13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

A review of the new movie

The Movie 13 Hours depicts the true story of the real Americans during the attack on Benghazi

photoshop by Mr. Rogers

The Movie 13 Hours depicts the true story of the real Americans during the attack on Benghazi

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The Benghazi attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya occurred on September 11, 2012. Islamic militants attacked the U.S. Embassy and another U.S. compound killing four Americans.

While attacking the Embassy, J. Christopher Stevens, the Ambassador, and Steven Smith, a U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer were killed. Both of these men were supposed to be noncombatants. When attacking the other compound the Muslim extremists killed CIA contractors and veterans of the U.S. Military, Tyrone. S. Woods and Glen Doherty. Ten others were injured. Many lives could have been saved, and many injuries could have been prevented if Hillary Clinton would have sent help to our fellow Americans. Instead she denied them help and left them to fend for themselves.

The movie 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi depicts what took place during the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi. The film was directed by Michael Bay and stars Jack Silva (John Krasinski), Tyrone ‘Rone’ Woods (James Badge Dale), Kris ‘Tanto’ Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), Dave ‘Boon’ Benton (David Denman), John ‘Tig’ Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), Mark ‘Oz’ Geist (Max Martini) as the six CIA contractors and veterans that saved the lives of almost everyone at the facilities. These are the men that acted under their own free will to try to save the lives of their fellow Americans.

The movie starts with the arrival of Jack Silva to Benghazi and you are shown the hostility of Benghazi. There is evidence of war everywhere and on the way to the compound Silva and Rone get stopped by a militarist group. When they arrive at their compound you realize how important they are. They are there secretly and they would like it to stay that way. Silva is briefed on what they do there and then they depart.

A few days later they get the call that the

13 hoursjim
Jack Silva (John Krasinski) image from trailers.apple.com

embassy is under attack. They are originally made to wait. They wait about 20 minutes and then they leave without orders because they cannot let their fellow Americans die. They arrive at the compound and do everything they can to save everyone from the hundreds or terrorists.

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movie poster taken from comingsoon.net

After many hours of hard fighting they returned to the compound and have saved almost everyone. After they return to the compound they set to begin defending their own compound against the terrorists. The terrorists come in waves from all sides firing bullets and mortars at the compound. The soldiers fought for many more hours, but they ultimately lost two men in the process of the fight.

This movie has also been surrounded in controversy. It has divided people on what they believe really happened. Bay claims that his movie takes no stand on politics. “We were just saying the facts,” Bay said on The O’Reilly Factor. “Here’s the thing:

The politics got in the way of this great human story that happened, and this is really to honor these type of men that do this every day.

— Michael Bay

The politics got in the way of this great human story that happened, and this is really to honor these type of men that do this every day.— that put themselves in harm’s way — that’s what this movie is about.”

I agree with Bay on that the politics did get in the way of this heroic and patriotic story. A sophomore Erik Holiday said, “I think the movie (tells the story) as best as a movie could in a reasonable amount of time. I think it did really good on focusing what was really important.”

I agree that it stayed to the story and didn’t try to take a stand on the political side of things. There are obviously many different opinions on this movie. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have many different opinions. IMBD reviewed the movie without mentioning politics and just kept to the actual movie. There is also the actual 13 Hours website that tells their side of the story.

The movie itself fell a little short of the 20-24 million dollar opening weekend goal getting 19 million. Overall though, the movie has gotten good reviews from its fans. Holiday gave this movie and eight out of 10 saying his favorite part was when they were the compound. I give it a nine out of ten because there was only short part near the end that I did not believe needed to be in the movie.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi tells the true and heroic story of six brave men who risked everything to save everyone. It takes through their struggles and their feats during the battles. It shows you their courage. The movie depicts what they did to save everyone in the compound despite being alone against hundreds of Islamic extremists. I hope whoever watches this movie appreciates it for the heroic story of the men who fought for others, and that they do not try to turn it into a political tool. I would definitely recommend this movie to whoever was considering going to see it.