as well, from the regular use of night-vision footage to the sight of this still-beautiful beach city (played by a mix of locations in Morocco and Malta) lit up by fires and flares. Heroes and villains register as indistinct, dirt-caked blurs, and the orders and threats they bark at one another soon blend into an unintelligible background drone: the music of murder and military jargon.

To pause and think seriously about the situation at hand would short-circuit the overwhelming sensory effect that Bay and his collaborators are aiming for. It would also require a screenplay with a deeper understanding of the politics at hand (including the U.S.’ own murky role in the proceedings), and a willingness to put a more human face on the enemy. The aforementioned “American Sniper” and “Lone Survivor” also limited themselves to a soldier’s perspective, but they still invested their respective Middle East conflicts with more complexity and empathy than “13 Hours” extends to the Benghazi attackers; a visually striking scene of hijab-clad mothers mourning their fallen militants doesn’t really cut it. Other characters do occasionally register amid the tumult: The terrific Iranian actor Peyman Moaadi (“A Separation”) turns up as a friendly Libyan aide caught up in the horror, while French actress Alexia Barlier plays a defiant CIA operative whose chief narrative purpose is to exalt the heroics of those protecting her.

As one man rather needlessly points out during a moment of anxious downtime, Benghazi is essentially a 21st-century Alamo, and those are the sobering, reductive terms on which Bay’s movie presents itself. It’s no spoiler to note that two GRS soldiers — Rone and Glen Doherty (Toby Stephens), who arrived from his base in Tripoli on the morning of Sept. 12 — will soon perish in a mortar attack on the roof of the Annex. Their deaths, and the astonishing courage of their comrades, confer upon the GRS a nobility that is ambiguous and beyond reproach, and “13 Hours” solicits easy admiration by paying stolid, moving tribute to their sacrifice. Bay’s more generous critics may feel similarly inclined to honor a job well done. He may not have made a remotely great or definitive movie about Benghazi, but he’s surely earned a few points for good behavior.

Reviewed at Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, Jan. 12, 2016. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 144 MIN.

• Production: A Paramount release and presentation of a 3 Arts Entertainment/Bay Films production. Produced by Erwin Stoff, Michael Bay. Executive producers, Scott Gardenhour, Richard Abate, Matthew Cohan.
• Crew: Directed by Michael Bay. Screenplay, Chuck Hogan, based on the book “13 Hours” by Mitchell Zuckoff and members of the Annex Security Team. Camera (color, widescreen), Dion Beebe; editors, Pietro Scalia, Calvin Wimmer; music, Lorne Balfe; executive music producer, Hans Zimmer; production designer, Jeffrey Beecroft; supervising art director, Sebastian Schroeder; art directors, Monica Sallustio, Charlo Dalli, Stefano Maria Ortolani; set decorator, Karen Frick; set designers, Mario Fontana Arnaldi, Marco Furbatto, Shamison Busuttil; costume designer, Deborah L. Scott; sound, Mac Ruth; supervising sound editors, Ethan Van Der Ryn, Erik Aadahl; sound designers, Tobias Poppe, Tim Walston, Brandon Jones; re-recording mixers, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush; special effects supervisor, Terry Glass; special effects coordinator, Zuzu Milfort; stunt coordinator, Ken Bates; visual effects supervisor, Scott Farrar; visual effects executive producer, Wayne Billheimer; visual effects and animation, Industrial Light & Magic; assistant director, Simon Warnock; casting, Denise Chamian, Edward Said.
• With: James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Pablo Schreiber, Toby Stephens, Dominic Fumusa, Matt Letscher, David Denman, David Costabile, David Giuntoli, Demetrius Gross, Alexia Barlier, Peyman Moaadi. (English, Arabic dialogue)

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• Entertainment
• Review: Michael Bay Ups the Blunt-Trauma Quotient with <i>13 Hours</i>

Review: Michael Bay Ups the Blunt-Trauma Quotient with 13 Hours

I t’s hard to know just what to make of Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi . It’s harder yet to figure out why it even exists, or whom it exists for . The picture , based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s book, aims to dramatize the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on two U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya, carried out by Islamist militants. Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed; 10 others were injured. 13 Hours tells the story from the point of view of a six-man security team that first tried to rescue Ambassador Stevens after the terrorists attacked the main compound, and later attempted to stave off the militants’ assault on a CIA annex about a mile away.

13 Hours is bloody, graphic and intense, effective in a blunt-trauma way. But while the movie isn’t overtly political in a the partisan sense—it comes with no “Blame Hillary” agenda attached—there is something unscrupulous about the way it interprets and presents a real-life tragedy for the delectation of movie audiences. The picture isn’t exactly informative—Bay doesn’t explain very clearly exactly what happened, probably because nobody has a completely clear picture of the incident, not even those who were directly involved. But 13 Hours comes so close to being action entertainment that it made me a little queasy. It’s violent, but also weirdly detached from all-too-recent history. You could easily imagine someone adapting a video game from it, if someone isn’t at work on one already.

John Krasinski and James Badge Dale play Jack Silva and Tyrone “Rone” Woods, two members of that elite ex-military team, close friends who both have families but nevertheless keep allowing themselves to be drawn back to dangerous assignments. Jack has a wife and two girls back home; Rone has left a wife and an infant, the latter appearing, in all his chubby-cheeked glory, in a snapshot that will later prove extremely significant—you can bet Bay, with his tendency toward emotional bombast and visual overkill, will get his meaty paws all over it. The other men on the team include Dave “Boon” Benton (David Denman) and John “Tig” Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), though it’s a bit of a challenge to tell all of these dudes apart: with their brawny shoulders and regulation-style beards, each of them looks like the guy you cast when you can’t get Bradley Cooper.

The first half-hour or so of 13 Hours captures the ennui of guys sitting around waiting for stuff to happen, even as they’re hoping against hope that nothing will happen. And once the attacks begin, they’re terrifying: At one point Ambassador Stevens (Matt Letscher) huddles in a small, closed room as the militants light a fire right outside—black smoke flows beneath the door, rolling out in fat, fluffy plumes so beautiful that you momentarily forget how deadly they are. Later, grisly chaos erupts when the security team, perched on the roof of the CIA annex, the better to defend it, are blasted by artillery fire and grenades. Earlier, we’ve seen Rone slip that picture of his pudgy-cute baby beneath his vest. When he’s hit—a strike he doesn’t survive—Bay can’t resist showing smoke and detritus floating about, including the baby photo wafting gently down to Earth.

When I saw that snapshot, drifting along so artistically, I yelled out loud at the screen. I would have thrown a tomato—or a grenade—if I’d had one. All movies constitute emotional manipulation of some sort. But Bay (here working with cinematographer Dion Beebe and the usual army of special-effects guys) just goes for the cheapest shot without even thinking twice. It all makes you feel a little dirty as a spectator.

Even as Bay purports to show us how horrible this type of warfare is, he also can’t resist making it look at least a little exciting, like a not-so-thinly veiled recruitment ad. The movie insists on revving you up no matter how resistant to revving you are. As we know from Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and those million-and-one (or is it a million-and-two?) Transformer movies, Bay, among the most ham-fisted of directors, loves nothing more than things that go “boom.” But he’s almost worse when he’s trying to be sensitive and fair. Near the end of 13 Hours, there’s a sequence in which the mothers and wives of the militants, wrapped in their chadors, descend upon a lot in which their fallen men lie, clearly grieving. It’s not that this isn’t a realistic (or compassionate) depiction of what must have actually happened. It’s just that after all that carnage, it reads as a false moment of healing, a pre-emptive jab at critics who might call 13 Hours a jingoistic hootenanny. But I’m not so sure it isn’t a jingoistic hootenanny. One of the final shots includes a tattered, torn and dirtied American flag; earlier, we’d seen the militants shooting holes in Old Glory, presumably the same one. The bastards! Let’s get ’em! There are moments when 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi works like gangbusters. Still, it’s best to proceed with caution—and to know you’re being worked on.

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Reviews

13 Hours is proof that if Michael Bay wants to take something seriously, he does have the skill to do so.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 17, 2024

Michael Bay's film cannot help itself from taking brotherhood-fueled sides and blow everything up.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 4, 2023

Despite its flaws, I still found myself glued to the story...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

Forget a logical progression of shots that form a scene, like words do a sentence; Bay has no time for such nonsense.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2022

Could have been a fascinating and timely study of men juggling their jobs with complicated families lives but instead it is just another Michael Bay movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 3, 2021

The film stayed with you and provided Bay with his best effort. A truly visceral experience.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2020

The frustrating thing about 13 Hours is that you can feel Bay wanting to get serious.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2020

13 Hours is a typical Bay disaster, full of what would be called rookie mistakes had they been made by anyone else.

Full Review | Jan 13, 2020

[The actors] take some of the most ridiculous dialogue and make it believable.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Oct 17, 2019

Bay handles the action sequences well, but his sense of patriotism often trumps his sense of moral complexity -- something that is sorely missing amid all the explosions in 13 Hours.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 5, 2019

Yes, it's still patriotic explosions but Michael Bay has matured, Benghazi showing a more nuanced and balanced perspective from the bombastic director.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 9, 2019

Undeniably reverent of the real-life heroes who risked and lost their lives, but we are ultimately let down with a cliched script and overly Hollywood production that ignores the harrowing complexities of modern war.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Mar 30, 2019

The film, while not without its share of real flaws, certainly offers something more than the usual big dumb [Michael] Bay business.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 20, 2019

With [Krasinski's] winsome presence as the central character, 13 Hours has far more pathos and charm than I anticipated from a Bay military spectacle.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 9, 2019

Bay allows this story to unfold, giving the audience the opportunity to understand the tragic circumstances of this horrendous attack.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 25, 2018

The film highlights the contributions and sacrifices of the private armies of security people who work in the Middle East in exceptionally dangerous circumstances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 30, 2018

Politics aside, 13 Hours is just a dull and poorly assembled grab for ticket sales. The film is visually hard to follow, never fully invests in its characters, and never gets the audience to do the same.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Aug 30, 2018

13 Hours tells an exciting story in the most boring way possible, like a patronizing picture book describing warfare.

Full Review | Aug 27, 2018

"This is a true story," Bay announces at the beginning of this misbegotten misfire. You know, because more responsible wording like "based on" is strictly for wusses.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2018

13 Hours gives honor where honor is due.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2018

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• DVD & Streaming

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

• Action/Adventure , Drama , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• January 15, 2016
• John Krasinski as Jack; James Badge Dale as Rone; Pablo Schreiber as Tanto; Max Martini as Oz; David Denman as Boon; Dominic Fumusa as Tig; Toby Stephens as Glen 'Bub' Doherty; Alexia Barlier as Sona Jillani; Freddie Stroma as Brit Vaynor; David Giuntoli as Scott Wickland; Demetrius Grosse as Dave Ubben; David Costabile as The Chief; Wrenn Schmidt as Becky Silva

Home Release Date

• June 7, 2016
• Michael Bay

Distributor

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

We all know about brave men and women in uniform—the soldiers, sailors and airmen who serve in the Armed Forces. They serve their country, often with distinction, putting their lives on the line for the good of the nation and its interests. When they come home, they’re greeted with flags and honors. If they’ve been hurt, they’re given help to get better. And if they sacrifice their lives for their country, their loss is mourned deeply.

But there are other patriots who serve even though they no longer wear an official military uniform. These contract soldiers, who work for the CIA’s Global Response Staff, aren’t SEALs or Rangers or Marines anymore, but their experience makes them valuable—and flexible—commodities. They’re not given orders to land in the world’s hot spots; they’re hired to go to those places. And they go wherever they’re paid to be, be it Tel Aviv or Timbuktu, Beirut or Benghazi. They don’t come home to cheering crowds. Sometimes they don’t come home at all.

Jack, one such GRS contract soldier, arrives in Libya at a difficult time. Strongman Muammar Gaddafi has been deposed and killed. Factions squabble for power. Islamic extremists are making deep inroads across the country, and Americans are not always welcomed.

But with tension comes opportunity, and the United States sees plenty of it. The CIA has set up shop in Benghazi, operating out of a not-so-secret compound. Ambassador Christopher Stevens is coming to visit, too, with an eye toward opening regular diplomatic channels with the country. U.S. bigwigs would love to squelch the illegal weapons trade there and foster forces more friendly to America. But to do that, they need people on the ground. And those people need protection.

That’s why Jack’s there. Same with Tig and Tanto, Oz and Boon. Tyrone Woods, nicknamed Rone, leads them—assigning guards and drivers for CIA agents. And while the ambassador has his compound and employs his own guards, Rone, Jack and the rest of the guys will be just a few dusty streets down should they ever need assistance.

Or so they all assumed.

On Sept. 11, 2012, the ambassador’s compound comes under attack by dozens of angry, armed Libyans. By dawn the next morning, four Americans are dead, including the ambassador.

The events of that night, and those leading up to it, have been the topic of a great deal of discussion, much of it politically charged. But Jack and his fellow contractors—these un-uniformed soldiers who put their lives on the line that strange, chaotic night—know what truly went on.

Positive Elements

While 13 Hours chronicles a difficult chapter in American history, there’s much more to it than just the tragic loss of four American lives.

“Bottom line, this is inspirational,” said director Michael Bay at a press conference attended by Plugged In . The movie is based on a book of the same name, which in turn was based on the stories of these so-called “secret soldiers,” the contract guards, who lived through it. Bay’s mission was simply to tell the story of that violent night (stripped of its political aftermath). And while there are allusions to where things went wrong—a lack of adequate protection at the outset, American dithering during the attacks—the prime focus here is on the heroism of the people on the ground. “A lot of positive things came out of that night,” Kris “Tanto” Paronto said at the press conference.

The six GRS contract soldiers at the core of the story are more than a team: They’re a makeshift family, each willing to put his life on the line for his fellow warriors. All six risk their lives to save the CIA agents they’re assigned to, of course; it’s what they’re paid to do, after all. But they go above and beyond as well—doing their best to rescue the ambassador and the rest of his staff. And while four people died during the attacks in Benghazi, dozens of lives were also saved, thanks to the skill, dedication and teamwork of these professional defenders.

We also get glimpses of other good people at work, too. Ambassador Stevens is called a “true believer,” someone who hopes trust and friendship might foster a better Libya and, by extension, a more secure Middle East. “Relationships between people is the real foundation for democracy,” he says to a group of Libyans. A brave Libyan interpreter stays with his CIA employers through thick and thin, and other Libyans volunteer to fight alongside the Americans (though sometimes, these fighters are acting duplicitously).

Spiritual Elements

Militant Islam is, of course, at the root of the problems chronicled in 13 Hours . Islamic extremists were behind the attacks, and we see many Muslims in the act of prayer as their weapons rest against walls nearby. We hear calls to prayer and, ominously, they go silent all at once—a harbinger, Tanto thinks, of another attack.

The movie references the controversy over what supposedly started the attacks: a spontaneous reaction to a YouTube trailer for the movie Innocence of Muslims . One of the GRS employees says that he saw on American news that the attacks were connected with huge demonstrations against the movie. “I didn’t see any demonstrations,” Tanto says, confused.

In the film’s credits, we see how an estimated 100,000 Muslims grieved the attacks, mourned Stevens’ death and held signs apologizing for the extremists’ violent acts.

Islam is not the only religion represented in the movie, however. During a lull in the action, Tanto voices his belief that the Almighty is watching him, saying, “As long as I’m doing the right thing, God will protect me.” Then he adds, “That’s crazy, right?” When one of the warriors dies in combat, another says a quick prayer over the body. “God, watch over him,” we hear. “Guide him where he needs to be. Take care of his family.” When help finally arrives, another contractor says, “Oh Lord, oh Jesus,” in thanksgiving. Someone suggests ordering a flyby of F-16s in order to put “the fear of God and the United States” into the terrorists.

A line from Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth is mentioned several times: “All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells are within you.”

Sexual & Romantic Content

Two contract soldiers pretend to flirt with Sona, a chilly FBI agent. Someone watches a YouTube clip of rabbits having sex, and there’s also a joke about sheep mating. We hear crude references to the male anatomy and joking allusions to “bromances” and “spooning.”

Violent Content

The 13 hours between nightfall on Sept. 11, 2012, and dawn the following day was filled with the sort of terror and death that those of us who’ve never been in combat can hardly imagine. Accordingly, the movie does its bloody best to replicate the horrors of that night.

Dozens of people die, including four Americans. We see their bodies, and watch one as it’s pushed unceremoniously off a rooftop. Other men are horrifically injured. One had much of his forearm nearly taken off by a mortar blast, and we see it hanging from the rest of his arm by tenuous tendrils of flesh. Another suffers a compound fracture, and the bone juts from the body as blood squirts from the wound.

Dozens of Libyan terrorists get gunned down, sometimes dying instantly (and bloodily) via shots to the head or chest. After the battle, wives and mothers run to the dead bodies, crying and mourning.

Bombs go off. An armored vehicle rumbles through the street, peppered with bullets, dodging explosions and finally arrives in the compound with a flaming flat tire. Libyans everywhere are carrying guns—a really tricky situation, because the contractors can’t always tell who’s a friend, who’s an enemy and who just happens to be carrying a gun. Military weapons are sold freely in an open-air market. The Ambassador’s residence is set on fire in an effort to flush out those inside.

Crude or Profane Language

About 75 f-words and more than 30 s-words. Other profanities include “a–,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “h—” and “p-ss.” God’s name is misused at least 10 times, with about half of those instances getting paired with the word “d–n.” Jesus’ name is abused about five times. We hear several crude references to testicles.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Characters drink beer. A contractor laments that his teenage daughter back home has apparently started drinking.

Other Noteworthy Elements

People vomit. Someone says he needs to urinate.

While the events in Benghazi were horrifically unique, 13 Hours is not, exactly, a unique movie. We’ve seen several similar “based on a true story” combat narratives in the last few years, from Black Hawk Down to Lone Survivor to American Sniper . And little wonder. These wartime tales are always grimly compelling. The action is relentless. And lots of viewers find these true-life combat stories informative and, of course, entertaining.

But you get a different perspective when you talk with some of the real people involved. For Mark “Oz” Geist, John “Tig” Tiegen and Kris “Tanto” Paronto, 13 Hours is more than a movie. They lived through it. They watched friends die as the real battle unfolded.

So often, onscreen casualties don’t feel like a big deal. We only know these unfortunate characters, after all, for a couple of hours before they’re gone. And, of course, we know they’re not really gone. Death isn’t real in the movies.

But the characters in 13 Hours represent real people. Real casualties. Real loss. To hear Tanto talk about his fallen friends … well, it makes it feel disrespectful to munch popcorn while watching those deaths.

Make no mistake: Oz and Tanto and Tig are glad Michael Bay made 13 Hours . After all, they helped him make it. They wanted this story told from their perspective, removed from domestic politics and cable-news bluster. They wanted it to be as true to life as possible.

But it’s telling that Tig still hasn’t watched 13 Hours . The events in Benghazi still feel too raw for him. He worries he’d get angry all over again. And I can see why: 13 Hours is a well-made, violent, profane, difficult movie. The fact that it depicts real, important events makes it no less difficult.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi Review

29 Jan 2016

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Pulling in more than $5 billion at the box office is no mean feat. Michael Bay’s work is the epitome of the American blockbuster, pleasing crowds the world over, but many critics remain stubbornly unmoved. Maybe that’s why Bay has shelved high-octane sturm und drang for now and applied his talents to more thoughtful material. Hence 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi , a dramatic reconstruction of the 2012 attacks by militants on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, as seen by the security team tasked with its defence.

The movie’s focus is ex-SEAL-turned-security officer Jack Silva, played by The Office ’s John Krasinski. He’s transformed himself from average-schlub to ripped action hero. Once you get past the suspicion that he’s going to glance wearily into the camera at any moment, he’s highly believable as the semi-reluctant combatant in a battle that looks impossible to win.

There’s little stillness to counteract the chaos and we never really get to know these men.

On arrival in Benghazi, Silva is picked up by Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale), who tells him, “You can’t tell the good guys from the bad.” That sets the tone for what follows. When the attacks come, it’s literally a bloody mess. Vastly outnumbered, Silva, Woods and their team fight to keep dozens of militants at bay until back-up arrives.

The resultant battle is long and brutal, an inexorable collage of lost limbs and splaying blood, all presented in Bay’s signature fast edit, slo-mo style. It’s extremely tough to watch.

No doubt Bay is hoping 13 Hours... will follow in the footsteps of 2014’s American Sniper. Unlike Clint Eastwood’s surprise hit, however, there’s little stillness to counteract the chaos and we never really get to know these men. Aside from perfunctory backstory and a token collage of Skype sessions with loved ones back home, Silva and his armour-plated buddies may as well be, well, robots.

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13 Hours (2016)

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

In the last decade, Michael Bay has only directed one film that didn’t have the word Transformers in its title. In the years before he became obsessed with turning toys into movies, he was the go-to guy for movies that needed excessive explosions and gunfire. While it's not perfect by any means, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a return to Michael Bay doing what he does best. Having people blow stuff up and look cool doing it.

When I heard Bay was going to make a movie that would deal with the tragedy that took place in Benghazi, Libya in 2012, I was equal parts curious and nervous. The only time that Bay had ever dealt with a real event previously was in 2001’s less-than-stellar Pearl Harbor . What’s more, the events of the film are still a political hotbed, making it all but inevitable that this movie will become just one more thing for the politically divisive crowd to fight over. Prepared for the worst with 13 Hours , I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it.

The movie opens with a brief summary of the events that turned Libya from a nation under the rule of despot Muammar Gaddafi into a nation in charge of its own destiny. Unfortunately, this transition was far from clean, leaving the country in upheaval. We are then introduced to our primary character of Jack Silva ( John Krasinski ) arriving in Benghazi. He’s a former military man, now independent contractor on a short term contract to help provide security for a covert CIA location and a nearby American diplomatic post. Silva is one of six men at the post. The rest of the team consists of Tyrone 'Rone' Woods (James Badge Dale), Kris 'Tanto' Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), Dave 'Boon' Benton (David Denman) John 'Tig' Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), and Mark 'Oz' Geist (Max Martini). Each one is a former Navy SEAL or Army Spec. Ops. soldier. They're the best in the world at what they do (and are classic Bay archetypes).

These also are the men who co-wrote the book on which 13 Hours is based. As such, each one of them is presented as both a perfect soldier and a loving family man. Maybe it’s true that these six men knew exactly what to do at every moment when nobody else could do anything right. But as a movie that’s supposed to be based on a real event, they seem too perfect. Nobody is flawed, nobody makes a mistake at any point. At the same time, each actor is able to bring some degree of humanity to their character so that they are relatable, and you do end up caring about them. Krasinski is absolutely the standout here. I have only a passing familiarity with his time on The Office . Seeing him in this role might be a shock to some who are in a similar boat, but he looks like a natural soldier on screen here.

The plot advances once U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens arrives and insists on staying at a less-secure diplomatic post (as opposed to the safer CIA location). Stevens is a “true believer” who is trying to do everything he can to help the nation of Libya get on its feet. The worst fears of our band of soldiers come true, however, when an assault begins on the compound and the ambassador finds himself in danger.

While it would be nice to be able to review a movie in a vacuum, that simply isn’t possible. Politics play a role in the story, although, to be fair, the movie does its best to keep things as even as possible. Nobody mentions Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama by name at any point. Instead, the villain here is bureaucracy, as personified by a CIA station chief who is such a caricature they don’t even bother to give him a last name. He’s the one who orders the team to stand down when they want to go in because it goes against protocol. The team agrees until a call comes over the radio telling them that if they don’t come now, everybody will die. The CIA chief (David Constable) still orders the team to stand down. If you followed the news at the time, you know they decide to disobey the order.

What follows, from that moment, is the 13 Hours of the title, abbreviated to movie length, as they attempt to rescue those at the embassy, and then keep themselves alive until help arrives to get them out. I’d forgotten how long it had been since I’d seen Michael Bay direct action and he’s much better at the job when he directs people instead of CGI robots. The action is intense and well shot.

While we know much more now about what happened that night, these men did not, and so the causes are barely touched on. This could be a positive or a negative, depending on your perspective, and on what you hope to get out of 13 Hours . One throwaway line of dialogue implies who is responsible for the attack, while another mentions the early reports that came out in then States. These are minor details in the story, though, as what’s important to the characters is simply getting their job done in the moment. At the same time, you may find yourself wondering who exactly our heroes are fighting. The heroes never ask this question themselves (which makes sense, in context).

As such, we jump headlong with them on this ride knowing as much as they do about what’s going on. This makes one of the most overused tropes of modern action movies, the “shaky cam,” actually useful. It’s nearly impossible to tell what’s going on with the camera jumping around, but then, that’s exactly the point here. It would have been even more effective if the shaky cam was left out during earlier scenes when it wasn’t needed.

It’s a shame that 13 Hours likely is going to be swept up in politics, because one side is going to make the film out to be much more than it is while the other is going to try and make it out to be worthless. The truth, as is usually the case, is someplace in between. 13 Hours is a perfectly serviceable action movie that’s worth seeing, if that's the kind of movie you like to watch.

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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13 hours: the secret soldiers of benghazi.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 13 Reviews
• Kids Say 19 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Explosive take on politically charged topic is very violent.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is an action-heavy thriller based on eye-witness accounts of the events leading up to the attacks on the temporary American mission in Benghazi and the secret CIA annex on Sept. 11, 2012. Directed by Michael Bay, the movie is based on a…

Why Age 16+?

Combat scenes include shoot-outs between heavily armed U.S. forces/security deta

Lots of swearing in the movie's high-stakes, life-or-death environment, incl

Almost all of the tricked-out, bullet-proof cars are Mercedes.

Adults smoke cigarettes and a hookah and drink in a few scenes.

No sex, but an American man asks a Libyan man whether Gaddafi's guard was re

Any Positive Content?

Pays tribute to the uncredited "shadow soldiers" who protected the sta

The men in the movie -- privately paid individuals who are no longer working in

Violence & Scariness

Combat scenes include shoot-outs between heavily armed U.S. forces/security detail and a Libyan militia. Machine guns, RPGs, and explosions. Men die from bullet wounds and smoke inhalation. A man walks around with part of his forearm and wrist detached from his body, spraying blood everywhere. Another man with debris stuck in his body also bleeds profusely. Lots of blood and dead bodies are visible. A prominent character's dead body is thrown off a building.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Lots of swearing in the movie's high-stakes, life-or-death environment, including "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "s--tstorm," etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

No sex, but an American man asks a Libyan man whether Gaddafi's guard was really composed of solely beautiful women, and a Libyan man makes gestures indicating big breasts and a curvy, tall build. A female CIA agent is tender and almost flirtatious toward a male contractor, but there's nothing between them but obvious fondness.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Pays tribute to the uncredited "shadow soldiers" who protected the state department and CIA agents; per the movie, they prevent the Benghazi incident from becoming even deadlier. Suggests that disobeying orders is OK if it means saving lives and that bureaucracy is the reason so many lives were lost that night in Libya.

Positive Role Models

The men in the movie -- privately paid individuals who are no longer working in the armed forces as soldiers -- are indisputably brave. That said, the movie glamorizes self-proclaimed "warriors" over agents with years of international diplomatic and intelligence experience. Few agents are shown as courageous except for a chef and a female spy. Some viewers may take issue with the way Muslim characters are depicted.

Parents need to know that 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is an action-heavy thriller based on eye-witness accounts of the events leading up to the attacks on the temporary American mission in Benghazi and the secret CIA annex on Sept. 11, 2012. Directed by Michael Bay , the movie is based on a memoir written by a group of CIA contractors who claim they were ready to help the ambassador and his small U.S. State Department detail but were told to stand down by their base chief. The movie is seen as highly political by some and shouldn't be considered an impartial narrative of what happened on that fateful night. Frequently violent and bloody, the movie shows dead bodies, including that of a prominent character. People die from bullet wounds, explosions, and fires/smoke inhalation. There's also a fair bit of strong language ("f--k," "s--t," and more) and a few mild innuendoes. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (13)
• Kids say (19)

Based on 13 parent reviews

Its like a meal when you are hungry very delicious

What's the story.

13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI is director Michael Bay 's adaptation of the same-titled memoir about the deadly 2012 night in Libya that cost four American lives -- including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens -- and remains one of the most hotly debated events to take place during President Obama's administration. Focusing on six commandos who were in Libya as CIA contractors on a special security detail (all ex-special forces -- SEALs, Deltas, etc.), the movie's protagonist is Jack Silva ( John Krasinski ), the latest to join the Benghazi crew under his fellow SEAL Tyrone "Rone" Woods ( James Badge Dale ). They guard a secret CIA annex led by surly base chief Bob (David Costabile), who doesn't think the soldiers' presence is necessary. After Ambassador Stevens (Matt Letscher) relocates to Benghazi, the team is on high alert, and on Sept. 11, 2012, in what seems like a calculated series of attacks, local militia attacks both the compound where the ambassador lived and, later, the supposedly secret CIA annex.

Is It Any Good?

Known for big-budget explosions, fast edits, and anti-authority warriors (be they cops, self-sacrificing oil drillers, or Transformers ), Bay once again glorifies big guns over big minds. Despite claims that 13 Hours isn't a political film, the movie clearly takes the position that the people in the ambassador's State Dept.-issued security detail were a bunch of amateurs with "less than a dozen years of military experience between them" and that "Bob" was antagonistic and, worse, an elitist who thought the ex-military crew was only good for working out, playing video games, and doing as they were told. Naturally, by the end of the film, a battered and resigned Bob sentimentally tells one of them, "I wish more Americans were like you."

Whether these men were really as eclectic a mix as they seem on screen is hard to know if you haven't read the book. Krasinski is a study in understated control as a father of three who just wants to bring home a better living, whereas Boon (Krasinki's long-ago Office co-star David Denman ) is the intellectual of the group, reading Joseph Campbell in his downtime; Tanto ( Pablo Schreiber ) is the loud-talking joker; and Tig (Dominic Fumusa) and Oz (Max Martini) are the serious-eyed guys with an unmistakable intensity. There's a little humor in the flick -- mostly courtesy of the Annex's Libyan interpreter, Amahl (Peyman Moaadi), who isn't quite ready to use a gun -- but this is definitely a "bring out the guns, the ammo, and the flag" kind of movie. If you want a nuanced approach, look elsewhere.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about "historical" movies that are only a few years removed from the events they're dramatizing. How are they different than movies made decades after the fact? Do you need time and distance from a subject to treat it fairly/objectively?

How does the violence in this movie compare to what you might see in a comic book or horror movie? Do different types of media violence have different impact?

Does 13 Hours have political implications? Should viewers believe this account of what happened? Why or why not? Is any film truly impartial?

Does the movie treat the CIA agents fairly? Do you think they would have a different perspective on the way the night unfolded? What about base chief Bob?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 15, 2016
• On DVD or streaming : June 7, 2016
• Cast : John Krasinski , James Badge Dale , Pablo Schreiber
• Director : Michael Bay
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : History
• Run time : 144 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong combat violence throughout, bloody images, and language
• Last updated : July 22, 2024

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Have no fear Hillary Clinton. Michael Bay is not guilty of using his new blast of mind-numbing noise, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi , as a battle cry against your shot at the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s leaving that to Bernie Sanders. Clinton’s name is never mentioned in this telling of the siege on a diplomatic outpost that occurred under her watch as Secretary of State. Still, enough blame is implied to make 13 Hours Donald Trump’s early pick for movie of the year.

This is Bay’s cinematic celebration of the six brave American security operators on the ground on Sept. 11, 2012, when an attack by Islamic militants ended four American lives in Benghazi, Libya. Clumsily adapted by a tin-eared Chuck Hogan from Mitchell Zuckoff’s 2014 nonfiction bestseller, the movie effectively captures the frenzy of the ambush. That’s pretty much it for the good news. The rest is pure Bay, as when he borrows a trick from his abysmal Pearl Harbor and shoots a scene of real-life tragedy from the point of view of a bomb. The director of a trilogy of Transformers twaddle still gets more jacked up by machines than people.

And yet this time a bit of humanity peeks through the din in the form of several solid actors. John Krasinski as Jack Silva and James Badge Dale as Tyrone “Rone” Woods bring a distinct human touch to the roles of former Navy SEALs now hired for $150,000 a year by the CIA’s Global Response Staff to protect U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats in an unsecured Benghazi compound. These guys not only have to contend with liberal wussies at home, but also condescending CIA elitists (Bay hates pencil pushers). In the words of the local CIA chief (David Costabile), mysteriously named Bob: “You’re hired help, act the part.” Bob is also criminally indecisive about giving the order to move on the CIA Annex a mile away and rescue U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher), who died of smoke inhalation.

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Is there any hard evidence that anyone — Clinton, Obama, our boy Bob — ever issued a “stand-down” order? The film both exploits and dodges the issue. I’m being generous to say that the script barely sketches in the other GRS operatives, including Mark “Oz” Geist (Max Martini), Kris “Tanto” Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), John “Tig” Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa) and Dave “Boon” Benton (David Denman). Their phone-home flashbacks are the stuff of crass tearjerking. And Bay, whose name on a movie should serve as a leper’s bell to all those who think they’re getting the “true” story, keeps jacking up the shootouts, firebombs, vehicle chases and a bus explosion that you won’t find in Zuckoff’s book. (Said bus doesn’t transform into a killing machine with dialogue, which is Bay’s one concession to subtlety.) There is a complex, compelling subject to be examined here that the director ignores. Facts bore Bay so he beats them into the submission to avoid his greatest fear: a dozing audience. Hoping to capitalize on the box-office bonanza of two previous rah-rah military movies that opened wide in January — Lone Survivor and American Sniper — Bay keeps blowing shit up for a punishing two hours and 24 minutes.

Is there an audience for this? Sadly, yes. There’s nothing wrong with a movie that cheers American heroes. But this one does so by reducing everything else to cardboard, its Libyan villains merely faceless aliens in need of vanquishing. Several critics have given 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi a pass, citing Bay’s skill at action engineering. It’s his failure at everything else that makes this movie as hard to endure as it is impossible to believe. #helpme

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Home » Movie News » Review: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Review: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

PLOT: The true story of a security team of six American security contractors in Benghazi who fought to defend an American diplomatic compound against a terrorist attack on September 11th, 2012.

REVIEW: 13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI benefits tremendously from director Michael Bay working with a budget that's only a fraction of what he'd spend on a TRANSFORMERS movie. A passion project for Bay, this is most disciplined film in years and a throwback to his nineties-era work. Even if some of his excesses are still present, this is a well-crafted effort.  Despite the subject matter, politics are mostly avoided to deliver an exciting, fact-based action yarn.

While still running an epic 144 minutes, this is a pretty streamlined film. It's far closer to Bay's THE ROCK than it is to anything he's made in the last fifteen years. After the first act, which establishes our heroes and gives context to the situation in Benghazi, the rest of the film is focused solely on the thirteen-hour siege. Of course, this is expertly staged by Bay, who – it could never be doubted – knows his way around an action sequence.

In many ways, 13 HOURS is superior to the more ambitious AMERICAN SNIPER. Here, the events speak for themselves without going too much into the politics of the situation. The closest they ever get to making any kind of statement is the brash way David Costabile 's CIA bureau chief and some of his operatives are portrayed. They treat the six contractors as brainless meatheads, only to depend on them for their lives when the carnage starts. There's also some frustration expressed at the fact that the men weren't allowed to act sooner, although this is at least given a bit of context. For the most part, this is a straightforward action-adventure and as such should be palatable to a relatively broad audience.

The atypical action cast is very good. John Krasinski is wholly convincing in action hero mode, with a pumped-up physique and a real sense of intensity. This is well illustrated by a tense showdown early-on where, only moments after landing in Libya, he finds himself in a armed standoff. James Badge Dale , who's stolen scenes in movies like THE LONE RANGER, finally gets to prove himself as a full-on lead, with him the veteran chief of the security detail. The part fits him well, thanks in no small part to his similarly beefed-up physique, a shocking transformation for the usually slim actor.

While always entertaining, 13 HOURS does have a few problems. The biggest is that other than Krasinski and Dale, the other four members of the team take a backseat to all the carnage and are limited to only a few character defining moments each. Krasinski is also absent for a large stretch of the film in the mid-section which undercuts his position as the lead and keeps us from investing too heavily in his character. As usual for a Bay film, there's also a little too much corny, frat-boy humour early-on that could have been cut-down given the hefty running time. Still, there are some moments that work, with Chuck Hogan (of THE TOWN) contributing a solid script based on Mitchell Zuckoff's nonfiction account of the siege. One bit I appreciated was when Krasinski's character panics over almost losing a contact lens before going in to battle. That's the kind of everyday detail we don't get enough of in movies like this (imagine fighting half-blind thanks to something so innocuous?).

While Bay's critics will find a myriad of reasons why not to like 13 HOURS, it's actually a solid military action film. While it's not up there with classics of the genre, it's an entertaining, testosterone-fueled ride. One thing's for sure, it proves that Bay's a far more interesting director when his resources are limited than he is directing massive franchise films.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

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About the Author

Chris Bumbray began his career with JoBlo as the resident film critic (and James Bond expert) way back in 2007, and he has stuck around ever since, being named editor-in-chief in 2021. A voting member of the CCA and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, you can also catch Chris discussing pop culture regularly on CTV News Channel.

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13 Hours : The Benghazi Action Movie No One Wanted

The Transformers director Michael Bay offers a rip-roaring drama based on the 2012 events in Libya, but channels none of the complexity the subject deserved.

Films about modern American military engagements often follow the same model of trying to graft heroic narratives onto stories about failure. Black Hawk Down detailed the disastrous 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. Lone Survivor dramatized an unsuccessful counterinsurgency mission in Afghanistan. American Sniper was a dark work about the psychological toll of warfare.

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The story Michael Bay tackles in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is as notorious by now as it’s grim: the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Libya in which a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans died. Like other directors in the genre, Bay’s primary goal is to tell a jingoistic story of bravery against all odds. He’s tried this in the past, notably with Pearl Harbor , a film that documented the devastating Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Navy and somehow tried to turn it into a gung-ho tale of victory. With 13 Hours , he’s grown subtler and more cynical, and has produced a better film (the bar being admittedly low) that’s focused on the minutiae of the Benghazi attack and the CIA contractors who fought off Libyan insurgents in the hours after the initial attacks.

The heroism here is embodied by those contractors, not the government employees who largely serve as nuisances and incompetent distractions. While it’s hard to discern a clear message from the movie outside of “Americans good, terrorists bad,” there’s an edge to Bay’s devoted individualism. Here are the people who knew best what to do, 13 Hours tells its audience. If only they’d been allowed to do it sooner.

It’s worth noting that Bay’s long been slavishly devoted to America’s public servants, from the Miami cops of Bad Boys to the NASA team of Armageddon (aided by private oil drillers, sure) to the U.S. military (the stars of Pearl Harbor and the Transformers series). But his last movie, the atrocious Transformers: Age of Extinction , cast the CIA as villains led by a paranoid Kelsey Grammer, working to undo American interests from the inside. In 13 Hours , by contrast, the CIA aren’t evil, but they’re a huge nuisance: gumming up the works in Libya, seemingly failing to provide any kind of warning about the attacks, and not letting the film’s heroes do their jobs.

Bay’s analysis of overseas diplomacy doesn’t amount to much beyond that, partly because 13 Hours ’ script, based on a 2014 book of the same name by Mitchell Zuckoff, only attempts to give a straightforward account of what happened on the ground in Benghazi, while taking a number of liberties with details established by ongoing investigations into the attacks. Like Zuckoff, Bay focuses wholly on six CIA contractors, so there are no fictionalized phone calls from Hillary Clinton or conspiratorial whispers about Barack Obama. Still, when trouble hits, the crack team of contractors stationed at a CIA annex near the ambassador’s residence ask to dive right into the action, and the CIA station chief (played by a stammering David Costabile) tells them to back off. By the end of the night, everyone is openly regretting that call.

Among the contractors are the straight-arrow new arrival Jack Da Silva (an absurdly muscular but no less deadpan John Krasinski), the wildcat leader Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale), and the wisecracking Kris Paronto (Pablo Schreiber). They’re all military veterans who’ve found their way into the more lucrative field of military contracting—quasi-governmental employees who don’t seem to have a designated space in the chain of command. You could be charitable and interpret 13 Hours as a critique of the convoluted way in which America organizes its military, and the crossed wires of intelligence and defense that contributed to the confusion on that day. But there isn’t enough in the film about where these guys fall in the grand scheme of things, just grousing from the contractors about how they know best, how the situation in Libya is a powder keg waiting to blow, and how nobody’s prepared for it.

They aren’t wrong—but once things kick into high gear about an hour in, politics largely drops out of the conversation. 13 Hours clocks in at nearly two and a half hours, and much of the 90-minute, extended-action setpiece that closes the movie involves the film’s heroes shooting down bad guys from afar, dodging RPGs, and bemoaning the generally screwed-up state of affairs on the ground—which hardly justifies the running time. Amid the action, there are touches of bleak humor from the ensemble, who are uniformly solid, macho, and very bearded, but there’s little sense of human tragedy.

As the film winds to a close and the heroes prepare to ship out, one looks back over his shoulder and tosses off the line, “This country’s gotta figure this shit out,” as if that counts as advice. What’s Bay’s take on the loss of life at Benghazi? It was bad, and possibly avoidable—but hey, Libya sure is a messed-up country. People cried “too soon” at the idea of a Benghazi movie coming out just a few years after the attacks, and they were right to, not just for reasons of sensitivity. Ultimately, the U.S. doesn’t have nearly enough perspective or hindsight to place these events in a context worth examining artistically, so all Bay can do is stage some gnarly fire-fights, praise the gumption of his main characters, and shrug his shoulders at the rest. 13 Hours presents itself as a straightforward war film, but that’s the last thing a subject this complex needed.

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The True Story Of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

Every michael bay movie, ranked from worst to best, mickey 17 trailer: robert pattinson dies over and over again in parasite director's new movie.

• 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi accurately depicts the time, location, and outcomes of the 2012 attack that killed four Americans.
• The movie avoids political controversy by focusing on the heroic actions of the soldiers on the ground, rather than pointing fingers or promoting conspiracy theories.
• The attacks in Benghazi were not caused by spontaneous protests as initially reported, but were likely a premeditated assault due to the hostile environment in the city.

At the end of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi , Jack Silva and the remaining members of the CIA's military contractor security team successfully evacuate 25 people from the CIA outpost in Benghazi, but how accurate is the movie's depiction of the real-life event? Directed by Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is based on the book, 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff about the real-life hotly politicized 2012 attack on United States facilities in Benghazi. The movie features performances from John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, James Badge Dale, David Denman, and more.

Following the ousting of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the region quickly destabilized as weapons flooded the black market. Jack Silva (John Krasinski) , a private military contractor, joins a team of other contractors including Kris 'Tanto' Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), Tyrone 'Rone' Woods (James Badge Dale), Dave 'Boon' Benton (David Denman), John 'Tig' Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), and Mark 'Oz' Geist (Max Martini) to defend a secret CIA facility in Benghazi operated by "Bob" (David Costabile). When an unexpected attack on United States Government facilities in Benghazi puts Ambassador Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher) in danger, and help doesn't come, the CIA contractors are the only line of defense.

The 2016 action drama film, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is based on a true story of American soldiers fighting militants in Libya.

How Accurate is 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi?

How much is actually known about the real benghazi attack.

What actually happened during the attack on the two United States government locations in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, has been subject to intense debate, so the accuracy of the movie is also subject to debate, but on a high level, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi accurately depicts the time, location, and outcome of the attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, IT officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEAL CIA contractors Tyrone "Rone" Woods and Glen "Bub" Doherty.

Since many of the details of the United States' involvement in Benghazi was (and still is) classified, the true accuracy is hard to pinpoint. Most of the characters in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi represent known individuals who were involved in the events at Benghazi, but some, particularly John Krasinski's Jack Silva and David Costabile's "Bob" are pseudonyms for real people whose identities haven't been revealed. Kris ‘Tanto’ Paronto, John ‘Tig’ Tiegen, Mark ‘Oz’ Geist were all consultants for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi , so the movie at least had input from people who actually lived through the event.

Benghazi Political Controversy Explained

How 13 hours: the secret soldiers of benghazi avoids the hot-button political controversy..

While the movie stays far away from pointing fingers, the name Benghazi is deeply connected to political controversy because it signals a massive failure at some level of government and it happened right before an election in the United States, so it was immediately politicized. Since Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the time, and therefore responsible for embassies and diplomatic outposts on a high level, Benghazi was subject to even more scrutiny during her presidential bid in 2016.

Due to the confidential nature of a lot of what happened in Benghazi as well as the polarized discourse surrounding it, the full truth of what happened may never be entirely settled. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is not a political movie and avoids pointing any fingers or stoking any conspiracy theories, instead focusing the story on the heroic actions of the soldiers on the ground.

The most controversial aspects of the Benghazi controversy surround the United States Government denying additional security to the Benghazi outposts in the months leading up to the attack, the denial of backup and lack of support during the attack, and the government and media in the United States incorrectly blaming the attacks on spontaneous protests. The movie depicts all of these events from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground in Benghazi, but doesn't point any fingers or angle the narrative to support any particular political narrative.

Why The American Government Didn't Provide Backup Or Air Support

Was a stand-down order really issued.

In one of the first scenes in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi , Tyrone bluffs about air support, but later reveals multiple recent requests for additional support had been denied in the weeks and months before the attacks even occurred. Once the attacks start, the CIA team members at the base frantically attempt to call in air support from numerous bases in the region, but no American help ever comes. One of the biggest problems is highlighted by Tyrone when he arrives back at the CIA annex and tells Bob to "Tell AFRICOM you're calling from that classified base they didn't know existed until an hour ago."

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In addition to the fact that none of their nearby allies knew they were there ahead of time, Bob also reveals that they're out of refueling distance for anyone to send a gunship. Despite the slow government response, Glen Doherty, another former Navy SEAL and private military contractor for the CIA who was stationed nearby in Tripoli, quickly acquired transportation on a private jet as soon as he found out about the attack, but then he was held up for hours at the Benghazi airport thanks to Libyan bureaucracy.

What Was The Real Motivation For the Benghazi Attack?

Was it related to spontaneous protests, or a premeditated assault.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi portrays Benghazi as a heated powder keg from the beginning. After Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was deposed, weapons flooded the streets and gangs began to war for supremacy in Benghazi. The movie includes a scene from five weeks before the attacks occurred where the team is tailed by militants, so it's clear there's suspicion and hostility regarding the United States' presence in the city, although there's no direct confrontation or explicit explanation for what caused the attacks.

When the attacks first received media attention in the United States, it was reported that the attacks spun out of protests related to an anti-Islamic film, a narrative repeated by numerous high-level government officials including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ambassador Susan Rice, although 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi suggests this isn't the case. Tyrone says "Chief said it was on the news back home. Something about street protests. Anti-Islamic films." and Dave (Demetrius Grosse) responds "We didn't hear any protests." After reaching the airport, Tig (Dominic Fumusa) says the attacks couldn't have been spontaneous: "No way those mortars found us by chance. Had to be set up on us days or weeks ago."