MOVIE REVIEW – If this movie looks like a Western, trots like a Western and whinnies like a Western, it must be a Western. Also, 12 Strong comes from real life— precisely a covert Green Berets operation that went down in Afghanistan not long after the Twin Towers fell. Still, the movie plays like the squarest of John Wayne oaters, riding tall in the saddle with a minimum of casualties.

Not everyone knew about the story of the first U.S. military endeavor in Afghanistan, where they fought after 9/11. As written in the 2009 book “Horse Soldiers,” a minuscule team of 12 Green Berets — called as ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha) 595, as well as by the much cooler code name Task Force Dagger — accomplished a astounding victory. Helped, on the ground, by assorted fighters loyal to an Afghan warlord and, from the sky, by U.S. bombers, the men of ODA 595 — often on horseback — helped liberate a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda, Mazar-e Sharif, within a matter of weeks. Their return to the United States was greeted with little fanfare.

Same old, same old

While it’s satisfying — and sometimes gripping — to see that story told in “12 Strong,” the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film contains scarce true surprises, at least concerning the cinematic standpoint. In spite of solid performances by the actors, led by Chris Hemsworth as overconfident Capt. Mitch Nelson and Michael Shannon as his grouchy, retirement-ready second-in-command Chief Warrant Officer Hal Spencer, the adapted film relies heavily on cliché, including the kind of swaggering banter one might expect from a video game.

“That’s what I call a target-rich environment,” cracks one member of Mitch’s team, when they are informed that their tiny squad is up against more than 50,000 Taliban fighters.ll a target-rich environment,” cracks one member of Mitch’s team, when they are informed that their tiny squad is up against more than 50,000 Taliban fighters.

Stylish

Stylishly directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, the mission is portrayed excitingly enough: drop into country from a high altitude at night (the near–sci-fi influence of Sicario is never far from mind), meet with a gruff local Afghan general and gain his trust, ride on horseback for miles, then do battle with the Taliban. We are still in the early days in the War on Terror, so the long struggle of entrenchment isn’t on anyone’s mind. Afghanistan is the “grave of empires,” we hear twice in the movie, yet that wisdom doesn’t seem to register all that much.

Hemsworth has rarely been better than in the recent “Thor: Ragnarok,” which swapped out the Nordic doom and gloom with Taika Waiti’s sense of humor — a tonal shift for which the Aussie actor was very much game. “12 Strong” doesn’t allow him the same range, and he’s rather like a video game character in that move. We have also another actor rising in prominence: John Cena, who made his silver-screen debut with “The Marine,” (another military movie), but was more successful in comic roles. Ought Hemsworth maybe should do the same?

A story that never ends…

12 Strong is ultimately less a war action movie and more a procedural, one in which incremental gains and minimal casualties are as much as can be hoped for. Hemsworth tells his men several times that they might not all make it back alive; the movie’s marketing materials all but guarantee they will.

Still, this isn’t a movie you wonder how it will — chiefly since we all know that, in most of the ways that count, this “story” (or history) hasn’t ended at all. As a movie “12 Strong” presents its conclusion as both a military and moral victory, albeit one whose inspirational qualities are lessened by the fact that winning the battle and winning the war are two very different things.

-BadSector-