Zero Dark Thirty

Plot synopsis:
Part 1: THE SAUDI GROUPTwo Years After Sept. 11 CIA BLACK SITE:Dan (Jason Clarke) walks into a dingy room where a terrorist financier, Ammar (Reda Kateb), is being held captive by several other CIA members wearing balaclavas. He makes the rules clear: If Ammar doesn't look at him when he's being addressed, Dan will hurt him. If Ammar steps off the mat he's on or lies about anything, Dan will also harm him. Dan has Ammar put in further restraints and beckons to one of the masked individuals to follow him outside. He orders his men not to talk to Ammar.Outside, the masked individual removes her cover; she is a young CIA agent named Maya (Jessica Chastain). He apologizes for how intense the interrogation is because she has only recently come from Washington. Dan explains that their process takes a while because Ammar needs to know how helpless he is. He offers to get her a coffee but she tells him that they should go back in. He offers her back a balaclava but she declines, asking if Ammar is ever getting out. "Never" says Dan.The pair go back in and Dan tells him that Ammar needs to understand his situation. He knows all about Ammar, had plenty of opportunities to kill him, but let him live so they could have this talk. Ammar screams that Dan is nothing more than a garbage man for his corporation but Dan retorts that Ammar is a terrorist who helped finance the September 11th attack in the USA and was caught with explosives in his house when they came for him. However, Dan also makes it clear he doesn't want to talk about Sept. 11 and he wants to know about the Saudi Group. Ammar refuses to talk so Dan's men set up mats as Dan forces him to the ground. Maya hands Dan a bucket and a towel so that Dan can water board him. He asks for an email and demands to know when was the last time Ammar saw bin Laden. At the end of the session, Dan makes it clear that in the end everyone breaks.Maya sits in a waiting room. Dan brings their boss, station chief Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler), to meet her. She mentions that what she saw was "a bit fucked up" and Bradley is surprised, having assumed that she volunteered for this position. Bradley buzzes her into a secure wing and Dan asks if Maya is ready, but Bradley just points out that the CIA needs to break in the next generation. Maya settles into her desk and waits until she is brought into a small conference room where fellow CIA agents Jessica (Jennifer Ehle), Jack (Harold Perrineau), Thomas (Jeremy Strong), and J.J. (J.J. Kandel) are working on the latest intelligence reports. Dan points out that Ammar is withholding on the Saudi Group while Jessica gives updates on the latest leads. Maya points out that some of their assumptions are based on pre-9/11 behavior rendered moot by the invasion of Afghanistan.Morning prayers wake Maya from an uneasy sleep on her couch. She and Dan check on Ammar, still suspended by rope and deprived of sleep using heavy metal music. Dan pulls up a chair and seats Ammar in it, providing him with a bottle of fruit juice and some food. He asks Ammar about the Saudi Group and Ammar insists that he only handles money and that he doesn't know who the guys that he finances are. Dan kicks the chair out from under Ammar and has Ammar pulled up ripping down his pants to show that he has shit himself. Dan and the other agents leave, putting Maya alone in the room with Ammar. Ammar tells Maya that Dan is an animal and begs her for help. She tells him that he can help himself by being truthful. Dan returns with a dog collar and forces it around Ammar's neck, suggesting he's Dan's dog and needs to be walked. He drags him over to a box; a very confined spot, smaller than a coffin. Dan threatens to put Ammar in there if Ammar doesn't tell him about the impending attack. Ammar starts screaming days of the week but not a location, so Dan forces him into the box and leaves him there.May 29, 2004.A group of Al Qaeda terrorists unload guns on civilians in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, targeting non-Muslims and Americans. Jessica, Dan, and Maya watch the footage in the aftermath. Jessica tells Dan that it's not on him but Dan insists that since Ammar is their prisoner the deaths are on him and Maya. Jessica points out that there are still other plots in motion that they can wring out of Ammar, including a planned attack in the London-Heathrow area. Maya realizes that since Ammar has been in complete isolation, they can lie about the outcome of the attack and claim that it was thwarted by Ammar in his sleep deprived state.Ammar is brought out of his confinement and informed that his intel was good. Dan asks what Ammar did after the invasion. Ammar says the choice was to fight or run, and he wanted to kill Americans. He continues to talk about the members of the AQ cell but in vague terms until Dan makes it clear that he will put Ammar back in the box if Ammar doesn't start naming names. Ammar spills all the details he can including that his uncle once worked for Osama bin Laden and that Ammar had seen him in Karachi with a letter from the shah which said to keep working on the jihad, to keep it renewed for a hundred years. Finally Ammar gives them a name: Abu Ahmed.Part 2: ABU AHMEDMaya watches a computer monitor and studies old interrogation tapes looking at each of the suspects and studying their stories. Allegedly, bin Laden uses a complex network of carriers to relay messages to his supporters. She takes a break to make some food and Jessica walks in to ask how the search for the needle in the haystack is going. Jessica suggests that at the end of the day, everyone can be swayed with money an idea that Maya questions since it doesn't fit the motivations of a jihadist. But Jessica retorts that the weaker members would be swayed with money.Putting on a dark-colored wig to conceal her red hair, Maya is escorted to a CIA Black Site in Poland. Hakim (Fares Fares), a fellow agent and interpreter, brings her to their prisoner. They ask him a few questions and he claims that he had contact with a man known only as Fahraj. Maya is suspicious that the suspect is simply making it up until the prisoner names all of Fahraj's children. He confirms that there was a network in place to pass messages on. Maya takes this information back to Bradley and gives him a report. Bradley points out that her hunt for Abu Ahmed has been fruitless because she doesn't know his real name or where to find him. She retorts that the fact that everyone has heard of Abu Ahmed means that he is important. He tells her to let him know when there's actionable intelligence so that they can order a strike.London, England. July 7, 2005.A double-decker bus explodes. News footage of this latest AQ attack plays out on Bradley's computer monitor and in Maya's kitchen. At Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, Dan feeds a monkey from his ice cream cone when he is informed that his detainee is ready. Maya is escorted into an ISI Detention Center in Pakistan. Her detainee is cooperative and tells her everything she wants to know about Abu Ahmed a most trusted courier who cannot be found because he is one of the disappeared ones.A man has an object strapped to his leg and is told, God willing, they will not have to use it. We follow the man as he walks through a complex where children are playing. His stroll is observed by Dan. Individuals dressed like Muslim woman in all black follow him as he goes to meet with Fahraj. The Muslim women are revealed to be soldiers who grab Fahraj and swarm him rifles pointed at his chest. Bradley presents Maya with paperwork and tells her that she has a one-on-one with Fahraj.Dan escorts Fahraj to his cage; a private cell with barbed wire around the sides. Dan says that he's bad news for men like Fahraj and that Dan isn't going to help him, he's going to break him. Asked if he's hungry, Fahraj has a tube shoved down his throat and blended food is forced down his throat. He is a difficult prisoner so Maya asks Dan if he will take a crack at Fahraj but he refuses, saying he's done this long enough. He's getting sent back to Washington and do something normal. He asks her to come back with him and be his "Number 2" but she says she won't find Abu Ahmed from DC. Dan warns her that politics are changing and that she needs to make sure she's not the last one "holding the dog collar." He also warns her that since everyone knows her in Pakistan she's going to need to start watching her back.September 20, 2008 Marriott Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan.Jessica waits at a table and waves to Maya as she arrives still attached to her phone. Maya apologizes for being late because of the check points. Jessica reminds Maya that they are socializing and pours her a glass of wine. Maya makes it clear that Abu Ahmed's mystique confirms his importance when a bomb goes off outside the Marriott destroying most of the interior. Maya and Jessica struggle to find an exit, passing numerous staff and diners who have either been killed or wounded by the bomb. A truck outside had been stopped at a check point and carried explosives which the driver detonated.Part 3: THE MEETINGTribal Territories, Pakistan: A meeting of bin Laden's inner circle occurs while someone records it. Jessica is ecstatic, telling Maya that the Jordanians have a mole. She shows Maya the video of the meeting and explains that a Jordanian doctor has made it into the inner circle. Bradley doesn't buy it but the Jords claimed that money and patriotic duty would be enough to sway him from bin Laden and the jihad. Maya points out that the guy is likely lying & they just have to meet him face-to-face. She helps Jessica convince Bradley to approve the operation.Jessica tries to get the doctor to come to Islamabad but the doctor refuses on the grounds that traveling out of the Muslim world would make him appear to be a flight risk. An interview of Obama talking about America's moral stature plays in the background as Jessica tells Maya that the doctor would be willing to meet with Jessica in the Tribal territories. Maya points out that as a white woman Jessica would definitely be kidnapped. They brainstorm with a fellow agent who suggests Camp Chapman in Afghanistan as a safe area of compromise.On the phone with Maya, Jessica decorates a cake for the doctor. Maya laughs and points out that Muslims don't celebrate with cake. Jessica scolds her for being so literal and invites Maya out. Maya declines - it is Jessica's lead and she deserves to run the show.Jessica meets with a CIA agent John for drinks and they toast the doctor, their first big break since 9/11. She's cross-checked all the information that they've been provided with and it checks out. The money - $25 million buys a new life. John posits that the doctor is exaggerating his access but Jessica points out that in 6 months to a year, the doctor could be treating bin Laden. With the money on the table, the doctor will flip - or they'll kill him.Jessica and the other interrogators wait out in the base and everyone is on edge. Jessica is excited about the meeting but the doctor is late. When he looks like a no-show, a car appears on the horizon and gets stopped at a check point. Jessica insists that he be ushered through the check point without being searched per the agreement they had made beforehand. The car is driven in and an old man gets out. When the soldiers ask him to take his hand out of his pockets, he begins to mumble "Allahu Akbar" and detonates a bomb killing everyone in the vicinity including Jessica and John.Maya hears the news about the bombing and is distraught. Several co-workers come and talk to her, giving her updates including news that a detainee has confirmed Abu Ahmed as dead. Maya is on the edge of a breakdown. That night, Jack approaches her to console her about Jessica's death and asks what shes going to do now. She tells Jack that she's going to smoke out everyone involved in the operation and kill bin Laden.George (Mark Strong) arrives to brief Maya and her co-workers in the aftermath of the bombing, pointing out that they are losing the fight against their enemy. He yells that they "haven't done shit"; killing four of the 20 members of bin Laden's inner circle is a terrible success rate. He harshly demands they do their jobs and bring him people to kill.Maya is given a file on a man called Ibrahim Sayeed whose extended family was involved in terrorist activities. She is told that it was a lead that had been on the back burner for a while as a result of all the white noise. Maya goes over the Abu Ahmed files one more time and realizes that Sayeed and Abu Ahmed have many similar facial features due to their family relations. Maya calls Dan in Washington and points out that Abu Ahmed might not be dead since the three eldest brothers looked alike, the picture they've been associating with him is wrong. Abu Ahmed is still in play. She asks him to get the Sayeed family's phone number.Dan goes to talk to The Wolf (Fredric Lehne), a shadowy high-ranking official in the U.S. government, and requests a couple hundred thousand dollars to break open Maya's lead. The Wolf tells Dan that there is a lot of oversight going on and that they will not stop until they have a body, so Dan makes a deal he ran some of the ops that are currently under question if the Wolf backs him financially, he will return the favor by defending the methods used to an oversight committee.Kuwait City, Kuwait.Dan meets with one of his highly placed contacts and buys him a Lamborghini in exchange for the phone number. Maya meets with Larry (Edgar Ramirez) from Ground Branch and has him start hunting for Abu Ahmed. Larry and Hakim go for a drive in the city and begin to trace the identity of the Sayeed brother who is likely Abu Ahmed.In the aftermath of an attempted car bombing in NYC, Maya tries to talk to Bradley about the ground surveillance on the caller which Bradley says they don't have. Bradley wants to dismiss her lead because it is not relevant. He doesn't care about bin Laden, he only cares about stopping the next attack. Their goal is to protect the homeland, but Bradley points out that Maya's lead is a "fucking facilitator." Maya threatens Bradley telling him to give her the team she needs or send her back to DC and face a hearing before congress to be the first station chief to be called before congress for subverting the effort to find and kill Bin Laden. Bradley tells her she's crazy but gives the order.Jack approaches Maya in a bar and gives her a cell phone her suspect bought a new phone and they cloned a copy so that whenever his phone rings this cloned phone will ring as well. Hakim, Larry, and a third agent follow the signal on the phone in Pakistan. After briefly being stopped and threatened by locals, they drive away and are able to find the owner of the cell phone. They ID him and photograph his vehicle.A crowd of protesters outside the CIA facility in Pakistan protest Bradley having been named in a lawsuit by the family of a victim of a drone strike by the ISI. Bradley is recalled to the United States to be removed from his position. Maya tells him that the ISI fucked him, but he says nothing.Larry and Hakim follow the suspects vehicle to a compound. As Maya leaves her house, a pair of terrorists emerge and open fire on her vehicle. The bulletproof windshield protects her and she reverses back into her driveway while the gate closes behind her, preventing her assassins from finishing the job. The new station chief points out that she is now on a list and once someone is on a terrorists list they don't get off. When Maya is given information on the compound, she realizes that is likely where bin Laden is holed up.Going up the chain of command, Maya meets with George and another analyst named Steve (Mark Duplass). Steve takes her into a private conference room to discuss what she is about to present to the Director of the CIA. He asks Maya if the Pakistanis are involved but Maya points out that bin Laden has no reason to seek the protection of the Pakistanis since they tried to have him killed. The Director (James Gandolfini) arrives and Steve begins his presentation with George answering the Director's questions; the house is about a mile away from the Pakistanis equivalent to West Point. Maya corrects Georges estimation by saying 8/10ths of a mile The Director asks who Maya is and she says she's the "motherfucker who found" the house.Maya goes to Georges office and writes on the see-through partition "21", as in the number of days since they've found the house that George has not green-lit an operation. Soon 21 becomes "52". Steve shows satellite imagery of the compound and points out that there are two males and three females which means that there is likely a third family in the house, based on Muslim traditions. George meets with the head of the NSA (Stephen Dillane) who questions as to how they know bin Laden is in the compound. George assesses all their attempts and the actions of the third, unidentified male, and points out that they are professional attempts to avoid detection. The only people who behave like this are at the head of al-Qaeda. The NSA head points out that there's a 40% chance it's a head of al-Qaeda but it could easily be a drug dealer. George points out that they can't ask anyone since the detainee program went to hell.Day 100.George meets with the NSA head again, stating that their target can't be a drug dealer since he does nothing related to heroin production and sends messengers to two cities highly associated with al-Qaeda. After the meeting, George approaches the NSA head and points out he doesn't have the rhythm of the politics. The NSA head points out that if it were political he'd just tell George to go fuck himself instead, this operation is pure risk. The NSA head says the operation may be shakier than when George's predecessor pitched WMDs in Iraq. George asks him how they can quantify the risk of not making a move. The NSA head says that he's not giving the go-ahead but that the President would like to hear options.Area 51, Nevada Air Force Base.George, Dan, and Maya are flown out to meet with SEAL Team Six and look at several helicopters being refitted to be immune to radar. Team Six thinks they will be going up against Gaddafi in Libya but Maya explains that they are actually going after "UBL"; Usama bin Laden. Justin (Chris Pratt) is skeptical because he was part of a mission back in 2007 that cost them several team members and was a ghost. Patrick (Joel Edgerton) the squad leader expresses his skepticism, but Maya makes it clear that Team Six will be the "canaries" sent in; they will find bin Laden and kill him for her since she can't get authorization to simply drop a bomb on the place.Day 129.The CIA Director calls a meeting with George, Dan, Maya, The Wolf, and a consultant named Jeremy (John Barrowman), and they try and determine how accurate their intel is. Dan says there's a 60% chance there's a high-level target in the house he doesn't know if it's bin Laden. George says 80% but Jeremy asks Maya what she thinks. Maya says 100% which impresses Jeremy and the Director. When they leave the room, the Director says they're all cowed. Jeremy says that Maya is "fucking smart", but the Director says: "we're all fucking smart".Maya eats lunch in a CIA cafeteria and the CIA Director approaches her. He asks her how long she's been with the CIA and she tells him that she was recruited out of high school so she's been working for them for 12 years. He asks her what else she's done for the CIA aside from her search for bin Laden. She says she's done nothing else but that. He smiles and says she certainly has a flair for it. He asks her if she knows why she was recruited by the CIA. For some reason she is not able to answer that question.Part 4: THE CANARIESMay 1, 2011. Forward Operating base, Afghanistan:Stealth choppers are being refitted for the mission. Patrick, Justin, and the rest of SEAL Team Six clean their weapons and fool around. Hakim and Maya are on site to oversee the operation. Maya watches Patrick and Justin play horse shoes and discuss whether or not the operation is concrete. Patrick points out that Maya's confidence convinces him that this intelligence is accurate. Maya gets a call from George; it's happening tonight.Team Six board the three helicopters and fly out toward the compound. When they arrive, one of the helicopters is caught in a severe updraft and it crash lands onto a section of the compound. The soldiers are a little banged up but they are alive. They exit and begin to go through the compound.Going from building to building, the SEALs kill anyone who goes for a gun, all the men and a few women. In one case they call out a name, "Khalid", until a man reappears in the stairwell where he fled. They round up the kids and put them together in a room with the women. While more and more local people head toward the compound, Hakim walks out and tells the approaching crowd, first with a megaphone and then without, that they will be killed unless they stop. They do not stop until he repeats his order in English. Justin finds an office loaded with files and computers, an intelligence jackpot.Patrick and the others continue through the main building. Jared, one of the other soldiers, is approaching the third floor and softly calls out "Osama" repeatedly until a man appears. He quickly takes a shot and the man falls. Patrick walks up to the body and plants a few more bullets into it, removing his mask and radioing in that they have a possible positive ID. He takes a picture and they put him in a body bag. Their Squad commander radios in and tells them that they have six minutes to get back to the helicopters with the body and whatever intel they can seize as the Pakistan air force is responding to the crash.Maya receives confirmation that the plan worked with the code phrase "Geronimo for God and country". The SEALs grab what they can and escape to the remaining two helicopters. The downed helicopter is rigged with explosives and they take off and detonate (so the cloaking software and other advanced technology aboard can't be seized). The helicopters return to base and Patrick is congratulated for running a successful operation. Maya is presented with the body and the intelligence they seized. The SEALs congratulate themselves while Maya goes in to unzip the body bag, confirming that bin Laden is dead.A plane is waiting for Maya on the tarmac and she is told that she is the only passenger; she can go wherever she wants. The pilot comments that she must be really important, but he doesn't know what she's done. As the plane's hangar door closes, Maya begins to cry.

Tags: dramatic, suspenseful

Review:
It takes her almost 10 years, a little waterboarding, a couple of dead colleagues and a lot of arguing with her superiors, but she manages to follow the lead all the way to the now famous raid in Abbottabad.It's a very captivating film (even with its 160 minutes runtime), and the big raid at the end is quite intense and realistic.
Whether or not 'OBL' would've been caught without the use of torture is speculation that has no place in this movie (it's a depiction of events, not a moral study).Some Americans might still find it hard to watch a movie that requires you to form your own opinion about the actions of your country/government/army, instead of getting one spoon fed by those very same institutions.
These are not easy questions to answer and they are left open ended for the most part.The three main criticisms I've come across in the reviews is that 1) The movie is propaganda 2) It glorifies torture and 3) It is factually inaccurate.
Thank you IMDb. Knowing this movie was nominated for best picture, I was afraid that I was losing my mind after seeing it, since what I saw in the theater was: one dimensional characters being frustrated about not being able to do anything, inter-cut with a newsreel about current events, followed a ridiculously overdone operation to kill a couple people in a house.No doubt this is a difficult story to tell dramatically, since it's about people who are doing a job that is passive by nature.
At the very beginning it gives us a warning:"Based on first-hand accounts of actual events"Aka what CIA told us and what CIA wants you to see.The decade-long war on terror seen through a CIA agent's eyes, the whole film is shaped into a CIA narrative.
Forget torture is a war crime, we got Ben Laden."Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement." Mrs. Bigelow defends her film in her LA Times piece.
This (slightly) fictionalized dramatization of the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden is often difficult to watch, for a variety of reasons, but that doesn't mean it isn't any good.
Kathryn Bigelow's masterful follow up to the much lauded "The Hurt Locker" is no doubt the best film of the year, and I think it is an important movie in the history of American cinema.
The film is led by Jessica Chastain's astounding performance as Maya, a CIA operative who dedicates more then 10 years to finding Osama Bin Laden.
They had the biggest story to tell since the death of Hitler and they made a day time soap out of it.Here are my reasons: 1) Bad/overacting acting...by almost everyone except Jessica (Maya)2) Who writes such script?...sounds like a school play.
Katherine Bigelow should learn from movies like Green Zone, Syriana, Argo, Rendition how to maintain taught tension (even though viewers know how it ends).7) Also this happens right under the nose of Pak Agencies and nothing except a few passing reference to the ISI is made.
(1/10/13, one star) Kathryn Bigelow and her new movie Zero Dark Thirty deserve our universal contempt and condemnation for condoning torture.
(Do we really want to emulate the Nazis and Communists?) In the long run, torturers are a more pernicious threat to both our security and our liberty than any Al Qaeda agent could ever hope to be.Senator McCain is right when he says that Zero Dark Thirty gives our enemies powerful ammunition to use against us, especially if it garners awards.
I have come to this film pretty late and am a bit surprised at the polarised views I enjoyed the Hurt Locker and given that the outcome is obviously known I still found it tense, dramatic etc and I put this down to Katherine Bigelow's skill as a director As others as commented this is far from propaganda as it is a pretty uncomfortable ride in the early part of the film as torture is used I didn't see this as an 'ends justifies the means' positioning, however but steps along the journey if you haven't seen it certainly don't be put off by the low mark reviews, they are just silly There is so much directorial skill here Certainly If you enjoyed the Hurt locker then see this.
I cared more for the guy on the seal team who asks Maya "Are you sure about this intel, cause we lost some guys on another mission trying to catch OBL." That guy I care about - too bad he had 5 minutes of screen time and the rest went to Maya the mouth.Mark Strong's intense entrance as a director in the CIA couldn't even save this pile.Poorly acted.
Do not get me wrong, the movie is not that good when you get the lovely, energetic, fascinating and brutally honest portrayal of Chastain's CIA agent Maya out of the picture.It would've still be solid, controversial and updated with events, but the X-particle would have been missing.That's what the actress brought to the movie.The cast is fine-a solid, convincing ensemble, that did their respective jobs very well.I can see why people like Mark Strong and James Gandolfini got some roles in the movie.It's always good to work with a so-called red-hot director at the helm of her so-called favourite turf- war movies.Their cameos, especially Gandolfini's (because Mark Strong was under the spotlights for a little longer) made a refreshing break from the main tone of the movie midway through it, at the moment we needed something different the most.Overall, the cast was an improvement over Bigelow's last effort in the genre.With "The Locker" i wasn't impressed at all, i was actually on the other end of emotions-i did not understand what all the people saw in it.Overlong and flat, you' be left wondering why so many strange sequences occurred in the movie.And if you are still awake, that is.But Bigelow has improved in those few years.She has a better eye for the cinematic, her cast is stronger, she changes paste effortlessly and now has a sense of jumping in one scene after another almost flawlessly.Those things, in my humble opinion, were not that visible in "The Locker" as mostly critics screamed they were.But the movie ended being the biggest Oscar contender and winner without being the best movie that same year, so what do i know.The only department "The Locker" still overshadows "Zero Dark Thirty" is the tension.No that it wasn't evident here, but more than enough was provided by Bigelow in her last effort.Well, frankly, the nature of the movie was different and couldn't have hurt it.So, with all that being said, with the beautiful performance by Chastain, who is becoming a real power on the horizon with every single movie she takes, with a haunting performance from Reda Kateb's Ammar in the beginning, where one might feel heartbroken for the guy, what's the problem with the movie, You might ask.The script!This thing that has been nominated out of sheer patriotism is worth nothing.Some of the lines Boal wrote were sheer ridiculousness at it's finest.No one screams words like "motherfucker" in the CIA director's face at a high-level terrorist-related meeting, even if there is no profane context hidden behind it and even if the CIA boss's role has been handled by the almighty Tony Soprano.Jessica Chastain was actually so good and mesmerizing throughout the course of the movie, that she handled this particular scene with calm and confidence.She was the one screaming it, if it is not yet crystal-clear.And she's been forgiven, she's not to blame at all.Continuing with Boal's outrageous screen writing we find ourselves in the middle of a mission, where the SEALs (who behaved like total children throughout their limited number of scenes, shame on you, Edgerton, i'm looking at you, because one would expect this from Chris Pratt) enter a suspect's house and begin to quietly repeat every single inhabitant's name until, like rabbits, they all come out and they all get shot.A totally unneeded and distracting scene, which took off a lot from the sheer brilliancy and tension off the last sequence of the movie.And even if there were some documented evidence speaking that it was all true, i don't believe that a clever off-the-grid person will be so stupid to get out and check who is calling him by name in the middle of a SEALs mission in his home.I repeat, even if it were true, for the sake of the film itself, leave it out, do not go there!!That's why i think the final act was less suspenseful than Bigelow's last warfare effort.Besides the fact we all now how it ends, of course.And, once again, thank God Jessica Chastain is around to save the day and bring some humanity and emotion to the movie.:But what the heck, let's give a 100/100 to the movie, because we love America".That's the reception right now, as it was with "Argo"...and once again, thank the cinematic Gods for Jessica Chastain's true, emotional, fascinating, electrifying performance!!At the very end she showed that even in a job well done and even in the years spend doing nothing but this particular job, there is no consolation, there are no smiles, nor happiness.Only a 12-years long hole of emptiness that's being left there.Like a homecoming soldier, who still lives with his brothers in arms, Jessica Chastain's Maya-has a tough way ahead of her.A way filled with new strives and challenges, dreams even.But a long and tough way back to ordinary life, life as it was.This sense of nostalgia is brought in absolutely uncompromising way to the screen by Chastain.The movie itself would have been a 6/10 without Chastain to say the least, with Boal it falls even steeper, but this new actress (by Hollywood laws that is), makes this whole ride unforgettable in the coming awards-season.Two thumbs up for a lovely Chastain and hopefully an Oscar this time around!!My rate:9/10.
This film is about a female CIA officer, who tirelessly pursue all leads for years to find Osama bin Laden."Zero Dark Thirty" is supposed to be a war and action film, but the pacing is so slow.
Yes she has determination and this is what she's worked on her entire life; but she lacks emotions and when she does show emotions, she borderlines psychopathic b*tch.Many people commented on the torture scenes but that didn't bother me - what bothered me was how this film WAS torture.The entire direction and story line of the movie was so dull that I was baffled at the 95 it had scored on Metacritic.
The movie attempted at a film based around real events and people but fails miserably that I would have rather just stick with a documentary with real facts and get it over with in 90 minutes instead of miserably sitting through it for 2 and a half hours.
I believe this film is based on the classic made for Lifetime channel movie, "Girl With a Hunch."If you want the truth about these events you won't get it by sitting in the theater for 3 hours.This film isn't really about the hunt for Bin Laden, or as they refer to him in the film, UBL?!
It's got a few moments that don't just ask you to suspend belief, but beg the question, "How did that get through post-production?" or, "This is a joke, right?"The acting is, for the most part, more than passable, but especially emotionally charged moments are ruined by a lack of contextual framing; it felt like I had woken up in the middle of a better movie.All in all, I just feel this film heavily relies upon the assumption that viewers will walk into it cheering it on like it's their local sports team and overlook how glaringly horrible it is because of what it's about.Go see it if you want to scratch your head in a dark room thinking about what else you could do with three hours and 13 bucks.Laughable..
Kudos to any movie that does not Hollywood-ize a true topic – ZDT does exactly that and perhaps better than any other true-life story made to date.Do not get caught up in some of these reviews that claim 'torture scenes' will turn your stomach, or that the first part of the movie is slow and boring – I found the first hour of this movie to be extremely well done and absolutely necessary to establish what the CIA went through to find OBL.There are many scenes in this movie that will leave you on the edge of your seat and startle you, but do not expect to see over-the-top writing or easy-n-cheap one-liners that most directors would have thrown in the movie to draw attention to themselves – again, this is NOT a pro-Hollywood movie.
This entire film is overflowing with emotions and the story lines of these characters are spectacular – don't forget for a minute that these are CIA operatives, whose job it is to find and kill OBL.Well done Kathryn Bigelow, VERY well done!.
It's got that Homeland vibe about it, but doesn't scream entertainment in a way that draws the viewer in.....it feels at times like it's a set of storyboards that have just been clumped together to make a movie and you feel need to actually work in an intelligence department just to understand what is going on.
Zero Dark Thrity is the new movie from Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow who has enjoyed a rich and varied career to date which will surely be swamped under the weight of opinion lumped on this picture.
I would argue that Zero Dark Thirty could have never won over every critic and begs the question, can you really expect to make a piece of solid entertainment about tracking and killing Osama Bin Laden?
I didn't feel anything for her character, i knew her about as well as i did Osama Bin Laden (movie equivalent of course).I think my main problem was with the point of the whole exercise.
Driven professionals in films often come across as stolid, but Chastain is an actor of subtlety - even if Bigelow can't help lensing her like a wind-swept movie star in the Middle Eastern magic light.
This film has some stand out scenes with brilliant cinematography, good acting, and takes a very unbiased view about highly controversial events- it lets you (largely) make up your own mind about the characters motives, and actions.
However, I don't feel that it is a great film; despite a remarkable performance by Jessica Chastain and solid camera work, the movie comes off at its worst as over-the-top jingoism masquerading as patriotism, making America look great to those who wave their arms at how Number One the good ol' USA is, the best of the best, and making America look terrible, perhaps, to those who are not American.The movie is unflinching in its depiction of violent methods, but we should get one thing clear right away: it's a work of fiction based on true events.
Many of us were alive and kicking in 2001 and remember this all too well, so it's a little different from watching an old Hollywood movie about the Second World War.It is implied, very subtly, that information gleaned from detainees leads, obliquely, to the capture of bin Laden, but this was never the case.
And, to be clear, this isn't a political statement, this review: President Bush is hardly mentioned, and when President Obama is shown on screen, he's declaring that America does not torture - while a room of CIA operatives who do just that watch, idly.Zero Dark Thirty is a good film.
nothing.it's pretty obvious that typical Hollywood types want to latch onto this and shower it with praise, when there are better films that deserve the attention.frankly speaking, i've taken dumps that were more enjoyable.i can only hope that this ends up on DVD sooner than later, so as none of you have to suffer the 14$ admittance fee to lose the 2.5 hours of your life this movie just cost me.save your time and your $, and wait until you can get it at a red box or something.indeed, argo was much better..
Zero Dark Thirty is the highly anticipated story of the hunt and eventual "we got him," moment for Osama Bin Laden, and Kathryn Bigelow's big movie to follow her great Iraq war movie, "The Hurt Locker." I was extremely disappointed to say the least.The Good.
For ten years, she becomes obsessed to find Osama and in 2011, the terrorist leader of Al-Qaeda is murdered by the U.S. Navy S.E.A.L. Team following the lead of Maya."Zero Dark Thirty" is a long, boring and overrated movie about the pursuit to Osama Bin Laden apparently by a persistent and limited CIA agent with only high-school, what seems to be incoherent.
While it certainly isn't a bad film, Zero Dark Thirty isn't necessarily a great one either, which is a disappointment from this director coming off of an incredible job on The Hurt Locker.
To the credit of the director, she manages to build in a fair amount of suspense and edge of the seat thrills as the hunt for Osama Bin Laden reaches its crescendo, despite the end result being known to the viewer.The other high light of the movie is the portrayal of Maya, the lead CIA operative by upcoming actress Jessica Chastain.
It's just as hard to think of a better thriller than Zero Dark Thirty (meaning military time, 12:30 a.m. when bin Laden was killed), Katherine Bigelow's docudrama about the decade-long search headed by the lone female CIA operative, Maya (Chastain).
Director Kathryn Bigelow's movie about the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden is about as gripping as it gets in watching a motion picture.
Bigelow puts the entire film on the shoulders of  Maya and Chastain by making her the in-movie representation of the  audience and moreover, the American people.