A couple of nights ago, I sat in a screening room at Paramount Studios and watched Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” set to be released nationwide on Friday, Jan. 15.
In attending that screening, I missed a big party for the return of “The X-Files” on Fox, which airs on Jan. 24. So, last night, I watched the premiere on DVD.
What a difference time and circumstances make.
Back in the ’90s, when Chris Carter’s tale of government conspiracies and alien visitors was at its peak, it was a different world. It’s been called our “vacation from history.” 
The seeds of the terrorist threat we face today had been planted (the World Trade Center was first bombed in March 1993, a few months before the show’s September launch), but the economy was doing well, and we were having too much fun to pay attention.
Our “vacation” ended on Sept. 11, 2001.
Ironically, the “X” spin-off show, “The Lone Gunmen,” which aired briefly from March to June 2001, had a plotline in its pilot that eerily prefigured the ultimate destruction of the World Trade Center.
But, between 1993 and 2001, despite ongoing terrorist attacks, Americans remained generally — and blissfully — unaware of what was brewing under their noses.
Which is, of course, what “The X-Files” was all about — except this had to do with Islamist terror, not aliens.
But one thing “The X-Files” hammered over and over again — and does in the reboot — is that the government is not to be trusted, that politicians are not to be trusted, that, indeed, you should “Trust No One” in authority.
People are pressured into silence (as happens to a right-wing talk-show host, played by Joel McHale, in the “X” premiere), labeled liars or crazy, or just disappeared.
The show always assumes that the government’s explanation for just about anything is partially or entirely bogus.
Here’s a peek at the premiere:
By the way, as a longtime “X-Files” fan, I found it disappointing and rather pedestrian. But it was only the first hour of the premiere, so I’ll hang in, for old times’ sake if nothing else.
[UPDATE: I’ve now seen episodes two and three of “X-Files,” and I’m feeling good — especially about episode three, written by the weird and wonderful Darin Morgan. Definitely keep watching. It’s not a new version of “X,” it’s new episodes of the good old “X.”]
Of course, after seeing “13 Hours” the night before, the notion of alien invaders, in the face of reality, seems a bit quaint.
On Sept. 11, 2012, Islamist militants launched a coordinated, guns-and-mortars attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a “secret” CIA base (apparently the attackers knew where it was) in Benghazi, Libya. It resulted in 10 Americans injured and the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, and CIA military contractors Tyrone S. “Rone” Woods and Glen “Dub” Doherty.
The government’s story was that an anti-Islamic video had inflamed some local protesters. Subsequent investigation — the first results of which are in this Wired story from Sept. 12, 2012, continued in this October 23 Factcheck.org piece, and laid out in more detail in an Oct. 21, 2013 piece at CNN.com — has shown that story to be entirely bogus (and the government knew it almost immediately).
Michael Bay’s movie is based on “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi,” written by Mitchell Zuckoff and the “Annex Security Team,” the private security contractors tasked with protecting the intelligence outpost and officers. Former Army Ranger Kris “Tanto” Paronto (played by Pablo Schreiber), and former Marines Mark “Oz” Geist (Max Martini) and John “Tig” Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa) were the co-authors.
Chuck Hogan, who co-created the FX vampire series “The Strain” with horror-film auteur Guillermo del Toro, adapted the book for the screen.
Also starring are James Badge Dale as former Navy SEAL Tyrone S. “Rone” Woods: Toby Stephens as Doherty; and “The Office” co-stars John Krasinski and David Denman as former SEALs Jack Da Silva and Dave “Boon” Benton.
“13 Hours” has the amount of explosions one might expect from a war film — and from an action-film director like Michael Bay — but it lacks the bombast of some of his films. Instead, between big battle scenes, we get heartfelt moments with the contractors, who leave behind wives and family to make dangerous money overseas.
The film is also almost entirely apolitical. President Obama, called “POTUS,” is only mentioned once, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Stevens’ boss, is not mentioned at all.
The only time the movie comes close to addressing Clinton is a line said by Woods, as the team is calling the local government for help: “What about ours? Did they pick up the phone?”
This may be a reference to Clinton’s infamous “3 A.M.” ad during the 2008 campaign, emphasizing that she would be the more qualified person to pick up a White House phone in the middle of the night to deal with a “dangerous world.”
But make no mistake, while it stays away from the politics at home, “13 Hours” pulls no punches in showing the inaction and lack of response that left the diplomatic mission nearly unprotected, and kept the contractors cooling their heels at the CIA outpost during the initial attack. They finally leave on their own, but too late to save Stevens and Smith.
Retreating to the CIA outpost, they engage in a prolonged, bloody and harrowing firefight with heavily armed and organized militants, who send wave after wave of attackers across the grounds of a slaughterhouse nicknamed “Zombieland.”
This is also not a movie that slams all Libyans. There’s a brave translator who helps the contractors, and there are Libyan allies who also help (although, for the contractors, telling friend from foe is nearly impossible).
The heroes of “13 Hours” are the actual heroes of the story — the diplomatic personnel and contractors doing a nearly impossible job in a nearly impossible place, with inadequate funding and support.
In the end, they have no one but themselves to rely upon to survive a long, nightmarish night in a city where the ordinary rules of civilization no longer seem to apply.
“13 Hours” is a shattering, heartbreaking story of individual courage and institutional cowardice. It’s hard to watch, but it’s a real-world reminder that placing your faith in princes is always foolish.
Said Paronto in an interview at Townhall.com:
Faith teaches you how to live with courage, how to live with honor, gives you something to strive for. To me, that’s the American spirit. … God and the service kind of go hand-in-hand. You’re doing something honorable that’s above yourself.
The “X-Files” motto of “Trust No One” borders on the paranoid — and it’s untrue. The secret soldiers of Benghazi had to — and could — trust the brothers on either side of them.
But when dealing with people in power, Ronald Reagan may have said it best, quoting a Russian proverb: “Trust, but verify.”
My advice? Before you cast a single vote in 2016, go see “13 Hours,” and think long and hard about whom you’d like at the other end of that White House phone, and why.
Here’s the trailer for “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”:
Images: Courtesy Paramount Pictures and Fox Broadcasting.
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