6 Days (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – In April 1980, armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy in Princes Gate, London and took all inside hostage. Over the next six days a tense standoff took place, all the while a group of highly trained soldiers from the SAS prepared for a raid the world had never seen the likes of.

My Take – As a film-goer, we all seem to enjoy films depicting real life events, especially the tragic ones, maybe that’s why despite the horrors behind them, producers keep investing in them. Of course, with the right direction & build up, the feeling & intensity of being stuck in such a situation manages to transit from the screen into our minds, hereby giving us a certain rush which is quite hard to describe, for example, do you remember the climax of Argo or maybe Munich? Excellent, right? Attempting to follow in a similar set of footprints, this Toa Fraser directed film chronicles the six-day standoff between terrorists associated with the Iranian separatist group Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRFLA) and the British government at London’s Iranian embassy in 1980. On April 30, 1980, six men invaded the Iranian Embassy in Princes Gate, London. The resulting crisis, in which 26 people were taken hostage, led to a daring rescue by England’s special forces after six days of tense negotiations went nowhere. The events were televised around the world, making this one of the most high-profile hostage-takings of the 20th century. Newly appointed PM Margaret Thatcher, eager to flex her anti-terrorist muscles, decreed that none of the gunmen would be permitted to leave the country as Iran refused categorically to cooperate. The endgame turned out to be less bloody and tragic than even the most optimistic among the rescuers might have hoped. Here, director Toa Fraser (The Badlands) hopes to take us into the events that perceived in that period. While the attempt to capture the events of those six days in precise and micromanaged detail is certainly commendable, the fact that the film ultimately feels somewhat lackluster and dawdling in its early stretches is undeniably a testament to this fact. The core ingredients are all there for an absorbing rehashing of events but, as unveiled — even with a solid cast, it comes off all too routine. Sure, the film seems perfectly well made, and manages to keep you engaged, but intensity at its core, the film is devoid of tension, mainly as director Fraser seems less interested in telling individual stories than in putting events into context and providing a clear, uncluttered view of what happened and how it happened.

The story follows the crisis from different perspectives, beginning with the chief terrorist, Salim (Ben Turner), who on 30th of April 1980, along with his lieutenants, stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took 26 hostages. Declaring themselves to part of the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan, an area in southern Iran, the group straight up demands for a hostage negotiator. With the situation boiling up, Scotland yard negotiator, Max Vernon (Mark Strong), is brought into find a peaceful resolution, all the while stalling on meeting the hostage takers’ demands i.e. the release of prisoners from that area held by the Iranian state, as representatives of Prime Minister Thatcher’s government led by Home Secretary William Whitelaw (Tim Pigott-Smith) discuss options when there really aren’t any, especially when Iran itself shows no willingness to become involved. Stuck behind the barricades outside is BBC news reporter, Kate Addie (Abbie Cornish), who is making sure each and every event is broadcasted on live television around the world. However, unknown to Max, Salim or Kate, an SAS (Special Air Services) unit led by Rusty Firmin (Jamie Bell) is being readied in the hostel right next to the embassy, and are gearing up to storm the embassy on cue. By presenting multiple perspectives, the film operates under the guise of well-rounded objectivity, further shrouding its blunt, politically charged admonitions with a structure that portends peace and violence as equally likely outcomes. Re-teaming with his ‘The Dead Lands’ screenwriter Glenn Standring, director Toa Fraser’s film feels confused about whether it wants to be a ticking-bomb tale of heroics or a complex insider account. Taking a multi-pronged approach to the messy and at times counterproductive means by which British services attempted to defuse the situation, the film focuses almost entirely on the actions taking place outside of the embassy itself, leaving the motivations of the hostage-takers and the experiences of the hostages themselves largely uninvestigated (with a few notable exceptions). Personally, I would have liked to see a bit more action and tension given the circumstances of the takeover and the air of politics at the time given the rise in terrorist events around the globe as well as the Hostage situation of Americans in Iran (Argo). I do believe; however, the film portrays the event honestly and with a string degree of accuracy. However, unlike what the trailers state, the film is not a fast-paced thriller nor does it seem like it was ever intended to be, resulting the film to struggle in passing through its preceding five days, much of which is essentially waiting, arguing, and narrative strands that go nowhere.

This includes an ill-advised ‘what if’ sequence of a stealth operation that is revealed to be something the characters are emphatically not going to do, in a fake-out played for laughs that ultimately captures the frustratingly extensive slowness of the first and second acts. Rather than heighten the tension and climatic bloodiness of the eventual siege, this feels strangely sluggish and uninvolving, regularly slowing the film down to a crawl but not using this time to really color in the characters or their motivations. Rather, the filmmakers focus on delving into the details of how every individual strand of siege-building is achieved. Director Fraser admirably tries to kick-start the severity of the crisis right away, even if the tendency to be stylish trumps a lived-in period flavor. But even with a situation whose nerviness is baked in, it’s surprising how little suspense is generated, even with real-life details like a cop hostage harboring a weapon the gunmen don’t know about, or the constant worry that the terrorists — regrettably ill-defined as characters, mostly seen shouting or demanding — will start killing their captives, maybe that’s because the title gives away when the special forces intervene. The film moves methodically and dispassionately toward its predestined conclusion, but by the end, it leaves the root causes of the militant group’s malcontent entirely unexplored, bluntly justifying, even celebrating, the British PM’s typically staunch refusal to admit her country’s guilt for the byproducts of its imperialist ventures or to negotiate with terrorists no matter the cost. Still, among the set of point of views, the angle of Kate Adie, seems wasted. Here, Abbie Cornish, saddled with one of the strangest accents this film year has given us, is left literally behind a barrier attempting to describe the events she sees but playing no real part in the story. Despite the historic nature of Kate Addie’s news coverage, the film leaves her sidelined for most of the film and never finds a meaningful way to integrate her perspective into the narrative. But just as the cultural impact of Kate capturing the iconic images of the siege live on air is ignored by the filmmakers, so is the context that led to Salim and his fellow DRFLA members’ invasion of the Iranian embassy. While the film is justly critical of the terrorist group’s violent methods, it also fails to provide any historical or geopolitical background that may help explain the desperation that led to their actions. However, some of the things work better than others. The scenes featuring Vernon – the only character with a semblance of a life beyond the screen’s edge (we catch glimpses of his family) – have an emotional component and his discussions with Salim are credible. There are flourishes of greatness in the film – a stretch of deafening silence that reverberates off the screen following the execution of a hostage late in the story, or a quiet moment of connection between Strong’s negotiator and the one fleshed-out terrorist, in a vividly humane Ben Turner. And it must be said, once the action finally, blessedly, begins, Fraser’s work turns up another dial, capturing chaos and intensity with a measured, unsentimental grace befitting the gravity of such an event. Director Fraser frames his shots with a workmanlike simplicity, following the center of the action in any one scene with single-minded precision that keeps the audience focused. The acting is top notch all around led by Mark Strong as the passive police negotiator, possibly the only relatable character here. Jamie Bell is alright in a very poorly written character that doesn’t let him do anything but sit around or train, while Abbie Cornish‘s performance here is surprisingly close to terrible. Tim Pigott-Smith is excellent in a limited role, while Ben Turner & Aymen Hamdouchi as the terrorist Salim & Faisal make impressive marks. On the whole, ‘6 Days’ is an unremarkably standard yet watchable thriller that never fully utilizes its effectiveness.