Film Friday - 6 Days

 Today, we are gonna do something a little different in that we will have joint movie review from both Pudge and myself. Six Days is currently streaming on Netflix.

Pudge writes:

6 Days Movie Review
I just wanted to throw some quick thoughts down about the movie 6 Days that is streaming on Netflix. The movie is about the Iranian Embassy Siege in London from 30 April to 5 May 1980. If you have any interest in how the UK and the US for that matter, respond to hostage situations, like history, or are just plain bored during your lockdown, watch it. There are some small spoilers below but nothing that should keep you from watching the movie. (Or go watch it now then come back and read the rest of this post.)

As a current member of one of the US Special Forces Crisis Response Forces I thought they did a very good job showing what would have been going on prior to the assault on the Embassy by the 22 SAS. What impressed me most was the little subtleties or wording thrown in throughout. The very first thing the SAS did was get alerted and in route created their emergency plan for if they had to assault right away. Once they were on ground and began to let the situation develop, they continued refining their plan. This was to be there deliberate plan if they were allowed to choose the timing. I really enjoyed the movie demonstrating how thorough these special Soldiers are. They did everything they could to create a perfect mockup to practice. They wanted to make sure that when going into the Embassy everything would be second nature. Bringing in the curator, who told them about the incorrect building layout, was amazing. Always know someone’s worth. The guy you may look down on may in fact be the guy who has the keys to the castle. Knowing how and where to find these people are key. At that level of the profession it is the milliseconds and inches that matter, not minutes and feet. The way they practiced the bus assault was also very inspiring to see in the movie. It again demonstrated how it is milliseconds that can differentiate between a successful mission or a failed mission.

I’m sure after watching it some may wonder why they treated everyone as suspect and laid them all face down outside until they could verify each person. If you are ever in this situation it may suck but please follow what you are being told. This is used to identify a sleeper terrorist. It sure would suck to sit through all that, get rescued, then get killed because each person wasn’t verified of who they said they were. In the actual events, this is how the last terrorist was identified.

Really the only complaint I had against the movie is how slow they moved inside the building. During hostage rescue it is no longer about the safety of the assaulters but the safety of the hostages. They would almost be running through the building and would flood as many people as possible inside.
I would definitely recommend this movie. Hopefully I can find some more good ones to pass on. I’m also open to any suggestions in the comments

Mack's thoughts:

Good movie. Well paced and certainly entertaining. My biggest qualm from the tactical side was that the raid was depicted as having barely half a dozen SAS men. Operation Nimrod hit the embassy with like 24 operators give or take. And as Pudge said, the raid was over in an instant. 

Minor quibble would be that according to the film you'd not be mistaken in thinking the 22nd SAS was a Scottish Regiment. That would be akin to having everyone in the 75th having a mid west twang. 

I give it two thumbs up. (Mainly because of old school MP-5 goodness)

Let us know if you have any other films you'd like one subject matter expert and one washed up frat boy to review. Thanks for stopping buy.