"13 Hours" is an excellent fact-based, politically-neutral telling of a remarkable story.

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2016)

Making a movie with political undercurrents can be a risky proposition for a filmmaker. Even if the subject matter is not overtly political in and of itself, if it can be seen as political, Movie Fans who are politically aware may, whether consciously or unconsciously, project their political predispositions onto the film, even if they actually know very little about its tone or content. I consciously try my best not to prejudge a movie based on my personal feelings about its background, but, if I think it looks interesting, to see it and let it rise or fall on its own merits. That's an approach that I think would serve all Movie Fans well when deciding whether or not to see "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" (R, 2:24).
The film is based on the 2014 book "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi" by Boston University journalism professor Mitchell Zuckoff. I haven't read the book, but I'm here to tell you that the movie it has spawned is almost completely non-political. Telling the story of the well-coordinated terrorist attack on two U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, the movie never takes sides in the controversies that still swirl around the attack, its causes and its aftermath and never even mentions the names Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. There are a few passing references to some of the over-politicized aspects of this story, but those references remain fact-based, relevant to the plot and very brief. So, after talking about what this film isn't, let's talk about what it IS.
As the film opens, Jack Silva (John Krasinski) is being picked up at the Benghazi airport by colleague Tyrone "Rone" Woods, but the two men don't speak to each other or even make eye contact until they enter Rone's vehicle parked just outside the airport entrance. The low-key reunion is for reasons of safety and security. Jack is a short-term contractor who's in Libya to work with other former military special operators, part of a six-man detail providing security for a secretive (but not quite secret) CIA compound gathering intelligence and making contacts in post-civil war, post-Gadhafi Libya.
The difficulties inherent in the contractors' mission are apparent in the first few scenes. On the way back from the airport, Rone and Jack are trapped in the middle of a traffic jam caused by what looks like a political assassination in broad daylight. They call for help from the CIA compound, but receive none. The two men only get through an impromptu local security checkpoint by using their wits and threatening violence. After arriving at the compound, Rone tries to give the local CIA station chief (David Costabile) a hard time about denying his request for assistance, but the boss is having none of it. His main concern is lying low and not violating the political parameters of his mission – no matter what.
Jack meets the other members of the civilian security detail (played by David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Max Martini and Pablo Schreiber) and begins going out on missions with the team. The men escort CIA employees as they meet up with their local contacts. Later, the team travels the 1.2 miles to coordinate with a two-man team providing security for a small U.S. State Department compound which is preparing to host Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, who wants to get more personally involved in reaching out more directly to the Libyan people, hopefully improving U.S.-Libyan relations. Rone's team is as concerned about the lack of physical and personnel security at the State Department compound as they are about similar problems at their CIA annex, but it's all part of the U.S. laying low in Libya.
Then, on the evening of September 11, 2012, the proverbial sh** hits the fan. Libyan militants attack the State Department compound in Benghazi. Those two security personnel stationed there heroically fight to protect the ambassador and the handful of other U.S. government employees and contractors, but they desperately need help. They call over to the CIA annex, but political considerations get in the way of a timely response. Eventually, Rone's team gets to the annex and they do what they can, but soon have to pull out and fall back to the compound. The team is expecting a follow-up attack on their annex, so they do what they can to get ready. The rest of that night involves a hard-fought and selfless struggle for survival by the 30+ Americans in that annex, trying to hold on until help arrives – IF it arrives.
Some movies centered on the military amount to little more than jingoistic nonsense and some movies directed by Michael Bay seem to exist merely as a platform for impressive visuals and lots of noise, but neither of these descriptions fits "13 Hours". The former military special operators-turned security contractors aren't portrayed as supermen, saviors or saints, but simply as men trying to do a dangerous job the best they can, then get home to their families. American policies and activities in Libya are portrayed as well-meaning, but as difficult to classify as "good or bad" as many of the Libyan people who the Americans encounter in this story. Michael Bay makes a tremendous effort to show the world as it is, tell a remarkable story as it happened and use his skills and experience to make an excellent movie. This politically neutral, exciting and inspiring fact-based account may make some Movie Fans uncomfortable, for a variety of reasons, but it's a story that deserves to be told and I'm thankful, for a variety of reasons, that it was told so well. "A"