old style war movie

Rating: 6/10 (18 April 2018)

Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) had gotten a desk job for his family. When America is attacked on 9/11, he pushes to retract from his reassignment to lead his men into the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Hal Spencer (Michael Shannon) is his veteran Chief Warrant Officer. The squad of twelve men joins one of the competing Northern Alliance leaders, Dostum.
This is old style patriotic militarism and it does it well. Hemsworth plays the blonde godlike hero. There is plenty of war action. My biggest complaint is the constant need to get Mitch in the middle of the gun battles. Dostum is needlessly reckless to the point of suicidal. The fighting is geared to be cinematic rather than being realistic. They literally walk into traps more than once. There is one scene where dozen of men carry their weapons offering to surrender. For some unknown reason, the Americans stupidly walk out of their fighting positions into exposed ground. It makes the Americans look bad to do something so dumb. A better way is to have one child soldier surrendering and then set off the booby-trap. This is much more an old style action war movie rather than a deeper portrayal of modern war.