6 Days

'6 DAYS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A biographical action film about the 1980 Iranian embassy siege in London, and the heroic SAS soldiers that ended it. The movie was directed by Toa Fraser, and it was written by Glenn Standring. It stars Jamie Bell, Mark Strong, Abbie Cornish and Ben Turner. The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics, and it's now available on both video and VOD. I found it to be an interesting history lesson, and somewhat thrilling at times.

On April 30th, 1980 six armed Iranians raided the Iranian Embassy, in Princess Gate, London, and took 25 hostages. The world watched the intense drama on TV, for six days, while BBC reporter Kate Adie (Cornish) boldly covered it. Chief Inspector Max Vernon (Strong) handled the negotiations over the phone, with the terrorists' leader, Salim (Turner). While an SAS unit, including Rusty Firmin (Bell), prepared to regain control of the Embassy by force.

The movie is definitely interesting, and it has an especially insightful (somewhat sympathetic) view of the Iranian gunmen, especially their leader Salim. The Max Vernon character is also pretty sympathetic, and well played by Strong (who's always good). Ben Turner is also really good in his role. I was hoping for a little more from the film's climax though, I have to admit, but it is a well made and somewhat educational film.

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This film tells the story of the terrorist siege of the Iranian embassy back in 1980. The British government does everything they can to resolve the situation in six days.

The film wastes no time and begins with the siege. It maintains tension and urgency throughout the film, and time flies quickly. It is not easy to be the negotiator in this intense and fragile situation, and Mark Strong portrays the tough challenges very well. It is sad that he has to tell lies at the end. The ending is very intense. I enjoyed watching "6 Days".

It's 1980 London. After the Iranian revolution, armed men invade the Iranian embassy. They demand for their Arab comrades' release. Max Vernon (Mark Strong) is the lead police negotiator. Kate Adie (Abbie Cornish) is the BBC reporter. Rusty Firmin (Jamie Bell) leads a team of SAS soldiers on a rescue mission.

It's a fine retelling of the true events. I sorta remember the incident. Mostly, I remember the outside with masked men breaking in during the rescue. This lays out the sequence of events. It's not overly-dramatic. The most exciting section is the rescue with all of its problems. The acting is strong. The plot is straight forward and the title leaves nothing to chance. There are no surprises. Six stars for six days.

I was somehow shocked when I saw the ratings this movie got. Sure, this movie will not win big awards, or anything like that. But I actually truly enjoyed this picture, as an interesting movie about a historical fact that I didn't really know about due to my young age.

The movie doesn't lose time on futile details. It's an honest depiction of what happened over those six days. It starts immediately with the hostage. The movie feels genuine, and not meant as a brutal action movie.

Keeping details true to the facts is of course a good thing. But somewhere on the line, they forgot about character development. There were some key characters, but without being really key characters. You could feel they were somehow important to the story, but you never really got a back story on them. The best example is the woman of the BBC. I didn't grew up in the UK, so I never heard of her. After the movie ended, they explained who she was. I think they could have done a lot more with the characters. You just didn't feel an attachment to any of the characters. Same with the terrorists and the negotiator.

To be fair, it's not easy to do all this in just 1 hour and half. I genuine feel this movie needed some more screen time. If you enjoy movies based on true stories or historical events, you won't be disappointed.

I never noticed as some here have said, that, this was a low budget movie.Not that it shows anywhere. The actors - Cornish, Bell and always delivering a GREAT performance - Mark Strong. I have never seen Strong give a bad performance on screen - most know him from the Kingsmen. Some may say the Iranian embassy situation marked the beginning of international based terrorism for England,although in the past the country had many domestic situations of a dire nature - the IRA and their campaign.. I watch closely for technical details got right - or more often - WRONG - this movie gets it right - at least for the layman like most of us are.I have a friend who was S.A.S - he pointed out more - humorously - but he gave this film a thumbs up. So, when a real life hero I am privileged to know, who has lived these types of things says the movie is good - WATCH IT!