Zero Dark Thirty

My Grade:  A

It might be hard, but forget all the controversy and debate circling Zero Dark Thirty and it’s still easy to see why it has garnered positive reviews, box office success, and award season buzz. Kathryn Bigelow has been directing little known shorts and features since the late 70s but she really burst into the public eye when she became the first woman to win the highly sought after Best Director Oscar in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Zero Dark Thirty, her second foray into the portrayal of war in the middle east, solidifies her as a force... in that genre. If her next film branches out of the middle east (which I really hope it does), then we will see if she just has a niche, or if she can handle various kinds of subject matter. Whether she can handle other subject matter or not, though, Zero Dark Thirty is just short of a masterpiece. 

Everyone knows that Zero Dark Thirty is about the epic, lengthy manhunt for the most hated terrorist in recent history:  Osama Bin Laden. It follows Maya (a stoic but intense Jessica Chastain), a CIA operative, and her colleagues as they gather intelligence and risk their lives to take down the big bad Bin Laden. What it’s really about, though, is obsession. It’s a look at a woman who takes on a goal and is so driven to get it done that it almost drives her insane. On second thought, Maya travels far beyond mere obsession.

It’s clear that a lot of research went into making this movie and, whether it’s realistic or not, it certainly feels realistic which is ultimately all that matters to the audience. Nobody knows what really happened when S.E.A.L. Team 6 raided Bin Laden’s stronghold and I don’t think we need to know exactly... but the way Kathryn Bigelow brings it to the screen is possibly the most tense 20 or so minutes that you will experience in a film. “Gripping” and “riveting” are good words to describe the raid scene, but the entire film will keep you on the metaphoric edge of your seat. Nail biters, beware, because this film won’t help if you’re trying to stop.

Jessica Chastain kills it in Zero Dark Thirty. She doesn’t show a ton of emotion throughout the film, but that works for her character and when she does... holy crap, it’s chilling. Especially in a key scene where she gets in her boss’s (Kyle Chandler) face, she will take your breath away. The other standout is Jason Clarke who plays Dan and is called an “animal” by a terrorist captive. That’s a pretty apt description of him at first, until he gets burnt out, but he has some extremely intense scenes and plays with with a detached calm that makes him even more menacing.

In this kind of film, it can be hard to keep tensions high because everyone pretty much knows how it ends (unless you think Bigelow will rewrite history like Tarantino did with Inglorious Basterds), but Zero Dark Thirty does a great job of keeping the stakes high, building up to an intense climax, then closing with a very satisfying, albeit abrupt, ending. The only reason I can’t give this film an A+ is because it’s so heavy that I wouldn’t want to watch it over and over. When the film was over at my screening, the entire audience left in complete silence. That has some to do with the final image (which is perfect, but heavy), and a lot to do with the nature of the film itself. It’s great to watch once, but I’m not sure a lot of people will want to watch it over and over.