Contemporary War Movie

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2013)

Appealing to delve into the freshness of portraying this most contemporary of wars. This is a war movie and it is one of the first Hollywood ones dealing with the War against Al-Qaeda. Similar to how the climax of WWII culminated in D-day this is the first big movie showcasing the climax of the war against al-Qaeda (dropping the elite 6 over Ben-Laden's house) and like the many portrayals of D-Day in the history of cinema there will likely be other portrayals of the elite six coming down and getting Ben-Laden.
A war not so much about troops or arms or traditional battles of armies but rather a clandestine war consisting of sly CIA operatives and fanatical terrorist leaders hiding from the world. Victories and defeats not won or lost by traditional army battles but by achievements in intelligence or thwarted efforts to gain knowledge, continued concealment leading to more acts of terrorism. The beginning shows one of the battles of this contemporary war as an American operative tries to gain information through use of torture. Interestingly exposed is the strategy to gain information through the mechanism of torture. It shows how we did it and raises questions as to the morality of it. The movie did not leave the morality open for the audience but provided its biased interpretation of the situation.
Innovative to make a detailed account of this contemporary war however this innovation might be giving this film more accolade than it deserves and although a very good movie not the best one of the year. More sterile historical lesson than cinematic experience as the step-by-step detailed process in getting Ben-Laden moving through the scattered military bases seemed well researched yet long, not completely thrilling and at times a bit confusing. The protagonist was the driving soul of this movie slowly becoming more and more driven, obsessed? with her goal of getting Ben Laden this was to the detriment of anything else in her life especially human interaction. She had vulnerability but a mere couple of minutes was devoted to making a real character thus the sterile feel was not only in how the story was told but was also infused into the main character. She ultimately became more symbol than human being.
I do not know if one person was behind all this intelligence gathering it is hard to believe that all these years it could be one person yet the movie made it seem that it was all on this woman's shoulders. This gave Zero Dark Thirty a feminist quality by having this woman becoming the symbol and visual connotation of the CIAs secretive war against Al-Qaeda. The men either couldn't hack the intensity of the tortures and wanted to go back home, were far less committed and driven or were mere subservient foot soldiers for the female protagonists. The male soldiers were literally her arms as in a scene she touches one of them on command so that he would punch the victim being tortured. Even the elite 6 felt like extensions of this female protagonist. It was interesting to give this movie this feminist quality but it didn't seem realistic, not because it was female but because it seemed like there was only one person trying to get Ben-Laden.
It was immersive, there were some nice scenes transporting us to the middle east as we see the desert towns and hear the call to prayer. A well researched, well made, immersive movie about this freshly portrayed contemporary war.