A Thrilling Manhunt and One Woman's Obsession with the Mission

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2013)

I've never been much of a patriot but that doesn't mean I wasn't affected by the events of 9/11/2001. I still remember where I was when the news broke (sitting in senior English class, waiting to begin an exam) and I still remember how I couldn't quite process the events at first. Nothing of this magnitude had occurred so prominently and close to home in my lifetime. And I still remember the anger towards those responsible that I soon felt. So, while I've never been a huge supporter of a lot of our government's behavior, I was always gung-ho with the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan (before everything turned toward Iraq and it's "WMDs"). I became incredibly intrigued with the hunt to bring this modern face of evil to justice. ZERO DARK THIRTY is all about one woman's obsession with just that: hunting Osama bin Laden. Maya (Jessica Chastain) is somewhat new to the C.I.A. but she's got laser focus on her goal: locating the man behind the most horrific attack on American soil in decades. Her quest begins at a CIA black site where Al Qaeda operatives are being interrogated and drained of information through any means necessary, and over the course of the following ten years she will risk her career (and at times, her life) in pursuit of bin Laden. Seeing as how this is a recreation of recent historic events, we pretty much know how it will end: with a team of expertly trained Navy SEALS and a seemingly impenetrable compound in Pakistan.
I've never seen Kathryn Bigelow's last major film, THE HURT LOCKER, though I have read the script (and don't recall much of anything about it). I just wasn't interested. The only war movies I've ever really been interested in focused on the Vietnam War (FULL METAL JACKET, APOCALYPSE NOW, PLATOON, etc.). Modern warfare just doesn't grab my attention the same as Vietnam, but I was willing to give ZERO DARK THIRTY a shot based on the subject matter. I'm glad I did because Bigelow's account of the hunt for bin Laden is tense, exciting, and had me sucked in until the end credits began to roll. A lot of the credit belongs to Jessica Chastain. She brings a severe intensity to the role of Maya. Her character is driven, focused on the hunt and only the hunt. She's a keen thinker and uses her unique perspective to pursue leads that her superiors find too insignificant to bother following. Over the course of her ten-year mission, she watches as friends die and colleagues are shamed but she pushes on relentlessly. While the overall premise of the movie is the search for bin Laden, the movie is truly Maya's story. She's our hero and it's her quest we're following, even if she doesn't really figure into the final half hour or so of the film. Noinstead the final half hour is the pay-off of two hours spent following Maya's investigation.
Right, so there have been a lot of accusations against this movie with angry viewers labeling it "propaganda." And my response would beso what? What do you expect from a movie detailing the United States' hunt for its most hated target since World War II had us killing Nazis? The movie portrays America going to insane lengths to uncover each and every bit of information they can to bring them closer to their goal (so much so that the actual C.I.A. decided to come out and vehemently deny some elements of the movie). All of this builds up to a killer TEAM America: WORLD POLICE moment with American soldiers sneaking into Pakistan for a top secret operation culminating in the moment people have waited almost an hour and a half to watch. The propaganda complaints might not be unfounded, but I just don't care. It's an engaging movie with a real-world villaina villain that murdered thousands of innocent people. I'm not watching ZERO DARK THIRTY for the "Hooray America!" vibes but for the manhunt and the payoff.
The trick with a movie like ZERO DARK THIRTY is to go in with the mindset that you're watching a moviea fictional movieand not a documentary. Because that's what it is. I knowcrazy, right? This might be based on actual events but that doesn't mean it is 100% accurate. It is a film made for our entertainment. And it entertains. At least, it did for me. I thought ZERO DARK THIRTY was a great movie, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't normally care for these sort of movies.