13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Have no fear Hillary Clinton. Michael Bay is not guilty of using his new blast of mind-numbing noise, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, as a battle cry against your shot at the Democratic presidential nomination. Hes leaving that to Bernie Sanders. Clintons name is never mentioned in this telling of the siege on a diplomatic outpost that occurred under her watch as Secretary of State. Still, enough blame is implied to make 13 Hours Donald Trumps early pick for movie of the year.

This is Bays cinematic celebration of the six brave American security operators on the ground on Sept. 11, 2012, when an attack by Islamic militants ended four American lives in Benghazi, Libya. Clumsily adapted by a tin-eared Chuck Hogan from Mitchell Zuckoffs 2014 nonfiction bestseller, the movie effectively captures the frenzy of the ambush. Thats pretty much it for the good news. The rest is pure Bay, as when he borrows a trick from his abysmal Pearl Harbor and shoots a scene of real-life tragedy from the point of view of a bomb. The director of a trilogy of Transformers twaddle still gets more jacked up by machines than people.

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And yet this time a bit of humanity peeks through the din in the form of several solid actors. John Krasinski as Jack Silva and James Badge Dale as Tyrone Rone Woods bring a distinct human touch to the roles of former Navy SEALs now hired for $150,000 a year by the CIAs Global Response Staff to protect U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats in an unsecured Benghazi compound. These guys not only have to contend with liberal wussies at home, but also condescending CIA elitists (Bay hates pencil pushers). In the words of the local CIA chief (David Costabile), mysteriously named Bob: Youre hired help, act the part. Bob is also criminally indecisive about giving the order to move on the CIA Annex a mile away and rescue U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher), who died of smoke inhalation.

Is there any hard evidence that anyone Clinton, Obama, our boy Bob ever issued a stand-down order? The film both exploits and dodges the issue. Im being generous to say that the script barely sketches in the other GRS operatives, including Mark Oz Geist (Max Martini), Kris Tanto Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), John Tig Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa) and Dave Boon Benton (David Denman). Their phone-home flashbacks are the stuff of crass tearjerking. And Bay, whose name on a movie should serve as a lepers bell to all those who think theyre getting the true story, keeps jacking up the shootouts, firebombs, vehicle chases and a bus explosion that you wont find in Zuckoffs book. (Said bus doesnt transform into a killing machine with dialogue, which is Bays one concession to subtlety.) There is a complex, compelling subject to be examined here that the director ignores. Facts bore Bay so he beats them into the submission to avoid his greatest fear: a dozing audience. Hoping to capitalize on the box-office bonanza of two previous rah-rah military movies that opened wide in January Lone Survivor and American Sniper Bay keeps blowing shit up for a punishing two hours and 24 minutes.

Is there an audience for this? Sadly, yes. Theres nothing wrong with a movie that cheers American heroes. But this one does so by reducing everything else to cardboard, its Libyan villains merely faceless aliens in need of vanquishing. Several critics have given 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi a pass, citing Bays skill at action engineering. Its his failure at everything else that makes this movie as hard to endure as it is impossible to believe. #helpme