Charge of the 12 Horsemen

The latest post-9/11 “war on terror” movie to hit theaters is ’12 Strong,’ the true story of the not-so-dirty dozen warriors of Task Force Dagger, one of the first special operations teams sent to Afghanistan in response to the infamous September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  Chris Hemsworth, who proved his manliness in ‘Thor,’ leads a team of CIA paramilitary types and Army Green Berets (who aren’t actually wearing berets, this isn’t John Wayne in Vietnam), to the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan to dish out some payback to the Taliban for messing with Uncle Sam.

 

Tasked with rendezvousing with one of the key leaders of the anti-Taliban “Northern Alliance” before going after those who provide safe harbor to OBL, these boys got their work cut out for them as they discover that the so-called Northern Alliance isn’t so much an alliance but three fractious militias who would be at each other’s throats if they’re not directed at a common enemy like the Taliban.  Remember how the US had to keep the various factions fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria apart so that they don’t kill each other? That’s the way of the lawless Middle East I guess.  Not to be deterred even when they had to be split up due to a shortage of horses, the “12 Strong” eventually accomplishes its mission against all odds.  I’m saying “all odds” because, other than the odd B-52 strike from high altitude, they’re the outgunned and outmanned underdogs fighting against a motivated and well-supplied Taliban army equipped not only with RPG’s and “Technicals” but tanks and BM-21 truck-mounted rocket launchers (the modern “Katyushas”).
 

Despite the abundant heroism and bravery on display, there’s a certain perfunctory formality to the whole exercise.  While it’s not a bad war movie on a strictly technical standpoint, it doesn’t bring anything new to the table that we haven’t seen before in better films like ‘American Sniper’ or ‘Lone Survivor.’  Or maybe it had something to do with this movie’s silly notion that modern soldiers (even elite ones) can charge through automatic rifle and machine-gun fire on horseback without so much of a scratch like they did in those old war movies.

Grade: B-