12 Strong... Part II:
OK, the first time I saw this movie was a special pre-screening in FWB and I didn't like the movie because of pretty massive historical inaccuracies from the whole idea of ODA 595 being the first team in Afghanistan to all the direct contact the team had combat wise vs. dropping just a ****load of bombs very accurately and effectively in support of Dostum and his men. I also had a big problem with how Dostum was portrayed. I chalked a lot of that up to the fact that I was distracted by seeing some people I hadn't seen in 10 years, it's Hollywood, and stuff like that. So I said I would go watch it again, alone, and I did last night. It changed none of my original opinion, but I realized something last night while I was watching the movie and I'll share that here at the end after I comment on the movie.
What I didn't like:
As I said before, for various reasons, the movie is just wrong. I don't mean just little things like the fact that K2 was literally NOTHING when we first got there (when ODA 595 arrived, they had to actually sleep on the ground for the first few days, there weren't even b-huts like in the movie), but how they even set the story up. Again, "Hollywood" and "based upon a true story" I get, but given that so many people don't read anymore and given that these kinds of movies are the only "history lesson" they'll ever get on the subject, they take more than just liberties with the truth. First of all, the whole thing of interviewing the ODA commanders and choosing 595 to go in first is fiction. ODA 555 was actually selected to go in first, two days before 595 was supposed to go in, but due to inclement weather, that didn't happen. Then, both triple nickel and 595 were scheduled to go in on the same day, and they did. However, triple nickel was actually the first ODA on the ground in Afghanistan just before 595... that's not even in dispute anywhere by anyone and never has been. But I get it, Hollywood knows that "Horse Soldiers" (a title they couldn't use for legal reasons (i.e., money)) is a better story if 595 was "chosen over all others and went in first" even though that's absolute fiction on both counts (and leaves out that the CIA was in first, but that's clear in the movie, and this is about Army guys, so I get it). It's annoying and does a disservice to all the ODA's of 5th Group and especially triple nickel. This movie could have been epic by covering the CIA/Jawbreaker/NALT, the ODAs, and Dostum/Northern Alliance from the time Gary Shroen's CIA team went in to at least through what happened in Qala i Jangi if not all the way to the fall of Kabul, but I get it, that would have been too long. But at least get the story you went with correct... again, it dishonors the accomplishments of the other ODAs, especially the ones that had actual WIA/KIAs.
On the flight in, yes, they had to fly over 20,000 foot ridge lines... it's the Hindu Kush after all. That's why the Blackhawk's had to turn back because there's no way in hell a loaded Blackhawk clears a peak that high... I mean they STRUGGLED in Afghanistan to clear 13-14,000 ridges less than half loaded (Russian Mi-17's are much better for Af/Pak than Blackhawks). In real life, they had "one-off" oxygen bottles that obviously did work. Now, that alone means the mission for the team is ONE WAY... there's no going back over the mountains without oxygen. Why wasn't that "ballsy" enough for Hollywood? But OK.
The portrayal of Dostum as wise, but selfish, especially when it depicts him as picking up his marbles and leaving while 595 bravely fights on alone until he comes back. It dishonors who Dostum was and still is, and all of his fighters. Leaves out that he offered surrender to his opponents every time and when they wouldn't, we'd very accurately bomb the piss out of them, then Dostum would attack. Also, there has never been a time in Dostum's life that he didn't lead from the front in an attack. But I get it, Hollywood for the combat scenes. That goes to the issue in the movie where for each battle, it looks like we only dropped about 10 bombs, then charge away with American's forward. 99% of the time, it just didn't work that way. Again, we precisely bombed the piss out of them, sometimes for 12-18 hours, then attacked.
Everything else "pew pew" in the movie I can forgive, because, yes, Hollywood. It's OK. Not going to nitpick uniforms or shooty shooty scenes. Oh, one last Hollywood thing, but I get it for Hollywood. At the risk of being labeled racist, ODA 595 had exactly zero black members.
What I did like:
I really liked the movie up until first combat. I actually choked up at the husband/wife "time to go" scenes. I loved that the b-hut door at K2 had a water bottle on a string attached to it so that it closes itself. I loved that one of the team members was reading "The bear went over the mountain." I loved that the vodka they took in with them and gave to Dostum was Russian Standard. I loved that they showed the kids flying kites after they liberated a village from the Taliban (kite flying was banned, and kids in Afghanistan literally fly plastic bags like you get from Walmart). There were little things that I really liked.
What I realized watching it this time:
A generation that fights a war cannot objectively watch movies about their war. I understood this for the first time last night and now know why the WWII vets on my block hated The Longest Day et all while I loved them. Why the Korean vets hated Pork Chop Hill. Why the Vietnam vets hated every movie. When you have been personally involved in a particular war/conflict, there are only degrees of which you can "like" a movie (or even documentary) about your war. I now realize why I can't watch Zero Dark Thirty for more than about 12 minutes at a stretch without wanting to throw a brick at my TV.
Bottom Line:
It's good for what it is... Hollywood's romanticization of reality... but what movie isn't when "based on a true story"?