Zero Dark Thirty (2012) filmReview

Release: December 19, 2012

Budget: $40 million

Box Office: $102.1 million

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Script: Mark Boal

Cast: Jessica Chastain
         Jason Clark
         Joel Edgerton
         Chris Pratt
         James Gandolfini
         Mark Strong
         Kyle Chandler
         Mark Duplass
         Edgar Ramirez
         Jennifer Ehle




It is very difficult for me to write this review. The latest film from Oscar-winning director, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), is not an easy film to sit through. The events of September 11, 2001, while by no means black and white, resulted in controversial foreign policies that deeply divided our nation and led to our engagement in two major conflicts which have cost the lives of over 6,500 American troops and upwards of one million civilians. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, I suspect you'll be flooded with emotion after a viewing of this film. Ten years of the War on Terror distilled into a grueling, yet thrilling, 2 hours and 36 minutes. This is filmmaking of the highest order, to be sure, but one that puts the viewer through the emotional ringer.

A storyboard of the opening scene

This is the most effective film regarding the War on Terror since Paul Greengrass' brutally magnificent, United 93 (2006) and Kathryn Bigelow's own, The Hurt Locker (2009). Like those other films, Bigelow's latest is like a tightly coiled spring, that just keeps tightening and tightening until finally, you don't think you can take it anymore. The tension I felt during this film just kept building and building. This is perhaps the most effective aspect of the film, the fact that you feel the stress of the 10-year man-hunt for bin Laden as you witness the main character Maya (Oscar nominee, Jessica Chastain) go through it as well.

In the first scene of the film, we witness the torture of a detainee at the hands of a CIA operative named Frank (effectively played by Jason Clarke) as Maya looks on. Bigelow's camera never turns away. While the U.S. government may claim that specific terrorists weren't tortured in the ways shown in the film, all of the interrogation techniques were utilized at one point or another during the Bush Administration's years of fighting terror. These are not easy scenes to deal with. Water boarding, beatings, prisoners being put into torture boxes, prisoners led around by dog collars, sleep deprivation, it's all here. Was it morally appropriate? Was any useful information gained? Bigelow, working from a script by Mark Boal, doesn't go for the easy answers. However, I don't believe this is a film that endorses torture. The scenes are simply presented as fact. Torture was utilized. Obama ordered the torture to stop. Bin Laden was eventually killed. I think this is the best way to present this material. Instead of preaching at the viewer, we are left to make up our own minds as to how we feel about all of this. Still, I found myself very conflicted after viewing these scenes of brutality.

Jessica Chastain's Maya

Jessica Chastain's performance is what really sells the film. Her Maya is a woman bound by duty to find one man. Her only goal is to find the world's biggest terrorist and bring him to justice. You really feel her pain as information gained from detainees lead to dead-ends and administrations come and go. Between scenes of Maya pouring over information and participating in the torture of prisoners, we see the terrorist attacks continue. She's involved in one herself. While texting her friend and fellow CIA colleague, Jessica, she is killed in a suicide bombing. The physical toll all of this takes on Maya is heartbreaking and Chastain completely sells it in an understated yet steely performance. It is no wonder she was nominated for Best Actress. It is amazing that despite being surrounded by top talent such as James Gandolfini (as a weary beauracrat), Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler (Maya's determined and fiercely loyal boss), Chris Pratt and Jason Clarke, that Chastain manages to outshine them all.

The last thirty minutes of the film is dedicated to showing us the raid on Bin Laden's compound. It is shocking to learn that the suirvellance of this house, and Maya's firm belief that within was Bin Laden himself, began over four months before the order was finally given to attack. In one of the best scenes of the film, as various members of the intelligence community hem and haw over the chances of Bin Laden being there, Maya looks directly at Gandolfini's character and says with undeterred resolve: "It is 100% certain that he is there...or maybe 95% because I know you guys don't like to deal in certainties, but it's 100%." Like Black Hawk Down (2001), the final assault is meticulously recreated. There is no booming score or wave the flag moments, this is a cold, calculated, recreation of what happened. It is also perhaps the most well-executed piece of military cinema I've ever seen. You even get a brief look at Bin Laden's face, but only for about a tenth of second. There are plenty of shots; however, of his lifeless corpse, on the floor, in the helicopter, in a body bag. One of the most tense scenes comes back at the base, when Maya must identify the body.

The attack commenses on Bin Laden's compound

I was expecting some kind of carthasis after the killing of Bin Laden. But as the soldiers crowded into his bedroom to take a look at his frail form on the floor in front of them, I found myself even more conflicted. Bin Laden deserved to die, of course. However, I kept thinking to myself, after the two wars, the countless lives lost since September 11, the repeated terrorist attacks, the torture of detainees, the emotional destruction of people like Maya, was the killing of this aged man worth it? I guess the answer is yes. This is the most emotionally engaging film of 2012. Just don't expect it to provide you with easy answers or a sense of pride.

Thems the facts

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