Zero Dark Thirty (***½)
Directed
by: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring:
Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle
Chandler, Édgar Ramírez, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt
Seen:
February 27th 2013
***½
Out of ****
After
the worst terrorist attack on American soil on September 11th 2001,
Osama Bin Laden became the most wanted man in the world, and Zero Dark Thirty
tells of the nearly 10-year long man-hunt to find him in spectacular (even if
very slightly fictionalized) fashion. The frustration and intensity of the hunt
is expertly translated to the screen and will fully entertain almost anyone
willing to give the movie a chance. The movie has caused some controversy for
its portrayal of torture employed in the pursuit of Bin Laden – with former
Assistant Secretary of Defence Graham T. Allison calling the movie in question
on three points: 1) the overstatement of the assisting influence of torture, 2)
the understatement of the role of the Obama administration, and 3) the portrayal
of efforts as being driven by one agent against the CIA ‘system’. It is first
and foremost a movie however, and as an action-thriller-drama it is an
incredible achievement in storytelling with a thundering visual and visceral
impact.
Maya
(Chastain) is a CIA operative having spent most of her short career completely
dedicated to the hunt for Bin Laden, and for this dedication and impact she is
reassigned to the US embassy in Pakistan in 2003, to work the case with fellow
intelligence officer, Dan (Clarke). She often joins Dan at a CIA black site
where detainees are interrogated giving Maya first-hand experience. Maya and
Dan employ some inventive techniques to catch the detainees in lies and to
uncover some actionable intelligence, a long and often soul-crushing
experience. Maya survives a bombing in Islamabad and other attacks while inexorably
and frustratingly uncovering bits of information that doesn’t truly advance her
attempts as she may have wished beforehand.
The
movie effectively communicates the sensitive nature of the operations to
uncover Bin Laden’s location and has the viewer on seat’s edge throughout as
the publically known story is tautly told. Finding the compound where Bin Laden
was eventually killed is a cat and mouse game of cellular intercepts and quiet
surveillance and even after finding the compound the team are frustrated since
proving that Bin Laden is actually there is an entirely new nightmare. A plan
is drawn up to fly a team of Navy seals into Pakistan to the Abbottabad compound,
but getting final approval for the mission remains elusive as not everyone
believes as fiercely as Maya that Bin Laden is actually there. The movie
culminates in the raid on the compound, and events are filmed and produced with
an immaculate sense of the true-life tension and danger.
Kathryn Bigelow has shown herself to be a master storyteller up to
now, and Zero Dark Thirty is no exception. The movie is both incredibly
detailed and massively accessible, drawing the viewer in with every scene as
the story unfolds and reaches its summit with one of the most celebrated events
in recent US military history. Zero Dark Thirty is film-making at its absolute
best.
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