Rent Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

A gripping & highly detailed look at the search for & eventual killing of Osama Bin-Laden - Zero Dark Thirty review by TB

Kathryn Bigelow is a woman who has never been found on the set of a romantic comedy. Her films are muscular, macho & tough, examining many challenging subjects. After a varied filmography with some big successes (Point Break,) as well as notable failures (K19: The Widowmaker absolutely tanked at the box office,) Bigelow then released a small independent film called The Hurt Locker... It was critically revered, winning multiple Oscars, including the 1st for a woman director. Still to this day for me it is a near-perfect film, the tension & structure almost unbearable for its entire runtime, elevated by the excellent performances.

After this, expectations & excitement was at fever pitch, especially as almost the entire team from Hurt Locker reunited. And what they have come up with is in many ways a sort-of spiritual sequel; in the sense that it is set in the same world of war, terror & conflict, although this time firstly the main protagonist is a woman & as much as there are scenes set "on the ground" so to speak, the meat & potatoes of this film takes place in operation rooms, interrogation cells or dingy offices filled with spooks living on cold coffee & week-old doughnuts. But it is gripping & amazing filmmaking, with a stunning performance from Chastain at its center.

Maya Lambert is a brash, no-nonsense CIA analyst who is searching for Osama Bin-Laden, at that time the most wanted man in the world after his connections to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When we meet her, she is involved with the torture of suspected affiliates to al-Qaeda, trying to get any scrap of information which could help lead them to Bin-Laden's location. Over the course of the story, set over many years, we follow Maya's journey as well as her absolute determination to find her target, this mission consuming her every thought.

One of the most infamous things about this film's production was the changing of real-world events which in turn meant the entire story had to be re-written. The original script was about the fruitless search for Bin-Laden, which Bigelow & the writer Mark Boal meticulously researched & were about to start filming. However, the killing of Bin-Laden then made them completely start from scratch on a new story, although vast swathes of this previous script, as well as the massive amounts of research were obviously brought across.

The other infamous criticism of this film is the extended scenes of torture at the beginning. I will be honest, I had a big problem with it, although for me, part of the dramatic message that the film used this for was to show the desperation of American intelligence doing anything to try & locate Bin-Laden. However, I also completely acknowledge & to a certain extent agree with the wide sentiment that the torture in this film is shown to get results when in reality the opposite was often the case: when someone is relentlessly tortured, after a while they will say anything to get their torturers to stop.

But for me, when taken as a whole, this film was a stunning & gripping manhunt, ending with the perfectly staged nighttime raid on the Pakistani compound where Bin-Laden was hiding. After the incredible build-up, the suspense & patience was masterfully constructed into an amazing set-piece. And the final rush of emotions at the end quite shocking.

At the center of this all is Chastain's Maya. In what for me is her best performance, she is perfect as the agent who stopped at nothing & bulldozed through everything & everyone to track down Bin-Laden. Written as a composite character, she shows the ability & skill of the many female operatives working within the intelligence services.

The only other essential thing to finish on is this: don't make the mistake I did... this film, especially the end raid, has to be watched either at night or in a pitch black room. I watched it on a summer's day with only some thin curtains to block out the light, which meant I missed a lot of the action.

An emotionally detached film - Zero Dark Thirty review by RP

Kathryn Bigelow has directed an Oscar-winning followup to her previous Oscar-winner 'The Hurt Locker'. Only this time the Oscar was not for 'Best Picture', but (bizarrely, given the fact you'll probably need to use the subtitles to hear what's going on) for 'Best Sound Editing'. And that gives a clue - it isn't 'best picture' quality.

The film is a lengthy (2½ hours) pseudo documentary on the 10 year hunt for Osama Bin Laden, starting in September 2001 and culminating in his shooting in a raid on his compound in Pakistan in May 2011. The first 2 hours of the film deals with the questioning and torture of assorted detainees to obtain information and the following of several dead end leads, with the lead character (Maya, well played by Jessica Chastain) focusing relentlessly on a single named but unidentified suspect, a courier for Bin Laden. The final ½ hour covers the raid.

The film is a drama - but I didn't find it very dramatic. Yes, bits of it were tense, but frankly I can't see what the excitement was about. The characterisation was shallow, the events shown were simple snapshots, there was no placing of the events into a wider context. The attack on the World Trade Center led to not only a manhunt for Bin Laden but to full scale wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And an attempt in the film to place the July 2005 London bombings in that context is misguided as these were carried out by home-grown terrorists without help from al-Qaeda / Bin Laden. I found the focus on a few individual CIA operatives to be a very shallow device, and if I can spot errors in the film it makes me wonder what other errors there are. But hey, this is a Hollywood movie...

The film left me cold. It's an emotionally detached film whose central character is recruited out of high school by the CIA and the single assignment she has worked on is the hunt for Bin Laden, has no friends, no boyfriends. I didn't feel any involvement with the characters nor the subject matter, which was (perhaps understandably) relentlessly US-oriented. I wasn't moved by the waterboarding / torture scenes. I certainly didn't enjoy it - but then it's not the kind of film you 'enjoy'. And I didn't like it very much.

I did enjoy the appearance of the late James Gandolfini as the CIA Director - despite his f-ing and blinding, I understand that at least was true to life...

3/5 stars. Pretty average stuff for me.

Gripping Political Thriller - Zero Dark Thirty review by GI

An uncompromising, gritty and realistic political thriller and a dramatisation of the CIA's hunt for Osama Bin Laden. This is first class modern film making and a serious attempt at unravelling the morals and complexities of the US' 'War on Terror' campaign following 9/11. The film gained controversy in its scenes of CIA torture of suspects at 'black sites' in that it was accused of condoning the use of waterboarding and similar methods. This is wrong, those scenes are highly impactive and shocking and Kathryn Bigelow, the director, meant them to be. The film opens the debate about the use of such methods especially by a western democracy in the 21st century and admittedly the narrative weaves a difficult and blurred line allowing the viewer to see the complexity around what is happening. But it is clear the film condemns these things and questions the political morality at play. Jessica Chastain as Maya, a CIA operative, who becomes dedicated to locating Bin Laden, is at first repulsed by the torture she witnesses but late comes to utilise it's power to get what she obsessively wants. The film mixes in real footage to make the story seem all the more potent and includes scenes of the London 7/7 bombings. Ultimately this is a riveting thriller about the dirty world of intelligence gathering against a highly dangerous enemy and the surveillance scenes and climactic special forces attack on a compound are action cinema at its best. This is a breath taking piece of modern cinema and definitely a film to see. If you've missed it then I urge you check it out you won't be disappointed.