The source material may lend itself to film, just not this one

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2013)

I should speak of the good things first. How many can there be if I only give this film a 3 out of 10? Not that many. I do think that Jessica Chastain (a new name to me) and Jason Clarke gave fine performances. Kathryn Bigelow's direction was only serviceable. I must confess to not being a fan of her past work.
I'm sorry but it's time to get into the elements I disliked in the film already. Bigelow herself has stated that she saw this film as telling the story of the hunt for bin Laden, not fictionalizing nor judging, but leaving that to the audience. Such aspirations for a film about something still very personal and visceral to most Americans are hard to accomplish. More importantly, this comes with a certain responsibility. Such responsibility was not met.
I find both halves of the film difficult to watch for different reasons. The first half because of its depiction of torture by CIA agents on the behalf of our country. The second half because it can get kind of boring. But let me stick to the first half. One positive thing I can say about the torture scenes is that no one, or at least, no one with an open, sensible mind can say that "enhanced interrogation" is anything other than torture after watching this film. Arguments to the contrary always remind me of Nixon's response during one of those iconic David Frost interviews. "Well when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal." We've prosecuted and convicted people who employed water boarding on our own soldiers. To make the argument that water boarding is nothing more than "enhanced interrogation" and entirely legal is really to make the point, "Well when America does it, that means that it is not illegal." The film does more than trip over its own feet when it suggests that a detainee gave up information upon the threat of more torture. No such occurrence took place. It's a fiction of torture's defenders and it's a fatal sin that the film would follow that direction. Another suggestion of the film, I'm sure at the benefit of making it more interesting, is that there were greater ties between the Camp Chapman attack and the hunt for bin Laden. This is another creation. This film fails to meet the expectations placed on it by Bigelow.
I do think that Bigelow did a responsible job with the actual raid. It's quite accurate to most of the accounts an ordinary citizen like myself can get their hands on. However I will admit my frame of reference isn't as an ordinary citizen. As a former Ranger, I've had experience with high value targets. I believe the film was able to capture a piece of what an actual mission can feel like. I find this film to be a better representation of SEAL Team 6 than the recent HBO film Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden. That's the only takeaway for me.