Zero Dark Thirty

On May 2^nd of 2011 academy award winning screenwriter Mark Boal and academy award winning director Kathryn Bigelow were just weeks away from filming an untitled movie about the battle of Tora Bora.  The film was going to be about the hunt for Osama bin Laden and although OBL had escaped the battle for Tora Bora it was, at the time, the closest we had come to capturing him.  Little did they know that as they were preparing their film an operation was underway to raid OBL's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  The subsequent raid and death of OBL led to the Hurt Locker duo changing direction and shifting their focus to the events of May 2, 2011 and the hunt that would lead US Special forces to the now infamous compound.  Mark Boal had previously spent some time in Afghanistan when he interviewed an EOD tech who was the subject of his Playboy Magazine article “The Man In The Bomb Suit”.  This would later serve as inspiration for his screenplay for The Hurt Locker.  Using his resources and contacts Boal and Bigelow dove headlong into their new project, Zero Dark Thirty, which would chronicle the hunt for and death of OBL.
 

 
The manhunt for OBL has now been chronicled in books and TV shows and was a decade long process.  The fact that all this knowledge has been out there for some time now makes this movie just that much better.  Here’s a movie where you know what the outcome is going in and yet getting to this conclusion leaves you gasping for air when it’s all over.  The movie pulls no punches and starts off with a very somber reminder as to why this manhunt even took place.  The first 2 minutes or so of the movie is just a black screen with sounds from 9/11 being played.  It’s harsh and kind of unsettling and it will make you squirm, sweat, and emote all at the same time.  The next sense of relief you will have is when you view the films final few seconds. 
 

 
In a way, Zero Dark Thirty reminded me a lot of Silence Of The Lambs in that you follow the bread crumbs that leads to an ultimate pay-off that is done mostly through night vision goggles.  The one big difference is that the detective work and procedural work done to get to the final raid is far more brutal and takes a much bigger toll on those involved with it.  The interviews that Agent Starling had with Dr. Lecter will seem calm and soothing after seeing how information was extracted in Zero Dark Thirty.  The use of physical and psychological torture, no matter how you feel about it, was a big player in yielding information that led to some major clues which helped locate OBL.  Be warned though as the torture shown is nasty stuff.  It’s not sensationalized the way it is in movies like Hostel.  There’s no sense that this is being done to gross out the audience or to get a rise out of them as a way to make a dollar at the box office.  It’s just kind of there and is performed in a very matter of fact way.  This is what is so unsettling about it as it just feels as if it’s just another day at the office.  Each clue and revelation offers a hint of satisfaction and relief but those moments are usually washed away as the ensuing pursuits and loss of human life that takes place on this journey quickly drags you back down.
 

 
Most of this espionage action is so tense at times, especially the tracking of a HVT in the Peshawar Market, that by the time the SEALs are gearing up for the final raid on the compound you begin thinking “Whew, time to sit back and take a breather while watching some doors get kicked in”.  While the time spent with the SEAL team does offer some relief that quickly goes away as night falls and they begin to board the specially designed Blackhawks that will shuttle them to the compound in Pakistan.  We never get much insight to the members of the SEAL team and almost no back story is provided for any of them but each of them exude the kind of businesslike manor and confidence you’d expect from a member of the Special Forces.  We get some comedy relief between members now and then but all it does is show us how calm these guys are under intense pressure. They are there for a job and they are good at what they do and they know that.  The raid itself is a thing of beauty and is unlike any action set piece I’ve seen.  I can’t recall any musical score being played during the raid and the camera angles used along with the use of night vision do a fantastic job of making you feel like you are along for the ride.  Having read the book No Easy Day and having seen the 60 Minutes interview with its author, Mark Owen, I felt that going into the raid sequence I had a good grasp of what to expect in terms of sequence of events.  But even though it played out exactly as I expected it would there was still an incredible amount of tension involved.  One aspect of the raid that I enjoyed was its lack of feeling that this is in fact a big budgeted Hollywood movie.  For a set piece like this you’d expect a ton of big explosions, a lot of over yelling and cussing, loud gunfire, and overall chaos. But this was anything but and due to the use of silenced weapons it was eerily quiet, surgical, methodical, and oh so tense. 
 

 
There are however a few things that I wish they would have included in the movie that I believe would have added to the final raid.  There was no mention what so ever of all the training that went into the final raid.  The actual SEAL team had a full scale mock up of the compound built for them that they practiced on close to 100 times.  I think a little insight to this would have shed some light on just how well these guys can improvise when something like a helicopter crash happens or when they demo a main entrance only to find that it’s been walled up.  There was also no briefing shown between the CIA and the SEAL team that gave viewers any insight into the fact that Pakistan had no idea that we were even attempting the raid and that they could have been shot down for being in their airspace and they also skipped over who they expected to be in the compound.  It may not seem like a big deal but it should be known that the guy who is killed on the stairs was bin Laden’s son Khalid.  I can understand skimming over some of this in the name of running time and I don’t feel it diminished the final product in any way, I just would have liked to see it. 
 

 
While the film itself is riveting none of this could be done without the wonderful direction of Kathyn Bigelow and the screen play written by Mark Boal.  Boal’s background as a journalist lends a ton of credibility to the facts complied for the screenplay and on top of that the movie has now been criticized and is being “investigated” for its use of unauthorized information in regards to how the CIA was able to find OBL and the compound.  This is a movie that now appears to be more fact than fiction and at times it feel a bit like a documentary.  The other key factors contributing to the film are the performances of Jessica Chastain(Maya) and Jason Clarke(Dan) as CIA operatives.  Jason Clarke is just a flat out evil genius in this movie as the CIA interrogator at the “Black Sites” while Jessica Chastain is deserving of an Oscar because without her this movie would be flat as a pancake.  She does such a good job of being a cold hearted bitch who is dedicated to her craft, yet in the closing seconds she provides you with such a sigh of relief that you can’t help but feel for her and feel like you’ve just been on this amazing ride with her.  The person she’s based on has been described as a “whip smart red head” and also a “first class bitch who is all about business”.  I've seen an interview with Mark Boal and he was asked about the real life "Maya" and if she was anything like the character in the movie.  He went on to tell a story about how these CIA operatives were given a bunch of awards for their work and after the ceremony she was heard yelling at some of them stating that none of them deserved it because it was all her "fucking hard work" that went into it.  I think that was demonstrated to a tee when in the movie she tells the head of the CIA, Leon Panetta(James Gandolfini) that she was the “motherfucker who found the place”.  Overall it is just a great performance. 
 

 
As a whole Zero Dark Thirty delivers on all fronts in that it’s got a great narrative that is steeped in truth and fact and finishes with a fantastic knock-out punch and I think it’s safe to say that it one of the best war time dramas to hit the big screen.  At the end of the movie I was drained and felt like I needed either a cigarette or a Gatorade.  This is a movie that has to be seen.