Filed under: Drama, History, Military, Movies, Politics, Posted by TA, Wars | Tags: 2012, Ambassador, Arab Spring, Benghazi Attack, CIA, diplomacy, John Krasinski, Libya, Michael Bay, US State Department
I was positively impressed for many reasons.
- It was the first movie in a very long time that proudly announced “This is a true story”, unlike “Based on a True Story” or even “Inspired by True Events”. Trust me, the real deal makes a huge difference.
- Herr director Michael Bay has changed. He did his best to tell what actually happened in Libya 3.5 years ago. Before watching 13 Hours I saw one featurette and one making off. At least 3 of the guys who went through the battle survived to tell the story and served as consultants to the movie. If you look at Bay’s filmography, it will be almost impossible to find something close to the truth.
- Yes, there is the usual Hollywood embellishment and excessive patriotism in some scenes but overall acting and the story are pretty convincing. Background and personal stories are not an excuse for the plot. If you watched Pearl Harbor (also directed by Bay), you’ll get my point.
13 Hours’ weakness lies on the lack of the in-depth coverage around the causes of the attack. The movie leads you to believe that angry Libyans randomly decided to attack Americans on 11-September. The work was in fact orchestrated by a local militia. Days later, more than 100,000 “true” Libyans went on to the streets to claim for justice and strongly condemn the acts of violence.
If you forget about the military bragging typical of American movies, the story is quite compelling. There are several interesting lessons to learn from the situation:
It’s remarkable to know that some people will put their own lives on the line.
If you’re part of a militia trying to attack highly trained military operators, don’t charge frontally. Read the books and every single commander will tell you that it is suicide except for very specific scenarios.
If you’re the American government dealing with a highly stressful and life-threatening event, there must be better and more efficient ways to make decisions. The lack of action to support the besieged Americans was appalling. If details are true (and I’m assuming they are because everything is logged), the US had massive forces all over the place but decided against deploying the options. Why?
Unfortunately 13 Hours is yet another good reminder of how American foreign policy fails on “post-game” handling (to quote a term from the movie Charlie’s War referring to the American support to Afghan mujahedeen against the USSR).
Filed under: History, Military, Posted by TA | Tags: CSKA, Dmitry Medvedev, Farewell of the Slavianka, Pet Shop Boys, Russia, Russian Red Army Choir, Top Gun, Victory Day Parade
If you pay attention to some of Top Gun’s lines, Jasper says just before the first training session the US pilots would be competing against a similar fighter to a Mig-29. Still according to Jasper, the Migs are more agile and manoeuvrable. A roommate of mine, also watching the movie then asked me: “So why the hell would you fly an F-14 Tomcat?” Dmitry Putin… I mean, Medvedev, Russian’s president stated a couple of weeks ago that a major rearmament of the Russian Armed Forces is due to start in 2011. He’ll focus on buying, developing and improving conditions of his arsenal, but will also realign the Russian human resources policy (“the Alpha Group accuracy target”, a.k.a. “shoot to kill 99% of the time”).
Russia has been a fantastic military machine for centuries. Military uniforms are the second skin of millions of Russians. Forget for a second about the Red Army. The Great Russian Bear started teaching the world when Peter the Great, then a tsar, spent time and countless resources modernizing a gigantic but disorganized force. Time passed, and the Russians fought France, Britain, the German Wermarcht, went through a bloody Civil War, provoked the Americans for 45 years, and finally tried to kill James Bond until it fell onto an internal political and economical crisis. “Red” by the way has become an emblematic term for the Russian Army. Communism is over for more almost 20 years, and the officers do not shoot at privates retreating from German bombs anymore.
Things have changed. Russia found a lot of oil and natural commodities in its huge territory. And by blackmailing Europe and former Soviet republics (such as Ukraine), the good times of lavish military budgets are now back. The Army in Russia is not all about guns and weapons though.
CSKA is a major sports institution for many decades now. CSKA means Central Sports Club of Army. It’s a common name within former Soviet-occupied countries. You can call it the Red YMCA. The Russian Red Army Choir is another fantastic Russian organization closely affiliated with the Armed Forces there. It’s been my favourite choir for quite a long time for the symmetry and close-to-perfection performances, live and in studio. They sing everything; even recorded Go West with the Pet Shop Boys in the 90s.
Such a shame Russia’s economical prosperity will likely not see such duets happening again. I’m sure the Choir won’t have to sing for British gay duos to pay for their uniforms’ dry cleaning bills anymore.
You can check a fantastic marching performance with an instrumental version of Farewell of the Slavianka (my favourite Russian march) here.
Another magnificent video to check out is the Victory Day Parade at the Red Square
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpngaG5tDpA
Angel and Tiggs 