Zero Dark Thirty

[simonr]

Follow up to Hurt Locker :

Zero Dark Thirty won its second major honour in a week, as the National Board of Review anointed it the best film of 2012 ... This follows its triumph at the MYC Film Critics Awards, where it won best film, best director and best cinematography.

Official Site - Zero Dark Thirty

[feather]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

I remember seeing the trailer for this and found it vaguely disturbing that America has turned the whole bin Laden thing into entertainment.

[res0nat0r]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Looks good.

[Highsteppa]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

I remember seeing the trailer for this and found it vaguely disturbing that America has turned the whole bin Laden thing into entertainment.

Do you feel the same way about something like say "Pearl Harbor"?

Not trying to be an asshole, I'm curious to know if the presentation of this movie compared to the presentation and the tone of something that romanticizes the massive loss of life makes a difference.

[Kamal]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

I remember seeing the trailer for this and found it vaguely disturbing that America has turned the whole bin Laden thing into entertainment.

There are a few movies about Flight 93 as well.

[feather]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Do you feel the same way about something like say "Pearl Harbor"?

Not trying to be an asshole, I'm curious to know if the presentation of this movie compared to the presentation and the tone of something that romanticizes the massive loss of life makes a difference.

I didn't watch Pearl Harbor

[feather]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Is the new Osama bin Laden snuff flick pro-torture? - Boing Boing

[Highsteppa]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Okay, so I managed to see it, and it's really hard to see how people are describing the film as being pro-torture when the entire film is being framed more like a police procedural than a kick ass action film (which it isn't).

The film is examining the search for Osama Bin Laden and has more in common with Michael Mann's The Insider - it shows the investigative work of the CIA, the searching for leads and the pressure at various levels to produce results, no matter what the cost. It does show enhanced interrogation techniques and torture sequences including waterboarding, but it doesn't glamorize the depiction of the brutal techniques and the suggestion that it produced actual actionable intelligence is somewhat dubious, since a lot of the leads that are produced are dead ends or misleading. I think the fact that people are upset that the film doesn't really dispute that the CIA still practices the techniques and doesn't present any real moral stance with it (the central character played by Jessica Chastain is told when sitting in on the interrogation sessions that "she doesn't want to be the one holding the collar" if any of the recordings come to light - people are more concerned about how their professional lives could be compromised than the well being of the prisoners being interrogated). It also really doesn't endorse anyone in particular politically, instead it shows snippets of speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama to mark the timeline of events, as well as other events, including the London tube Bombing. The lack of any kind of judgment or moral stance that the movie takes might be perceived as a quiet endorsement is bit of a stretch, but then again, there's a lot of people that want to have their movies taking a moral stance on whatever dubious subject is presented.

The movie has about 100 or so speaking parts and some actors (like James Gandolfini, who plays Leon Panetta), are in the film for a few lines and pop up for what amounts to a few minutes of screen time, sometimes it's not terribly clear why they were there in the first place. I'm told that it does help to be familiar with the time line and major players that were involved in the hunt, as well as some of the key events that played in this investigation (such as the suicide bomber in Afghanistan that killed a handful of CIA agents, who were supposedly colleagues of Jessica Chastain's character). Even Jessica Chastain's character is a bit of a cypher - you really don't get to know her very well, other than knowing that she was really, really dedicated to her job and the frustration of going through mountains of intelligence that often lead to dead ends, wasted money and manpower, or are incomplete/unclear pieces of the puzzle. Her personal life is almost completely absent, so you don't really get to know her as a person or what drives her, other than questioning indirectly if she gave something of herself up in order to complete her goal. She serves more of a vessel taking us through the investigation and work that it took to come to the film's conclusion.

As I said, this isn't so much an action film - it's more about the bureaucratic nightmares and the constant threat of the CIA "safe houses" that seem often positioned in the most hostile environments imaginable, if they were discovered. But the action comes at a very unexpected pace with the last 40 minutes showing the Navy Seals going through their motions preparing themselves and ultimately executing (pun not intended) their operation in Pakistan in 2011. It's a long slog, but the last 40 minutes of the film are very tense and very detail oriented.

This isn't a movie that's aimed at your regular multiplex-goer - it's a long film that shows the hard, frustrating work behind computer screens, the ugly business that the CIA conducts behind the scenes, the matter of convincing superiors that the intelligence presented is valid and the sometimes long shot guess work and hunches that brought the whereabouts of where Osama Bin Laden was to light. A good test of whether this movie is for you or not is, as I had mentioned, seeing Michael Mann's The Insider from 1998. If you liked it, odds are you'll like this if you can handle the rougher subject matter. If not, you're wasting your time.

[res0nat0r]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Great review as usual. This sounds awesome. Kathryn Bigelow has made a couple of my favorite movies and also I absolutely loved The Insider and the pacing of that film, and basically anything from Michael Mann, so this makes this flick sound even more like something I want to see. This has been on my watch list for a while, but it sounds even better due to the review above. I think from the media reports vs. what you've said above they are sensationalizing the film like they always due for ratings. They see a scene of torture and don't bother to watch the flick to see how it isn't being glamorized and maybe even quite the opposite, but run with it to make a big deal of it.

Also how do you get to these pre screenings? Did you say you used to write film reviews? Because all of your reviews are really well written and are great reads.


Also Jessica Chastain is beautiful.

[Highsteppa]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Great review as usual. This sounds awesome. Kathryn Bigelow has made a couple of my favorite movies and also I absolutely loved The Insider and the pacing of that film, and basically anything from Michael Mann, so this makes this flick sound even more like something I want to see. This has been on my watch list for a while, but it sounds even better due to the review above. I think from the media reports vs. what you've said above they are sensationalizing the film like they always due for ratings. They see a scene of torture and don't bother to watch the flick to see how it isn't being glamorized and maybe even quite the opposite, but run with it to make a big deal of it.

The funny thing is, it wouldn't seem genuine without acknowledging that the CIA did some pretty reprehensible shit during the hunt. I think there would have been an similar uproar if they didn't include the torture aspect to it, seeing how it was so front and center in the media during the first half of the Bush administration. But like I said, the more disturbing part of how it's portrayed is how CIA staff look at this as being very matter of fact and part of the job - which it likely was.

Also how do you get to these pre screenings? Did you say you used to write film reviews? Because all of your reviews are really well written and are great reads.

Thanks! I did film reviews for nearly eight years with an online magazine as well as wrote for a few other websites in a non-film review capacity. I take a lot of pride in the connections I made here and the work it took to get the benefits I earned.

[floridaorange]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

I remember seeing the trailer for this and found it vaguely disturbing that America has turned the whole bin Laden thing into entertainment.

I resonate with some aspects of your response as well. I can't quite put my finger on why though.

[res0nat0r]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

It is kind of fuct celebrating killing another person no matter how bad they are.

[Highsteppa]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

I didn't get the impression that they were celebrating anything in the movie, if anything, I felt like it was questioning if the motivation was more based around revenge than actually bringing Bin Laden to justice.

[floridaorange]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

i need to see it before judging, good pt hs

[Kamal]

Re: Zero Dark Thirty

Getting my fix on this one tonight. Can't wait.