6 Days (2017)

What should have been a tense exciting retelling of the Iranian Embassy Siege is instead a slow moving turgid non event which is not worth the effort. A massive disappointment and every time Abbie Cornish appeared on screen as the BBCs Kate Adie I had to look away it was that embarrassing.

Fmovies: 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".

'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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6 Days fmovies. 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!

The Iranian embassy siege was something I remember well, played out as it was on live television and being a huge fan of the docu-drama genre I anticipated this film most eagerly. First of all it was a right mission to get to see it at all and I expected it to have a much wider UK release. There was also confusing and conflicting information over the exact cinema release date given over the internet (First the 4th of August, then the 18th, then the 4th again!) Seeing it at the cinema resulted in me having to travel half the country!

For those who don't know the story, in April of 1980 the Iranian embassy was stormed by six armed men demanding the release of hostages in Iran over the mistreatment of their tribe by the Persians in Iran, but the UK had poor relations with Iran at the time and Iran was not going to give them anything. The UK was on it's own and for the first time in Television history, the actions of the largely anonymous Special Air Service, would be seen live for all to see.

The film is basically told from four main perspectives. An always excellent Mark Strong is hostage Negotiator, Max Vernon, a man acutely aware that lives are literally in his hands, and the emotional impact this has on him is one of the stronger aspects of the film and Strongs scenes are all appropriately gripping. Secondly is that of the SAS with Jamie Bell, in a very different role, playing Rusty Firmin, one of the soldiers leading the assault. Bell shows he has left the legacy of Billy Elliot well and truly behind him and is superb in this role. Tension notches up appropriately as he and his team ready themselves to go in. Thirdly is the insight into the upper echelons of the political discussions which went on between Billy Whitelaw (Tim Piggot-Smith in what may well have been his final role) as the options are raked over with an unseen Margaret Thatcher sending down her stance on terrorism. Ronan Vibert is noteworthy as the head of MI6 while Robert Portal plays SAS Colonel Mike Rose with the appropriate level of staunch professionalism while Martin Shaw adds gravitas to the proceedings though he is given very little to say or do.

Those inside the Embassy, both hostages and terrorists are fairly thinly drawn with the exception of the terrorist leader, Salim (A great performance from Ben Turner) and most of our insights into their interactions come via the other characters mentioned above. There is little attempt to humanise the Iranian hostages, we know nothing for example, about the one who is executed, so when this happens, we, the audience, feel little emotional loss. PC Trevor Locke stands out a little as he is given more to do, but just a few more lines of dialogue would have enabled us to emotionally connect with the hostages from the outset.

The fourth strand of the narrative is that of reporter Kate Adie and her cameraman, as they vie for the best shot over the reporter from a different rag (Either The Sun or The Mail, it wasn't clear to me) - I remember Kate Adie well from this reporting and felt Abbie Cornish was a little miscast in this role. She felt too glamorous with not a hair out of place and way too much makeup. This story line added very little to film. She spots the SAS leaving to train at one point and indicates she suspects more is afoot, but never vocalises her suspicions, so little is made of this. The interaction between her and the rival reporter could have been the cornerstone of lighter moments in this serious drama but they're lost and forgotten. This was the weake

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.