In 1960, the US military abolished the cavalry organization, and the era of horse-riding warfare has actually been a thing of the past decades ago.
But in 2001, 12 U.S. soldiers on horseback inflicted heavy losses on Taliban personnel. Al Qaeda referred to this engagement as the "most tragic loss".
The beginning of this war on terrorism will certainly not be forgotten by everyone. It was the 9/11 tragedy that shocked the world by the biggest attack since the founding of the United States.
In the latest film "12 Strong" (12 Strong) , the actor Mitch Nelson saw the destruction of the Twin Towers on his home TV. He hurriedly rejected the opportunity for promotion, returned to the army, served as the captain, and led 12 warriors. A strike mission of great significance to the US military was carried out.
The protagonist, Captain Mitch Nelson, is played by thunder, the hammer brother Chris Hemsworth . He takes off the cloak of God in the film and returns to the land to show us the whole story of the secret mission.
Movies adapted from real events have a problem. There is always a natural contradiction between adaptation and reality, and how to choose the length of real events and retain those details will greatly affect the quality of the film.
Excessive adaptation can give people the feeling of being deceived, and it can be boring if you fully respect reality.
Movies do come from reality, but they only include everything other than boring.
The biggest gimmick of "12 Warriors" is undoubtedly recreating the overlap of weapons of the two eras on the modern battlefield. In the valleys of Afghanistan, horses and tanks collided with each other . Rocket launchers became obstacles for horses to break through. When American soldiers were on horses When holding the M16 submachine gun, the wonderful illusion of mixing and matching directly aroused the desire to watch.
In addition, "Twelve Warriors" also used the attack strategy of the US military to let us explore the geopolitical situation of Afghanistan at that time, and reproduced the exotic features of "This is Afghanistan, the cemetery of many empires" .
The ODA 595 team to which Mitch Nelson belongs, commonly known as the green beret, is a special force of the US Army. The first act of "12 Warriors" is extremely simple, through the soldiers and their families farewell to the plump characters, creating conflicts for the safety of "going home" and the danger of fighting, and at the same time establishing the justice of the battle with the tragic picture of 9/11.
Soon, the 12-man team headed by Mitch Nelson went deep into the hinterland of Afghanistan. They were preparing to cooperate with the local warlord and General Dostum, who was also the opponent of the Taliban.
General Dostum began fighting with Russia at the age of 17. He was 55 years old at the time, and he was multilingual and had a high influence in Afghanistan.
In addition to the Taliban, there is also a military force that affects the battle. Therefore, with the U.S. military, there are a total of four forces that dominate the battle. The U.S. military unites two of them to fight the Taliban together, but there are constant frictions between the two forces. Quite subtle and complicated.
The military forces of 12 Mitch Nelson and 200 General Dostum need to counter the Taliban’s armed forces of nearly 50,000.
He described this in his email reply to the U.S. military general:
"Each of them only has 10 rounds of AK47, and even the sniper has less than 100 rounds of ammunition. They have to endure thirst and hunger... I have witnessed these cavalry climb the mountains and ridges to attack the Taliban stronghold. When charging. They are often exposed to the rain of bullets..."
The Taliban and al-Qaeda militants are equipped with more than 30 tanks and more than 70 artillery, and they cannot even provide a batch of horses for each of the 12 U.S. soldiers.
There is a huge disparity in power, but the imposing special forces ignited their emotions in one sentence:
"The number of people is five thousand to one. This is called casual hitting, and it's all targets."
Of course, the feat of hundreds of people attacking tens of thousands of people is rare in the history. There are 300 warriors at Hot Springs, and the defense of Baramo ended in the annihilation of the righteous side. Only in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the general Wei Guomeng was Zhang Liao. Leading 300 cavalry warriors with mega power once Xiaoyaojin.
Of course, the US military will not only rely on 12 special forces and a local warlord with a strength of several hundred people. All-weather air supremacy is their trump card killer.
Carpet bombing, precise bombing from the sky can destroy the Taliban's military forces in the fastest time, so the main task of Mitch Nelson and his team at the beginning was to locate the bomber. After a frenzy of bombing, General Dostum’s The cavalry unit went to clean up the mess again.
The purpose of the entire mission is to drive the Taliban out of the city, without giving them the opportunity to accumulate strength in the winter and train soldiers. The deadline for completing the mission is only 3 weeks and returning home before Christmas.
But as the old fighter General Dostum said,
"I control the land, you control the air, you have the air control, but the war is won on the ground."
In the climax of the battle, facing the Taliban defending the valley, Mitch Nelson must win the victory by a tragic frontal raid.
The plot buried an anxious and stimulating conflict here,
The Taliban’s rockets almost blocked Mickey Nelson’s surprise attack with a repressive advantage. The cavalry suffered heavy casualties, and it took two minutes for the rockets to fill with ammunition. So the climax of the duel was naturally the cavalry marching forward with artillery.
It’s even a victory if you can go straight to the rocket launcher alive,
The cavalry battle tanks, the cavalry dodge bullets, and the "crossing" scene where the cavalry defeated the rocket launcher was "born out of the sky."
Although "Twelve Warriors" does not have the heaviness and reflectiveness of classic war films, it is still relatively qualified to create a chemical reaction between the characters , which reflects the growth and changes of the characters .
For example, the mutual protection between black American soldiers and Afghan boys.
The little boy followed the American soldiers like a shadow. At first, the soldiers were disgusted. The experienced elders said why:
The life of a U.S. soldier can cost 500 locals. It is not as simple as offering a reward of 100,000 U.S. dollars, but if the U.S. soldier is killed in action, the U.S. military may no longer provide help. So the mission of the little boy is to protect the U.S. soldier. If the mission fails , He may be "punished by the nine tribes."
After learning about the reason, the black soldier began to get closer with the little boy, and even formed a friendship similar to that between brothers.
When the little boy curiously eats the sweets of the capitalist world brought by the American soldiers, we can feel the tenderness of a moment outside the war.
The most contradictory thing in the film is actually the drag between the actor's captain and the general Dostum.
Both want to gain actual control of the war. The captain has changed from a fighter with no actual combat experience to a fighter with "killer eyes" in his mouth;
And Dostum also understood the overall situation and temporarily maintained an alliance with his opponent, giving up control of a city.
Both have grown.
Dustum’s famous words are also fresh in memory,
"There are people in your heaven, and there is only God in my heaven",
At the end of the film he told the captain,
"Today is a friend, and tomorrow is an enemy. The United States will become a race here. If someone leaves, it will be a coward, but if it stays, it will be our enemy."
He went on to say meaningfully,
"He is in my heart, and you will always be a friend."
In 2014, General Dostum became the Vice President of Afghanistan, and his friendship with Nelson has been maintained to this day.
After the war, all 12 Mitch Nelson returned home. The military strategist estimated that it would take two years to complete the task, and the team magically completed it in three weeks.
Since it was a classified mission, the whole team went home low-key, and was not welcomed by any heroic ceremony or public greetings.
Although in the film, the 12 Warriors team is always eager to try this task, happy and happy, but we know that war is never worth praising.
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