Review of 12 Strong (2018) by Jedidiah F — 20 Jan 2018

12 Strong is first and foremost, a war movie. I won't bore you with more details of the synopsis, it can be found pretty much anywhere.

I really liked this movie. It was in the same vein of Black Hawk Down, but not quite as dramatic, and the writing wasn't quite as moving. 12 Strong was still a good movie. The action scenes felt more real than most war movies I've seen. The violence (of course) was not gratuitous or for shock value but rather more for emotional connection the loss of life. It has its moments of being a 5 star film only to fall short for lack of character development and connection to the men fighting the battles. There are laughs, and there are moments you want to cry. I was very moved at the end. If you want to feel patriotic, I strongly suggest you see this film, and then continue to support our troops who fight the battles we never see so we can continue to live here with an amazing amount of freedom.

Small Spoiler in the next paragraph:

One of the most poignant and horrific scenes involved the main villain, a leader for the Taliban. He interrogated young girls, proving they had been educated. He then promptly murdered the woman responsible for educating them (I assume it was their mother).

I am very thankful I live in a country where all people have an opportunity to improve their lives with education.

To sum up, the film was good, it just needed a little better writing and a little better character connection, and I would have given it 5 stars.