LoginI already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. The first timeĀ around, I was really impressed by āThe Hurt Lockerā so I was really eager to see Kathryn Bigelowās next directing effort, especially after it was heralded by the critics. Eventually, she came up with another thriller about the war against terrorism and she once again pretty much nailed it, even though I thought that āThe Hurt Lockerā was still superior. Still, this chick really can direct some realistic and spellbinding thrillers, no doubt about it, and I was on the edge of my seat during the whole duration which is quite remarkable since we all pretty much knew how it would end from the very beginning. The first touch that I did appreciate where the first few minutes where you hear those horrific (and probably real) phone calls from the victims of 09/11. It was just heartbreaking and gave a background to what would happen next. Basically, I donāt think Bygelow tried to make us think that it was ok to torture all these people but, with this introduction, it explained why the USA was (and probably still is) at war and why they would use any means necessary. The point was to show without judging and the point was well made. Personally, I always wonder why it took them so long to find Bin Laden and, with this movie, you get more or less an explanation but weāll never know for sure. ConcerningĀ Jessica Chastain,Ā I was once again really impressed as she probably is one of the best actresses of her generation, she really carried the whole thing on her shoulders but, in fact, it was one thing that actually bothered me. I mean, if you follow this story, she basically single-handedly tracked down Osama Bin Laden for about a decade, and, apparently, no one else was really instrumental in his capture. It seems rather hard to believe that only person would have been behind all this though. Furthermore, by trying to be really realistic, which was fine, the whole thing got pretty murky at some point (I still didnāt get what happened with that crashing chopper towards the end). Anyway to conclude, in spite of these flaws, it was still a really good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject.
Zero Dark Thirty Reviews
A very good movie
Posted : 10 years, 1 month ago on 23 March 2014 10:44
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Zero Dark Thirty review
Posted : 10 years, 9 months ago on 12 July 2013 09:01
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Zero Dark Thirty review
Posted : 10 years, 9 months ago on 5 July 2013 03:47
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A gratifying watch
Posted : 11 years, 2 months ago on 15 February 2013 01:29
There is little doubt that the story behind the killing of Osama bin Laden will be told and retold across multiple motion pictures in the years to come. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, 2012's Zero Dark Thirty is the first cinematic retelling of the event, and it's such an enthralling and well-made feature film that there's probably no point making another movie covering the same ground. Zero Dark Thirty - which is a reference to the military term for half past midnight, when bin Laden's compound was stormed - is an absorbing account of the meticulous investigation to find the suspected terrorist, and it will prove to be a gratifying watch for anyone with the patience to stick with it. The real strength of Bigelow's film is its plausibility; without exaggerating the truth, Bigelow has created one hell of a potboiler, a classy, gritty, dense and sumptuous thriller welcomely free of melodrama.
To set the tone, Zero Dark Thirty commences with a prologue featuring real-life recordings of 9/11 victims asking for help. It's a chilling way to open the film, yet it's necessary, as it establishes the motivation for everything that's about to occur and it reiterates the true horror of 9/11. Arriving in Pakistan two years after the tragedy, young CIA analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain) meets fellow agent Dan (Jason Clarke) who specialises in torturing suspects. Dan eventually comes up with a few leads, beginning an almost ten-year odyssey for Maya as she pieces together information and tries to track down Osama bin Laden. As the years go by, breakthroughs grow scarcer, and Maya's irritation is heightened, especially with suicide bombings continuing to claim lives in the region. Eventually, however, Maya finds a promising lead when she discovers a fortified compound with secretive inhabitants.
Fresh off the success of The Hurt Locker, Bigelow began setting up a movie about the ongoing, increasingly frustrating hunt for bin Laden, and she was close to entering production. Reportedly, the film was intended to end on a downbeat, inconclusive note, with bin Laden disappearing after the battle of Tora Bora, potentially never to be seen again. But Osama's sudden death rendered the concept irrelevant, compelling the filmmaker to rethink her movie. Bravely, it seems Bigelow essentially made the film she initially wanted to make, incorporating the operation that led to bin Laden's death but not letting the happy ending change the story's tone or catharsis. Zero Dark Thirty follows Maya for years, watching her pursue leads, chase red herrings, encounter dead ends and deal with her superiors, all of which is glimpsed in excruciating detail. It's laudable for Bigelow and writer Mark Boal to really dig into the ins and outs of this agonisingly prolonged investigation, but it does not always translate to an engaging viewing experience, and sometimes it's hard to discern what's happening and why. Nevertheless, there is a lot to admire in the film's construction, specifically in regards to the lack of bias and judgment. There's no gung-ho military-style propaganda here or any political agenda; Boal's script simply shows us what happened and asks us to draw our own conclusions. It's refreshing.
Zero Dark Thirty catapults to greatness in its final hour, when Maya and her team locate the house which may or may not be Osama's current hideout. We all know how it ends, but the specifics are hazy to the average viewer, hence it's riveting to watch the politics play out as Maya awaits the green light for the operation with heightened irritation. The climactic raid on the compound is one of the most thrilling set-pieces of the year, thirty minutes of edge-of-your-seat tension as the SEAL team scrupulously move from room to room. Ultra-realistic military operations are not often seen in films since they're unexciting, but Bigelow makes the assault both incredibly realistic and every bit as engrossing as any action movie. Another huge strength of Bigelow's is her ability to stretch a dollar. Zero Dark Thirty was produced for a scant $40 million, yet it looks far more expensive, with spot-on costume design and sets (the recreation of bin Laden's compound is remarkable), as well as the superlative cinematography by Greig Fraser. Bigelow stages a number of scenes depicting suicide bombings, and they're terrifying due to their staggering immediacy.
Chastain is a revelation, carrying the film with incredible acting prowess that puts veteran actors to shame. Chastain is often glimpsed in supporting roles, but Zero Dark Thirty foregrounds the actress, and it's her most impressive work to date. It must be stressed that the role of Maya was not a real-life person; she's a fictionalised composite of a number of real-life CIA analysts who met with Mark Boal and helped in his research. Maya admittedly lacks depth and we never get a sense of her life outside the workplace, but that seems to be on purpose since she has given everything up for her job and only realises this once she's met her goals. Fortunately, the supporting cast is strong all-round. Clarke is a terrific presence as Maya's colleague, and Kyle Chandler is a perfect fit for Maya's station chief. Mark Strong is also present here, remarkably playing a non-villainous role and doing a top-notch job. Meanwhile, James Gandolfini is a believable bureaucrat, and Joel Edgerton makes the most of his limited screen-time as a member of SEAL Team Six. Even Scott Adkins shows up here for all of five minutes.
Although Zero Dark Thirty begins with a title explaining that it's based on first hand accounts of true events, it's unclear how accurate this portrayal of the manhunt truly is. It would therefore be smart to accept the film as a dramatisation of real-life events, rather than a documentary. And as a dramatisation, Bigelow's feature excels. It will be interesting to see where Bigelow goes next, and see if she continues to pump out Oscar-worthy motion pictures.
8.2/10
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Zero Dark Thirty
Posted : 11 years, 2 months ago on 15 February 2013 04:36
Silence all of the clatter that surrounds the film, most of it is zealously picking at whims and fancies that arenāt there from people who made this claims before the film had been screened, and be prepared to meet it on its own terms. This is not the propaganda agitprop that it was made out to be, it has far more in common with reportage and an ink-blot. This is a fictionalized, heavily-distilled and simplified account of something that took a decade to play out.
That the film so coldly depicts torture may be part of the extreme reaction to it. While a piece like Argo, which isnāt completely unrelated to this material, blunts the edges and presents something easily commoditized, Zero Dark Thirty remains prickly and opaque. People wishing to see explicit evidence that torture played a key role in the events can do so only if they chose to ignore numerous revelations which come later on in the narrative. And if they ignore the fact that the characters themselves are conflicted over these courses of action, or that, for several uncomfortable moments, our sympathies lie with the prisoner of war, and not with the CIA agents enacting the horrific brutality upon him.
Bigelow and Boal have gone on the record to state that depiction is not endorsement, and I agree with them. Like it or not, prisoners of war were subjugated to torture, and removing it from the narrative would have been a joke. Thereās a difference between simplifying vexingly complex jargon-heavy passages of time, and outright removing historical fact. To put it another way, removing torture from the narrative would be like remaking Bonnie and Clyde and removing their bullet-riddle death, or not depicting them killing people. The film opens with this bang, but this isnāt torture porn. The Passion of the Christ was far more overdone and titillated by the viscera on display than this film; this film presents these acts as simply being what they are and were.
Now back to my point about people finding the torture scenes to be a depiction of it leading to the killing of Bin Laden. Later in the film, which sees Maya (Jessica Chastain) stuck in an office trying vainly to find leads on the courier who slipped through her fingers is presented with an folder with information on this man. The folder was created nearly ten years ago, when the detainee we see tortured at the beginning spilled the exact same information after being subjected to nicer, quieter conversational means of extracting information. They information they needed was there all along. The torture was unnecessary to obtaining that information.
This brings us back to Maya, who is an extraordinary character, not just to anchor this film, but in general. She has much in common with Jeremy Rennerās bomb specialist in The Hurt Locker. Both are creatures of startling, almost jarring stubbornness and commit themselves to lives which dangerous and fairly empty of normalized society. Maya was brought into the program straight out of high school and has done nothing but throw herself into the manhunt for Bin Laden, even when the main priorities had been shifted away from the leader and into taking out his drones. She is filling the emptiness with her work, and stands in symbolically for our foreign policy over terrorism in the Middle East, for good and bad. Her character is admirably tough, smart and head-strong, yet her at-all-costs resolve and unresolved guilt reach their climax in the final scene of the film, which should be considered up there with Queen Christina or The Passion of Joan of Arc in great female close-ups that anchor a film.
Now that Bin Laden is dead, and the exhaustive manhunt is over, she sits alone in a giant helicarrier and is asked āWhere do you want to go?ā Itās an open-ended question with no response from her. But Bigelow keeps the camera on her face as Chastain begins to break down and cry. Itās a powerful closing image that haunts long after the film is over. Mayaās mission has been completed, but what in her life has she got to show for it? The question isnāt just posed to her, but to us an audience. Youāve seen and experienced where weāve been, but was it worth it? Itās an anticlimax for an action film; much like the night raidās killing of Bin Laden.
Bigelow has always exceled at creating tense and smart action sequences, and the midnight raid is no different. How true is it to real life? Probably not very true, but itās better for national security if the exact methods arenāt disclosed about these types of situations. As an imagined version of it, itās thrilling stuff.
The Navy SEALs brought in are a likeable specialist group who are great at their job, as opposed to the macho/bro stereotypes which infest most other films. The night-vision helps with verisimilitude, and the cold aesthetic choice to film it in a calm way adds tremendously to its effectiveness. Room by room, story by story, they search the house, and when the kill finally happens, itās not the slow-motion thunderous shootout one would expect from a different kind of action or military film. His death occurs practically off-screen.
Yet the film belongs to Maya, and her tireless struggle to capture Bin Laden. And thereās more than hint of an unspoken glass ceiling going on with her dealings with superiors. If there is any group that emerges looking like total shits itās the DC politicos who are responsible for commanding and demanding our more questionable actions in the whole endeavor. Numerous scenes show Maya struggling with the Boys Club, but the film, and the character, never makes a big deal about her femininity. She maybe willowy to look at, but sheās a remote, raging warrior on the inside as she constantly questions and actions Cold War-era thinking and planning, or bringing up how actions and behaviors can change in a post-9/11 world.
I think this is the film that post-9/11 America deserves. It stares back at us coldly and coolly, asking of us to only look at the entrapment weāve gotten ourselves in to. This is a shadowy cross-examination, an example of a writer and director playing devilās advocate and asking us to look at the moral, political and social compromises, xenophobia and fear-mongering that has been wholly consumed for the past decade. This is film as psychological inkblot test. What I saw was the best film of 2012.
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A highly intense and amazingly executed thriller.
Posted : 11 years, 3 months ago on 26 January 2013 02:59
Although we knew from the beginning what the ending was going to be, one of the most impressive aspects of Zero Dark Thirty was pacing. Clocking in at approximately 150 minutes (excluding the ending credits), the film amazingly jumbles in 10 years of history illustrating what bin Laden and Al-Qaeda have done without being slow or rushed. In that sense, the film keeps a firm grip upon its audience that helps them follow along the mission to that fateful night on 2nd May 2011. In the opening few minutes is merely audio from the day of 9/11. After only 12 years, we have already seen footage of that day's events expressed in different ways. So, in an interesting move, Bigelow leaves the audience to imagine through the discomforting sounds what is happening.
Furthermore, suspense within Zero Dark Thirty remains intact throughout the 2 Ā½ hours and we see this through the film's central theme - entrapment. It is displayed from both perspectives. Of course, Bin Laden himself is trapped because he is the most-wanted man in the world and the CIA are progressively closing in on him. On the other hand, we see the CIA in vulnerable, trapped situations. They can't leave Pakistan without catching Bin Laden but whilst there; they're still being under attack. Therefore, Bigelow's work on Zero Dark Thirty is much stronger than in her previous effort The Hurt Locker as she adds a much more realistic tone and provides to the audience the ugliness of the events occurring in the War On Terrorism today.
At 35 years old, Jessica Chastain only began her film acting career in 2008. Before Zero Dark Thirty, she had been in mostly supporting roles and had not been given the opportunity to shine as a leading actress. However, Zero Dark Thirty marks her first major leading role as she delivers an outstanding performance as young CIA officer Maya. Although we get a rather low supply of Maya's background story, the physicality of Maya is somewhat cold that adds a cooler chill to the film. She is obsessed with catching Bin Laden and she will stop at nothing to achieve that. Chastain deserves the Academy Award for Best Leading Actress. Meanwhile, Zero Dark Thirty's supporting cast are overshadowed because of Chastain's performance but a solid entry was from Jason Clarke as Dan, Maya's fellow CIA officer. This guy is often displayed as an American slowly losing his humanity through interrogation and torture of Pakistani suspects in order to provide information. So, we get a supporting character with bitter coldness to him. Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler and Jennifer Ehle become other decent additions into the supporting cast.
The whole idea behind Zero Dark Thirty can be misunderstood for a film that makes Americans feel somewhat justified after 9/11 as well as being a lesson behind the complex history of Bin Laden's demise and Al-Qaeda. However, it went beyond that. Not only does Zero Dark Thirty deliver on every technical level, particularly editing, and still manages to be a beautifully-executed thriller, but it could have worked as a documentary. Kathryn Bigelow's work on The Hurt Locker was impressive but she does an even better job here. Finally, Zero Dark Thirty is a challenging film to endure for 150 minutes due to the coldness of the plot but the overall satisfaction that the film brings is not only towards Americans.
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