6 Days is not the sort of film to live in your memory, even though ironically it is based on a true incident, that many older IMDB subscribers may well remember. As such, it is unlikely to raise the ire of those members of the self-styled history police, who frequently maintain a rage over "true stories" not being true enough. This is one of 6 Days's strengths, but also a weakness, in that the general narrative frequently plays out almost as a recreated documentary, rather than a self-contained thriller, based on real life events, such as the much earlier Who Dares Wins.
6 Days tells the 1980 story of the Iranian Embassy siege in London, when a group of anti- Khomeni Iranian Persians stormed the Iranian Embassy, in the hope that it would force the British Government to negotiate with Iran to free 91 Persian prisoners. Unfortunately for the terrorists they completely misread the international political realities of the time. Britain was a strong advocate of its ally the USA, whose Tehran embassy had been overrun by Islamists a few months earlier resulting in 60 hostages being taken, Britain as a result had a very strained relationship with Iran. Its relatively new prime minister Margaret Thatcher, also wanted to impress on foreign governments, that her administration would not negotiate with terrorists.
The film adopts 3 perspectives of 3 real life characters, swept up in the events of the siege and its final outcomes. The most dominant view is that of Rusty Firmin (Jamie Bell) an SAS soldier who led the brigade's assault against the terrorists. Unsurprisingly Firmin was the film's technical consultant and also a published author on the siege. I must admit to a quiet admiration for Bell's underplaying of the role.
A further perspective is that of Max Vernon, the senior negotiator for the London Police, who is very transparent in his approach, in that he wants to try to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict, in the face of opposition from his political masters. A final and relatively minor perspective is that of BBC Journalist Kate Adie (Abbie Cornish), who is acknowledged as making a name for herself during this time, by invariably providing an up to date, insightful commentary of the main occurrences, as they unfolded over the course of the 6 days.
The main thing I took away from this film was the professionalism and constant training on view by the SAS team, though I note that some correspondents on these pages beg to differ as is their right. We see that many of the team members get very little rest over the period of the siege. They are constantly adapting their plans of action, based on any new intelligence they receive from inside the embassy. An example of this is when they suddenly switch to practising overrunning a bus, rather than the rooms of the embassy, because that appeared to be an option along the way. As well as this, they are constantly on standby ready to attack when given the all clear. We feel their collective tension, as well as tiredness.
Mark Strong was his usual convincing self, as the negotiator, but I have to say that during his segments, we were hearing lines of telephoned dialogue so familiar from other hostage dramas, I could just about recite them myself. Abbie Cornish's role by comparison was relatively minor, except for the fact we had portions of her character's on air descriptions, during the final dramatic raid.
The film is also a little unusual in that it is a New Zealand/UK co-production, but I have to admit the London locations, looked extremely true to life, as we see from the final news reel footage. I gather much of the studio stuff must have been shot in New Zealand, under Kiwi director To a Fraser, who contributes an overall extremely workman-like effort on what eventually ends up as an historically interesting film, that really doesn't stand out for any other particular reasons.
6 Days tells the 1980 story of the Iranian Embassy siege in London, when a group of anti- Khomeni Iranian Persians stormed the Iranian Embassy, in the hope that it would force the British Government to negotiate with Iran to free 91 Persian prisoners. Unfortunately for the terrorists they completely misread the international political realities of the time. Britain was a strong advocate of its ally the USA, whose Tehran embassy had been overrun by Islamists a few months earlier resulting in 60 hostages being taken, Britain as a result had a very strained relationship with Iran. Its relatively new prime minister Margaret Thatcher, also wanted to impress on foreign governments, that her administration would not negotiate with terrorists.
The film adopts 3 perspectives of 3 real life characters, swept up in the events of the siege and its final outcomes. The most dominant view is that of Rusty Firmin (Jamie Bell) an SAS soldier who led the brigade's assault against the terrorists. Unsurprisingly Firmin was the film's technical consultant and also a published author on the siege. I must admit to a quiet admiration for Bell's underplaying of the role.
A further perspective is that of Max Vernon, the senior negotiator for the London Police, who is very transparent in his approach, in that he wants to try to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict, in the face of opposition from his political masters. A final and relatively minor perspective is that of BBC Journalist Kate Adie (Abbie Cornish), who is acknowledged as making a name for herself during this time, by invariably providing an up to date, insightful commentary of the main occurrences, as they unfolded over the course of the 6 days.
The main thing I took away from this film was the professionalism and constant training on view by the SAS team, though I note that some correspondents on these pages beg to differ as is their right. We see that many of the team members get very little rest over the period of the siege. They are constantly adapting their plans of action, based on any new intelligence they receive from inside the embassy. An example of this is when they suddenly switch to practising overrunning a bus, rather than the rooms of the embassy, because that appeared to be an option along the way. As well as this, they are constantly on standby ready to attack when given the all clear. We feel their collective tension, as well as tiredness.
Mark Strong was his usual convincing self, as the negotiator, but I have to say that during his segments, we were hearing lines of telephoned dialogue so familiar from other hostage dramas, I could just about recite them myself. Abbie Cornish's role by comparison was relatively minor, except for the fact we had portions of her character's on air descriptions, during the final dramatic raid.
The film is also a little unusual in that it is a New Zealand/UK co-production, but I have to admit the London locations, looked extremely true to life, as we see from the final news reel footage. I gather much of the studio stuff must have been shot in New Zealand, under Kiwi director To a Fraser, who contributes an overall extremely workman-like effort on what eventually ends up as an historically interesting film, that really doesn't stand out for any other particular reasons.