A film that must be seen

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2013)

Important elements that make a great movie are ambiguity and paradox. Zero Dark Thirty has plenty of these. From the moment we are drawn into the movie with the black screen and the 9/11 telephone calls we are drawn into accepting this movie's dubious moral premise (the same as Django's and most other "action" movies) – vengeance is as important as, if not more important than, justice.
Going along with this fundament, and complaining about the immorality of the use of torture to gain information is but to clutch at the straws of political correctness and hypocrisy, as we are enticed into a morality that is only relative to 9/11.
The torture scenes are handled brilliantly: a "fascist Dr. Kildaire" says, "If you lie to me I will hurt you" with the same charm as if, "Take these two pills and you will feel better". The scenes are not gratuitous but we are confronted with our rejection through the reaction of the female agent, whilst being seduced into acceptance.
There has been criticism the resulting individual information can apparently be valueless, but it is the CIA's analysis of the "patterns" of what is said, made up, or not said that expose the clue.
The film is remarkably bloodless considering it is based upon and includes acts of terrorism. The military action is tense, cool, calm and efficient. A tribute to the Special Forces.
As for Islamphobic: the final scene which to me shows the female CIA agent reacting as though she has lost her virginity to the wrong man for the wrong reasons – would suggest, concerns of Islamphobia are but secondary to the troubling image of the moral collapse of the USA.