12 Strong has all the trademarks of a hollow propagandist, government-pleasing, mainstream effort with the Green Berets coming good with miniscule firepower and the never-say-die attitude.
12 Strong
U/A: Action
Director: Nicolai Fuglsig
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Peña, Michael Shannon
Rating: 
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The film tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11. A new captain, Mitch Nelson (Hemsworth) leads the ODA 595 team for a dangerous mission that involves developing a partnership (ironic) with the Northern Alliance in order to take down the Taliban and its Al-Qaida allies. The team is obviously outgunned and outnumbered, and Nelson and his team have to overcome the odds in their fight against the ruthless enemy.
A fact-based actioner, 12 Strong has the swagger of a Western and the blinding dash of a war movie. The film has all the trademarks of a hollow propagandist, government-pleasing, mainstream effort with the Green Berets coming good with miniscule firepower and the never-say-die attitude. It is a Hemsworth showboat with the other established actors like Shannon and Pena playing second fiddle. The characters here are all-one dimensional and there's not much depth to the geo-political backdrop nor is there any critique on the military adventurism.
The momentum may vary, but the indefatigable swagger plays on. It's obviously a macho display of guerrilla warfare in which the 12 strong Americans managed to hold their own and kick the Taliban back. Given the fact that this was the only true American victory in Afghanistan (among innumerable defeats), this one was bound to be xenophobic and retrograde in its appealing display of all-American courage and valour. Don't expect any depth from this outing.
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