By Emilio Frenk
Director: Nicolai Fuglsig
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Peña, Michael Shannon, Trevante Rhodes, Navid Nevgahban, Elsa Pataky, Rob Riggle, Austin Stowell, Numan Acar and William Fichtner.
Rating: Average
Danish filmmaker and photojournalist Nicolai Fuglsig brings “12 Strong”, a film that had a very interesting premise that could have had a better execution.
Based on true events, the movie takes place after the events of 9/11 and tells the story of The Special Forces team led by Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), Chief Warrant Officer Hal Spencer (Michael Shannon) and Sergeant First Class Sam Diller (Michael Peña) who are deployed to Afghanistan to take on the Taliban forces.
This time the team will need the help of General Abdul Rashid Dostum (Navid Negahban) who happens to be the leader of the Alliance and has a personal score to settle against the Taliban leader Mullah Razzan (Numan Acar).
This event is considered one of the bravest against the Taliban Forces and goes deep into the lives of the brave men who not only risk their lives, but fought for their country.
“12 Strong” is a movie that I consider it a very well shot movie and very well edited but the major problem radicated it in the story and casting of the film itself.
The screenplay written by Ted Tally and Peter Craig got to much in the American Patriotism and I wanted to see more inner conflict around the soldiers. I felt this film was more telling than showing and I felt that it could have been better.
I was surprised for this since Ted Tally wrote “The Silence of the Lambs” which he won The Academy Award in 1991 and is considered one of the best thriller´s of all time and Peter Craig who was wrote movies like “The Town” and the last “Hunger Games” films that were really good.
I don´t know what happened here but from a screenplay standing point I did have some expectations and there were not fulfilled. I felt that it was too much talking for moments and for a movie of this genre is a luxury you cannot afford.
The thing that I liked in story was the relationship between Chris Hemsworth`s character and Navid Negahban who plays Abdul Rashid. This does work and it´s practically one of the things that I did liked of this film.
One issue that I had in terms of casting was Rob Riggle playing a Lieutenant in this film. He tried so hard to make it a serious character but this was not the case. Maybe this is because he is in comedy films and he is really good at it that we are not used to see him in this kind of roles. I feel that another actor could have played this role better.
Filmmaking wise like I mentioned this film is very well shot and edited and I think that from that perspective works that film.
Nicolai Fuglsig is filmmaker that I believe he delivered a good cinematic experience but he needs to work better with actors, which is the part that he is lacking of.
I believe that if he gives his actors better direction in terms of delivering good performances he can be really good in his craft.
The chemistry between Chris Hemworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Peña is good but I also felt that the length of the film was an issue here. For a movie like this one with a shorter length should have been enough but I understand that Fuglsig wanted to go deep which he did, but I feel that you need to be careful how you tell this kind of stories since you can bore you´re audience to death and “12 Strong” by moments did that.
“12 Strong” is a movie that I recommend from the perspective of very well made film visually but in terms of acting and storytelling there are better movies to watch of this genre than this one.