Former Green Beret officers Robert Pennington and Mark Nutsch spent just three days on the set of “12 Strong,” the film inspired by their heroism in the early days of the Afghanistan War. They made every minute count.
Mr. Pennington recalled an early scene in which the actor portraying him, Michael Shannon, cracked wise in a mess hall shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Shannon sensed something wasn’t right.
“Would you have done this in this scene?” the Oscar nominee asked Mr. Pennington.
“Absolutely not,” he told the actor.
“Mark and I sat down with him and talked him through it. You just lost 3,000 Americans in a horrific terrorist action. … Why would I cut jokes?” Mr. Pennington told The Washington Times. “So he agreed, nodded his head. And sure enough, the next day he changed the scene.”
Opening in wide release Friday, “12 Strong” honors the so-called Horse Soldiers, the small band of Green Berets who worked with Northern Alliance forces to battle the Taliban just weeks after al Qaeda terrorists struck American soil. They fought on horses against Taliban troops using tanks and other modern machinery.
SEE ALSO: MOVIE REVIEW: ‘12 Strong’ explodes with U.S.-Afghan war effort
The odds seemed insurmountable. The Horse Soldiers triumphed all the same, like something out of a screenwriter’s imagination.
A statue of a U.S. commando on horseback honoring their heroism now stands near ground zero. The artwork includes steel from the World Trade Center in its base near the phrase “America’s Response Monument.”
The film changes the names of Mr. Pennington and Mr. Nutsch, portrayed on screen by “Thor: Ragnarok” star Chris Hemsworth. The screenplay also tweaks events for dramatic effect, standard operating procedure for a Hollywood production. The Army Green Berets salute the film all the same, along with Mr. Shannon’s resolve.
The actor “wanted me on the set the entire time,” Mr. Pennington said. “When I sat down with him, it was one [question] after another after another.”
Mr. Shannon quizzed the former commando on how he held his weapon, the ways he dismounted his horse and other small gestures to sharpen the authenticity of his portrayal.
Mr. Hemsworth may be the film’s big draw, but the screenwriters took pains to show the Horse Soldiers working together as a unit with a single goal. Mr. Nutsch said he emphasized that during his brief time on the set.
“We just wanted to help impart to them that Special Forces is a team versus a central actor doing everything,” he said. “They needed to depict the sergeants doing their specialties in that environment, such as treating the Afghan casualties.”
Audiences may clamor for the film’s spirited action, but the Horse Soldiers applaud the quieter moments. “12 Strong” shows their characters saying goodbye to their families … perhaps for the final time.
“We leave our wives to take care of the home front. And we’re talking bills and everything else,” Mr. Pennington said. “It’s hard work, and they have to form a close-knit family to actually give out information, not classified information, but who needs help.”
Case in point: Mr. Nutsch’s wife was six months pregnant when he went off to war.
“She was a high-risk pregnancy, and all the team wives were in the delivery room,” Mr. Nutsch said. “That’s a big part of [serving your country] that doesn’t get spoken of much.”
Few films have touched directly on the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. The 2013 hit “Lone Survivor” proved an exception, to the tune of $125 million at the box office. It begs the question: Why?
Movie studios aren’t aware of the heroism on display over the years, Mr. Nutsch said.
“There are incredible stories out there known within the Special Forces or the broader special ops community,” he said. “We hope this film will inspire people to do a little bit of their own research and read more about these incredible things that happened, and it’ll inspire people to make additional films or documentaries about these incredible feats other service men and women have performed.”
Mr. Pennington noted that Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, who posthumously was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan, is just one example.
The Horse Soldiers fought during the earliest days of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. That fight continues, and Mr. Nutsch noted the battle has come “full circle.”
“The Special Forces community is very much at the forefront of the fight today in Afghanistan. They’re working very closely with their Afghan partners in the police and security forces or in the Afghan army or Afghan special forces unit that has been created out of scratch in the last 16 years,” Mr. Nutsch said. “They’re becoming a quite capable force against the Taliban and al Qaeda.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.