12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers

[Brian in Mesa]

12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers

Release date: January 19, 2018
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Nicoli Fuglsig
MPAA Rating: R (for war violence and language throughout)
Screenwriters: Ted Tally, Peter Craig
Genre: Drama, War
Website: 12Strongmovie.com| Facebook| Twitter| Instagram

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Navid Negahban, Trevante Rhodes, Geoff Stults, Thad Luckinbill, Austin Stowell, Ben O’Toole, Austin Hebert, Kenneth Miller, Kenny Sheard, Jack Kesy, Laith Nakli, Fahim Fazli, Yousuf Azami, Said Taghmaoui, Elsa Pataky, William Fichtner

Plot Summary: The story of heroism is based on true events that unfolded a world away in the harrowing aftermath of 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, led by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. There, in the rugged mountains, they must convince Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban) to join forces with them to fight their common adversary: the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. In addition to overcoming mutual distrust and a vast cultural divide, the Americans—accustomed to state-of-the-art warfare—must adopt the rudimentary tactics of the Afghani horse soldiers. But despite their uneasy bond, the new allies face overwhelming odds: outnumbered and outgunned by a ruthless enemy that does not take prisoners.

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[Bert]

This was a well done war film for the first 80% of it but then Jerry Bruckheimer's fingerprints showed up in the final act and you can pretty much guess how it went.... Basically a 20 minute slow motion shot of explosions and screams. Along with the SUPER dramatic score at the end.

Still an absolutely amazing story of what these guys did. I liked the character development and the relationships that grew.

Worth seeing and a lot of people will like the final scenes but I've just grown so tired of the slo mo action fly over explodey super dramatic battle scenes. (overuse of superlatives for effect because that's how I felt towards the end.)

Spoiler

I actually laughed out loud at a totally inappropriate time at the end when they were carrying Spencer out on the stretcher because they did one last slo-mo aerial flyover and I just thought it was hilarious how they drug that scene out after they just had the loonnnnng drawn out battle.... I could see JB in post arguing; 'come on guys, just give me one more. We paid a crapload of money for those aerial shots!'

 

[Shane]

This was awesome

 

[oaken1]

This was awesome

awesome because it was a well made movie??

or awesome because rah rah we are gonna go all american and kick your taliban ass?

 

[carrrnuttt]

awesome because it was a well made movie??

or awesome because rah rah we are gonna go all american and kick your taliban ass?

Both, for me.

Then again, I am a simple man. I don't have the sensibilities to be a critic. I just ask my movies to take me out of the theater and into the scene, and this movie did just that, even/especially with the big, 'explody' stuff.

I actually got lucky enough to watch this a week before everyone else and for free using a couple of screening passes I received.