The hunt is on. But first here are some torture scenes.

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2013)

Zero Dark Thirty prides itself on being based on documentary evidence but it becomes clear that this is a fictionalized account on the hunt and capture of Osama Bin Laden. The story might be based on true facts but to distill the story in 150 minutes the focus is on a lone wolf CIA operative who spent the best part of a decade hunting for clues and fighting her superiors for resources and support.
The film starts to pull your emotional heartstrings from the very beginning with voices of victims from recordings made in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The film-makers must be targeting the kids who might be unaware of the events September 11 2001 or more cynically softening us up for the next sequence of scenes.
Now if I was watching a film where some half naked women were being tortured, made to defecate in their underwear, have dog collars put on them, I would find the film under the Grindhouse section of the DVD store with an added commentary by Quentin Tarantino. However as this film features Arab men being tortured, an Oscar nomination for Best Picture is the order of the day.
The film gives you prolonged sequences of torture and of course the trendy water-boarding sequences are included. The film does not seem to condemn torture apart from a throwaway line later on in the film and seems to give the impression that torture has its uses.
The first two thirds of the films is looking for elusive clues that might lead to a breakthrough from all the mountains of information obtained over the years. As we moves on from the Bush regime to the Obama years, we have that breakthrough and move on to the capture of Bin Laden.
The central focus is on the Jessica Chastain character who I believe is a composite. She is very driven and carries the film well which does start out rather slowly as we deal with the fragments we offered that might develop into a strand. However Chastain is saddled with more than a few clunky lines.
The last third is very much for the Call of Duty generation as the armed forces head for the Bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan.
Kathryn Bigelow who is the first female director to win an Oscar was working on a hunt for Bin Laden film but quickly reworked the premise when Bin Laden was killed and rush released it within 18 months of the events. I think the script needed more time to develop and the approach might have been different as the film-makers would had been able to have access more information regarding the factual accounts and have more time to mull over things, especially some of the lines given to the actors.
It is a good film although in trying to be neutral with the politics especially regarding torture looks like a mis-step. I think there is a better production regarding these events waiting to be told.