One of the most controversial films in the last five years, Zero Dark Thirty marks the second
collaboration between director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, whose
previous film that been the Oscar lauded film The Hurt Locker. That film however never drew anywhere near the
controversy of this one, even drawing criticism and arguments between people
and critics who had yet to see the film, merely going off what they heard was
in the film, most notably the scenes of torture, the validity behind these
scenes being in the film (Torture has been denied by the US government) and how
the creative team got so much information so quickly.
The plot of Zero Dark
Thirty is widely known, as it follows the hunt for Osama Bin Laden
following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, spanning a decade we move
through various avenues of “enquiry” and follow different suspects, all with
the hope of finding where Bin Laden is. From there, will build to the tense and
brilliant raid in Abbottabad and the end of the hunt.
The film follows, almost completely, Maya (played by Jessica
Chastain) a CIA analyst (that’s probably a very basic way of defining what she
does) as she joins the hunt in 2003, then gradually moving from someone who we see struggle to watch at times
during her first participation in an interrogation up to her fighting for the
raid to go ahead. Her missions does change her and cost her almost a decade of
her life (Maya first appears in 2003) and that alone asks the big question of
the film, not does torture work? Or is it a reliable source of information? But
was everything they did worth it? That is something we can see towards the end
of the film, the more we look at Maya.
The torture elements of the film appear very early on in the
film, probably lasting up until around the forty minute mark, where one of the
key figures in the torture scenes and someone who “trains” Maya, Dan (played by
Jason Clarke) returns to the US because he wants “to do something normal”,
speaks volumes for how he feels after what he has been doing for the few years
since 9/11, but also adds more weight to Maya’s commitment.
The scenes of torture, or at least the substantial ones
almost all feature Dan and one specific detainee, Ammar. We join the
interrogation, along with Maya, as it is in full swing, he has already been
there for a long time, his body is weak and he looks like death. Dan repeatedly
lays down rules as he asks questions, then once Ammar has refused to, or is
incapable of answering him, then the actions begin. We see, waterboarding, he
is stripped as Maya looks at him, He is locked in a small box and his forced to
listen to loud music constantly, depriving him of sleep. All in an effort to
break him. Whether the methods work is very much up to you, as viewer how you
see the events unfold as well as a general view on torture as a way of gaining
interview.
The rest of the cast are made of great character actors,
Mark Strong gives a great performance as Maya’s boss, coming in and delivering
a dressing down to the entire team, as they are “failing”. Jason Clarke as
mentioned before, almost plays two characters, the one in the Middle East and
the one back in America, not only do they look completely different, but his
whole outlook and way of acting seems different, which one is the real man is
up for debate.
Finally, the two main members of the SEAL team, Patrick
played by Joel Edgerton and Justin played by Chris Pratt, essentially hold
together the last thirty minutes or so. We follow efficiently as they move
through the infamous compound, doing there jobs with a terrifying efficiency. A
small moment even takes place between the two men as they wait to breach the
final building, they update each other on what has happened, in a way that two
people meeting on the street talk about where they have been shopping. It adds
a moment of humanity into what could have been a very robotic set piece.
Zero Dark Thirty
isn’t an easy sit, it’s a bleak journey that moves through successive failures
and false starts, we watch as terrorist attacks happen, as innocent people are
harmed and killed, all whilst waiting for one link or clue to fall into place.
When it does it offers up one of the most tense action sequences in the last
ten years. Zero Dark Thirty is a
remarkable piece of film making and will undoubtedly be remembered for a long
time.
