Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (May 15, 2024)
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US almost immediately invaded Afghanistan to take down al-Qaeda, the organization behind those events. With 2018’s 12 Strong, we get a look at the actions of the initial US Special Forces team to participate in the then-new war.
After 9/11, Army Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) immediately volunteers to lead Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595 into Afghanistan. On October 7, 2001, this brings Captain Nelson and the 595 to Uzbekistan, a nation that neighbors Afghanistan.
From there, the 12 members of the 595 prep for their assignment: to spearhead initial US military involvement again enemy forces. Alongside Afghans opposed to the Taliban government, Captain Nelson and his soldiers take on a difficult battle.
As I write in mid-May 2024, Hemsworth will soon appear in Furiosa, a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. This places him a supporting role, a position that seems to suit him via his more successful non-Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) efforts.
Of course, Hemsworth remains most famous for his work as Thor in that eponymous 2011 film as well as its four sequels and the four Avengers flicks. Though he played secondary leads in successful flicks like Snow White and the Huntsman, Hemsworth has yet to achieve a non-MCU hit as the primary star.
Strong fell into that category, as the movie made a mere $67 million worldwide. With a low $35 million budget, it didn’t bleed money – unlike, say, 2015’s Hemsworth effort Blackhat, which took in $19 million after it cost $70 million – but Strong showed that Hemsworth couldn’t “sell” a movie via his name above the title.
Perhaps someday Hemsworth will score a non-MCU hit as the lead. I can’t claim that audiences missed much when they skipped Strong, however.
Though the film comes with an intriguing choice behind the camera. From Denmark, Nicolai Fuglsig initially earned success as a photojournalist, and at the age of 45, Strong became his debut as a feature film director.
Given some of his work sent him to war zones, Fuglsig seemed likely to bring a sense of verisimilitude to Strong. However, the involvement of a cinematic veteran as producer appeared to override whatever novel traits Fuglsig could add.
Nearly 50 years into his career, viewers knew what expect from Jerry Bruckheimer. With precious few exceptions, his movies follow a similar vibe.
Did I hope an unusual directorial choice like Fuglsi could offer some deviation from the Bruckheimer MO? Yes.
Did this occur? No.
As a result, Strong becomes a firmly “paint by numbers” war movie. Even with Oscar winner Ted Tally and Oscar nominee Peter Craig behind the screenplay, the movie lacks any hint of originality or creativity.
Like I often note, movies don’t need to reinvent wheels to succeed. If well-executed, even an oft-retold tale could satisfy.
Unfortunately, that Bruckheimer vibe just dumbs down Strong to make it relentlessly trite and predictable. Everything on display here feels cliché and without real spark.
Granted, the film’s basis in fact adds some charge, and Strong depicts combat fairly well. Fuglsig doesn’t show this material in a creative manner, which means the battles seem similar to those from a thousand other war films, but these sequences nonetheless muster reasonable energy.
The biggest issue with Strong simply becomes its overeagerness to manipulate the audience. This returns to the aforementioned Bruckheimer MO, as he rarely allows movies under his name to come with much nuance.
Absolutely nothing about Strong paints the tale as anything other than black and white. Okay, I guess Afghan General AR Dostum (Navid Negahban) – essentially Captain Nelson’s partner in these affairs – can show some gray, but not much.
Indeed, any “shades of gray” from General Dostum exist as cheap plot devices. Strong initially makes the relationship between Captain Nelson and General Dostum antagonistic, as the American feels frustrated and unsupported by his Afghan counterpart.
However, Strong never paints General Dostum as shady or a bad person. He just comes with motives/goals that differ from the Americans, and given the film’s rah-rah USA POV, this leads him to look vaguely like the “bad guy”.
If I watched Strong without knowledge of the year in which it got made, I’d probably have guessed 2003 or 2004. The movie’s jingoistic tone feels much more akin to what we got back in the semi-immediate aftermath of 9/11 than so many years later, especially given the war weariness felt by so many Americans by this flick’s 2017 production span.
However, Strong doesn’t reflect any sense of mistakes made or bad choices. Again, it paints a tale of clear good versus absolute bad and never muddies those waters.
Admittedly, the decision to examine the very start of the US-Afghanistan War makes that easier. Go for events a few years down the line and the intentions of the Bush administration seem less pure, especially given the ginned-up Iraqi War that blossomed in March 2003.
But the US invasion of Afghanistan felt wholly appropriate to the vast majority of Americans when this flick’s events took place. After all, the 595 went in less than one month after 9/11, so wounds and emotions remained intensely raw.
Even so, Strong comes across as ham-fisted and simplistic. It creates a rah-rah tale of combat that never leaves the viewer any room to see anything other than exactly as the filmmakers intended.
None of this intends to denigrate the real people and events that inspired the movie. I don’t question the heroics of those involved.
But a flick can convey that spirit and not devolve to the point where it feels like borderline propaganda. Too much of Strong simply comes across that way.
For instance, if one listened to the movie’s score without visuals, dialogue or audio effects, one would understand precisely what to expect. The music relentlessly transmits the vibe of Big Action Movie Heroics.
I don’t object to manipulative movies as a whole, but when they lean that way, they need to find something else to make them memorable. If I see a tear-jerker, it’d better spin the material in a way that gives us more than just cheap melodrama.
Strong simply fails to find anything novel or creative as it tells its tale. This leaves it as a perfectly watchable action/war flick but not one that does anything to rise above the level of many, many others.
