Zero Dark Thirty
Starring: Jessica Chastain
Directed By: Katherine Bigelow
Reviewed by Danielle Muir
[rating: 4.5/5]
On May 2nd 2011, Osama Bin Laden – leader of the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda – was shot dead inside his home in Pakistan. In Zero Dark Thirty, it’s made painstakingly clear that whilst it was due to trained men with ammunition that a shot to the head resulted in his death, the decade long search prior was tirelessly carried out by others in the CIA, both stateside and in the Middle East. Spearheading this was woman known as Maya (Chastain), a CIA operative whose only career and personal life goal was the death of Osama Bin Laden.
Kathryn Bigelow is masterful in the art of stories set in the heat of battle, and this is no different. Whether it’s in the dirt of Pakistan, the board room of the CIA or with her superiors in the office, its clear how hard Maya fought to keep her operation alive. Bigelow’s crafted a story not only of America’s fight to find Bin-Laden, but also of the personal challenges, sacrifices and tests endured of those charged with tracking him down, something the media often forgets to portray in light of the bigger story. She’s also perfected the art of catching you off-guard, smacking the audience in the face to remind them that even when there seems to be a win on the horizon, this film is taking place in the middle of a warzone, with radicals whose force of choice is always deadly.
Zero Dark Thirty doesn’t pull its punches, whether it’s through profanities, explosions, raids or the controversial torture tactics (primarily waterboarding) it starts off with that Obama publically condemned in the early 2000s. And despite obvious dramatic liberties that are always taken by actors, the events that transpire feel like you’re looking at the hard truth of exactly how Bin Laden was captured, why Obama outlawed torture as a method of information extraction and the impact on the intelligence agency every time a new bomb goes off in a densly populated city, killing more civilians and enraging politicians who proclaim Osama’s death is imminent.
Chastain’s been cleaning up the nominations for this role, and despite probably not being as ground breaking as widely touted, it’s still thrilling to watch someone who has devoted every fragment of their life to ensuring the death of one individual. Her transition from slightly hesitant newbie who winces at the horrific torture tactics of captured Al-Qaeda members into the one ordering them re-enforces that this woman’s iron will was the only thing that led to the eventual killing, despite the pressures to back-off and concentrate on locating imminent attacks on American soil.
If you were a fan of her previous The Hurt Locker, I would definitely recommend checking out Zero Dark Thirty not only for the combat elements, but for a highly tense and seemingly accurate portrayal of how the world’s most notorious and feared terrorist was killed, and the kind of person it took to ensure it.
