Review: Zero Dark Thirty

BY ALEX BARNARD

Director Kathryn Bigelow follows up her critically acclaimed Iraq War film The Hurt Locker with Zero Dark Thirty.  Zero Dark Thirty follows the journey of CIA officer Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, who spends her entire career tracking Osama bin Laden. The film is based off of the events leading up to and through the raid on bin Laden’s compound, with the main character of Maya being based off of an undisclosed female CIA agent.

Most of the film follows the journey of Maya.  When first entering the movie Maya is insecure in her surroundings.  Having just been sent to Pakistan, Maya makes several mistakes showing how inexperienced she is in the film.  Over the course of the film several events occur that “hardens up” Maya.  Chastain does a superb job of conveying Maya’s changing attitude towards borderline neurotic, however ultimately it’s a shame that the film never digs into Maya’s past and doesn’t dive far into her personal life to create any real sense of attachment for the audience.

If you’ve ever read the news, chances are you know how Zero Dark Thirty ends.  Osama bin Laden was found hidden inside a large house in Pakistan and killed by Seal Team Six back in 2011.   However, the film still manages to keep you in constant tension.  From the first scenes of graphic torture through the seemingly real time raid on bin Laden’s compound, the acting of each character conveys a sense of uncertainty on their future.

The most unsettling thing about Zero Dark Thirty are some of the film’s implications about torture.  To the film’s credit it keeps many actions of the CIA and military in a grey area.   Even the death of bin Laden is depicted as more of a moment of relief than triumph.  Yet, the film disturbingly implies that the raid on bin Laden was only possible due to the use of torture on prisoners for information.  While this is unsettling to those with anti-torture views, the actual moments of torture in the film show just how dehumanizing it can be.  Zero Dark Thirty heavily implies that torture is a necessary evil in the “war on terror”, and was the only way to get the key intelligence that would lead to finding bin Laden.  Despite these strong sentiments on torture made by the film, it shouldn’t detract from the quality of the film’s finer moments.

The tensest part of the film is the actual raid on bin Laden’s compound.  Having been played out in nearly real-time each door breach, gunshot, and line of dialogue builds up the suspense and creates a long scene that made me feel constantly stressed.  Strikingly, this scene feels out of place with the rest of the movie and drags plot away from the main character for a substantial length of time.  But I would not say this scene was done haphazardly, as it builds upon the different Seal Team Six members introduced early in the film and shows the differences between their attitudes and behaviors with those of the CIA agents.

Zero Dark Thirty executes several moments excellently.  The pure intensity created by several of the scenes show how brilliantly Kathryn Bigelow can once again control the audience’s nerves with scenes of high level suspense and appalling images of torture.  Despite some lackluster areas of character development, Zero Dark Thirty is worth watching for those who are intrigued by the grey areas in war and espionage.