Review of Zero Dark Thirty (2012) by Dave J — 20 Nov 2013

Tuesday, November 19, 2013.

(2012) Zero Dark Thirty.

DOCU DRAMA WAR.

Anyone expecting this to be another desert war movie like Bigelow's previous film "The Hurt Locker" will be gravely disappointed since it centers on CIA operatives involving the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. Shown at times like a docu-drama with no plot and by accordingly to one person who's also a CIA operative, she is being played by Jessica Chastain which during the first few minutes has one of the detainees getting tortured or abused in exchange for information. Now, I just want to say that the controversy regarding torture tactics/ methods has been used in movies before, some are based on fact- some not. The viewers who are offended by this practice either hasn't seen enough movies about it since I can name about 3 movies that does this too which're "Battle Of Algiers", "Death And The Maiden" and "Prisoners", or that viewers may have thought of other ethical ways of obtaining information as well as ignore practices practiced by extremists since in this particular film, it appears these particular extremists do have a secret pact to keep vital information to themselves, and keeping them in a cell doesn't seem to do anything if suicidal explosions continue to happen before and after the fact throughout the world including India, Great Britain and of course USA.

Now, this "passable" rating does not mean that the movie is bad, it just means that I had different expectations and different accounts regarding the events such as the SEAL Team that executed Bin Laden strategizing and performing their route multiple times since it was kind of like a fortress, and in this film "all" we were given is just the model of the household where Bin Laden's been hiding. I mean, where's this rigorous training we've heard so much about! And because Bin Laden was actually executed by SEAL Team Six, I would've preferred to have seen the tough rigid training they had to endure before performing the mission took place, and this film only based on the accounts by one person, and that is Maya played by Jessica Chastain. Did the information such as discs hard drives, files that SEAL Team Six obtained from the location where Osama bin Laden's been shot ever come out of it for their was no aftermath. Did it led to more arrests? Where's CIA director Leon Panetta and David Petraeus, how much are they involved in all of this? The movie never explains for it sometimes feels somewhat restrained making viewers asking more questions, and I can understand why if other people who were also involved did not want to get involve into the filming preparation that led up to... How can a single person find Bin Laden when it also has to involve many others for it should be perceived as a group effort and not so much as a single one. This film was never boring but after the movie was over, I was still baffled despite the end result and hoping for an aftermath for the film never gave us one.

2.5 out of 4 stars.