12 Strong (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #52 extract: 12 Strong (2018)

Not terrible, but not much more than an average war movie that boasts neo-Western set-pieces with gun-toting soldiers on horses that are rendered quite unspectacular by thoughts of Dawn of The Planet of The Apes. 

Beyond being a strong technical achievement, 12 Strong is trying to honour a successful mission and embed meaning into the War on Terror and the post-9/11 War in Afghanistan. Its revisionism and specific perspective on recent history have proven controversial and, ultimately, the intentions of this film are certainly a little questionable. It is easy to say that this wants to glorify bravery, but such an aim proves itself to be quite shallow with the narrow scope of the thematic and subtextual perspective and limited depth of character analysis. When will we get a 21st century Apocalypse Now? Has anyone in Hollywood got that in them? I wonder...