Zero Dark Thirty Reviews

I'd heard of bin Laden's death by American military forces, but didn't go for the details since I was hardly interested, and also doubted whether they've got the real one. My doubts only intensified after the movie failed to show the face of dead bin Laden!! JK.

Having not read the full "story" of how bin Laden was allegedly caught & shot, I chose to check out the movie. Being fictionalized doesn't make it worse, at least not for me. While the tracking process of Laden for years by the CIA was quite interesting, I can't say the same for the killing/shooting (of Laden towards the end) process that consumes about half an hour of the movie. Except for that drag, I found the movie worth watching as a thriller. The performances were good in general, but Jessica Chestain was a bit loud. Watch it as a fictionalized version of real events (if at all anything such happened for real), and you'll probably be less disappointed. And of course, not caring for pro-torture or any political issue is bound to enhance the viewing experience. Overall, I'd rate "Zero Dark Thirty" 6.5/10.

Great movie that in my opinion demonstrates the end does not justify the means. Although the movie does not glamorize torture... I still feel it portrays it as a necessary evil and with that I cannot agree. It illustrates the NEED for the "I" (intelligence) as the center stone for the CIA!

If any team besides director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal had decided to create a film about the search for and killing of Osama bin Laden, they probably would have decided to pull some punches, perhaps with the cushion of a humanAS story amidst the strenuous ten-year project to hunt down the infamous al-Qaeda leader. But it is Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal who created the film, and the product of their collaboration is an unflinching, brutal, no holds barred approach on this story ripped fresh from headlines.

The film opens to cries of help canvassed by a black sreen- it's a quick deduction to make that we're listening to the terrified voices of 9/11 victims, the moments after the first attack but before the real terror sets in.

This sets the tone for the entire movie- we're led to a black site in Pakistan where Maya (Jessica Chastain) spends the first months of her assignment away from D.C. Her partner, Dan (Jason Clarke), tortures a detainee with alleged links to Saudi terrorists, from methods such as waterboarding to other, more humiliating forms of torment.

But it's not sadistic on his part- gone are images of action movie tropes, the James Bond villain with the whip in his hand- you know this is real, and you realize that Dan's not enjoying it. "It's cool that you're so strong and I respect it." Dan says to the detainee. "But everybody breaks, bro." Maya, obviously, enjoys it less than Dan- she hasn't developed a callous to it yet, so she has trouble hiding her shock, but like Dan she realizes the necessity of the situation.

And that's why the controversy over the torture in this movie is ridiculous- it's not portrayed positively. This is one of the essential themes that Boal is trying to convey- frustration. These people have been working for years on a project to hunt down one man with no luck, their only link to him a guy who maybe knows a guy who maybe knows a guy who's connected to Bin Laden.

Maya spends years grasping at shreds of information and hunches that she hopes will get her to Bin Laden. As her own frustration deepens in the situation, torture as a means to get answers isn't as much of a problem for her anymore. Eventually connections are made that leads her to the compound where Bin Laden may or may not be hiding- is it worth pursuing?

The film isn't the blood-pumping, set piece-fueled masterpiece that Bigelow's previous work was, and playing off real events poses a bigger challenge for her. But like Boal, she doesn't compromise her picture. The situation isn't sexy, like Argo, but then again, Argo had more to play off of. Unlike Affleck, Bigelow doesn't go for making an entertaining suspense story. The suspense she creates is real, and the dramatization is gripping. She focuses on key aspects- the tortures, the bombings, and the frustration- and this is where she strikes gold- her characters.

Bigelow finds her muse in Chastain, who portrays her character without a single flaw. We can feel he callouses growing, feel her perspective shifting, feel her blood turning to ice. In February, when the clips are being played for the Best Actress nominees (and she'll surely be there), they'll probably show the scene where Chastain gets to cut down Kyle Chandler. But her true moments reside in introspection, particularly in, "I'm gonna smoke everybody involved in this op, and then I'm gonna kill bin Laden."

The film's true power is found at its stunning climax, zero dark thirty (midnight) on May 2nd, 2011. The raid on bin Laden's compound commands the viewer's attention, and much like the final chase scene in Argo, we know how it'll end, but still can't help but hope.

Although it occasionally feels more like a work of journalism than a movie, Zero Dark Thirty is a searing, intelligent depiction that provokes more thought than any other film this year.

One of the very best pictures of the 2012 year. A heart-pounding and adrenaline-charged thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. A gripping, nail-biting, tense and pulse-quicking film that's loaded with raw human drama human emotion and visceral action. An intense, hard-boiled and explosive thrill-ride that will have holding on to your seat from the start to it's incredible finish. It's first-rate, staggering, and near-perfect in scope film making that makes for rock-solid action entertainment. Director, Kathryn Bigelow crafts an incredible, in dept and profoundly realistic piece of work that wont soon be forgotten. A masterpiece, it surpasses her film, The Hurt Locker in every way imaginable. It's a must-see movie experience that digs deep and digs into your head hard with its power, intense interrogation scenes and character interaction . A thriller that truly thrills and has lots of juicy and intense characters. It delivers enough pulse-pounding excitement for two movies. An outstanding cast of actors who all deliver great performances. Jessica Chastain gives an incredible and astounding performance that deserves awards attention for sure. Jason Clarke gives a excellent performance that truly stands out, he's leading man material for sure and is force to be reckoned with. Mark Strong is electric. Kyle Chandler is terrific.

A remarkable and epic film. It is so massive, it covers so much ground, and is so episodic that it does feel like several movies packed into one. But the multiple plots and layers--though they make for a complex film--work brilliantly. It is in the end an exhausting but enjoyable ride. The film barely lags, and is always intense. The scenes are heart-racing, and Jessica Chastain's great performance results in a likable and powerful portrayal of a real-life American hero. The final act is not to be missed!

Journalistic filmmaking at its utmost.

Considering the substantial amount of acclaim that it has attracted, it came as a surprise to many people that Zero Dark Thirty was snubbed at this year's Academy Awards. Notwithstanding the fact that the Oscars have never been a great barometer of quality, it was interesting that one of the most highly praised films of the year should have slipped so far under the radar.

But now that the dust has settled, it's plain to see why Zero Dark Thirty was so widely overlooked. It's not the subject matter itself; the hunt for Osama bin Laden is still fresh in people's minds. It's not the fact that Kathryn Bigelow's previous film, The Hurt Locker, won Best Picture; the Academy does not always operate on the basis of it being 'someone else's turn'. It's not even the controversy surrounding its depiction of torture - a controversy which is both absurd and ill-founded. It is instead because the film is nothing like as good as people would have us believe, being one of the most distant and needlessly clinical films in recent memory.

Before we get into the substance of the review, a quick point needs to be made about Bigelow's approach as a director. Throughout her career she has been referred to as a 'macho' filmmaker; Mark Kermode has often compared her to Sam Peckinpah. The remark that is often made is that she makes films which are deeply masculine in nature; it is surprising that a film as testosterone-driven as Point Break should be helmed by a woman, and that a woman should direct so much like a man.

These are, of course, completely stupid observations. Men make many different kinds of films, not all of which are macho or overtly masculine in nature. It's like saying that Killing Them Softly and Love Story should look and feel the same because they were both made by men. Women's output varies greatly too; you couldn't find much in common between this film and The Kids Are All Right or Aeon Flux. Bigelow is as capable of making 'male' films as any other female director; it is not a question of gender, but of her wider sensibility.

There is much about Zero Dark Thirty which is admirable or timely in some way. The story about the hunt for Osama bin Laden was always going to be told at some point because of its significance in the War on Terror narrative that dominates our world. It's easy to view this film is a bookend or follow-up to the mid-2000s wave of films about 9/11, such as World Trade Center and United 93.

You can argue all you like about the merits of an American filmmaker telling this story rather than a European or any other kind of nationality. But we should at least give credit to Bigelow and her screenwriter Mark Boal for the amount of effort and research which went into the production. The film was originally going to be about the failed attempt to capture bin Laden in 2001, with the screenplay being drastically rewritten after the events of May 2011. The level of detail in the film's recreation of the American intelligence services and their locations puts to bed any accusations of Oscar-baiting opportunism or flag-waving populism.

Much of the coverage surrounding the film has focussed on its depiction of torture. The film opens with our main character Maya (Jessica Chastain) witnessing one of her colleagues torturing a man to get information about a future terrorist attack. We see numerous different techniques employed, including solitary confinement, audio torture and the infamous waterboarding, accompanied by Maya's flinching and Dan's frustration at the man's refusal to divulge anything meaningful.

The extent of such scenes had led many commentators to accuse the film of having a pro-torture stance. Naomi Wolf went so far as comparing Bigelow to Triumph of the Will director Leni Riefenstahl, calling the film "amoral" and branding Bigelow as "torture's handmaiden." Such ridiculously hyperbolic comments presume that we cannot depict something without having a moral perspective on it, i.e. that we cannot show a shoe without having an opinion as to whether or not shoes are a good thing. The film depicts these scenes in clinical detail while informing us that the information that ultimately caught bin Laden was not obtained by these means. All we are left with is our emotional reaction, which is one of appropriate and justifiable revulsion.

Unfortunately, this clinical depiction of torture also illuminates the central flaw with Bigelow's film. The problem with Zero Dark Thirty is not its depiction of torture, or the means by which the filmmakers obtained their information, or even whether the version of events we are seeing is entirely accurate. The problem is that it gives us no reason to care about what we are seeing. Without any kind of context, about the War on Terror or the ground wars fought in its name, the film does not serve any kind of purpose or make any kind of sense. Put simply, it doesn't really have a point.

Zero Dark Thirty takes the procedural drama to an absurd extreme, so that it is all procedure and no drama. Boal's script is essentially one long exposition dump, with lots of convoluted information relayed to us so coldly, that when someone raises their voice, it's as much out of relief as it is surprise. The film makes no effort to let us in, either by allowing us to bond with the characters or by showing the gravitas of the situations in which they find themselves. Everything is told rather than shown, and as a result the film has about as much tension as a sub-par Agatha Christie novel.

It is more than possible to make exciting dramatic films based on reported accounts of real-life events. All The President's Men worked so well because it put the audience in the minds of Woodward and Bernstein; we grew to like them as we struggled to piece together the same pieces of information they uncovered. Alternatively, the huge amount of information in Michael Herr's Dispatches was brilliantly shaped into the gripping dramas of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. While Boal's credentials as a war reporter are not in doubt, he is by no means a great screenwriter; he cannot translate facts into storytelling, or turn important figures into real people.

The characters in Zero Dark Thirty are all either deeply unlikeable or hollow shells. We are surrounded by a series of intelligent, brilliant individuals who are so focussed that they are warped, and they are given no human or real-world characteristics to endear them to us. Jessica Chastain is a terrifically charismatic actress, but Maya is such a blank slate; her level of detachment, or lack of overt emotion, borders on the sociopathic. The film is clearly meant to be about her obsessive drive to get bin Laden, but she's just so flat in her trajectory; we don't care whether she lives or dies, and her tears at the end are a desperate plea for sympathy that has not been earned.

There are ways of making films which are clinical or cold in construction which do have a genuine emotional impact - Stanley Kubrick did it all the time. Even if you weren't entirely bonded to the characters in, say, Full Metal Jacket, the film had enough striking imagery and intellectual nuance to keep you interested. Zero Dark Thirty has no interesting insights about the war, the US, terrorism or bin Laden. It takes no side and has almost no plot: as Roger Ebert put it in his positive review, "the plot is Maya thinks she is right, and she is".

Having said all this, the final set-piece involving the killing of bin Laden is generally well-executed (no pun intended). The fact that we often cannot see what is going on is largely intentional, putting us in the circumstances of the soldiers who have a plan of attack but also have to think on their feet. The hand-held camerawork goes overboard during the helicopter crash but is largely fine elsewhere, and the sequence as a whole is very well-paced. The scene's success, however, is a pyrrhic one, because it makes us wish the whole film had been like that.

Zero Dark Thirty is a massively overrated film which fails to live up to both the form of The Hurt Locker and its own hype. Once all its controversies are stripped away, the end result is pedestrian, flat and unmemorable, with no three-dimensional characters, poor writing and very little tension. Its biggest crime, aside from squandering Chastain, is that it is really dull - though at least this comes from ineptitude rather than contempt for the audience. It isn't torture to sit through, but that's about the kindest thing you can say.

Re-enactment of the events leading to the location and death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Torture scenes not for faint hearted.

Kathryn Bigelow does it again with "Zero Dark Thirty." Her directing gives the movie increased tension, and keeps the plot interesting, even though the viewers know the ending. Chastain gives an Oscar-worthy performance, and makes herself known as a force is Hollywood. Engaging and entertaining, "Zero Dark Thirty" is a must watch of 2013. Grade: A-

Zero Dark Thirty tells the story of the manhunt for bin Laden with care and respect and Jessica Chastain delivers a compelling performance, but certain characters can be underdeveloped and the film may feel overlong due to its intense attention to detail.

Delicate, but strong, Zero Dark Thirty (2012, USA) is a masterful work that sharply narrates the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. Kathryn Bigelow believably takes the audience to the Osama bin Laden case "ground zero."

Really good!! Thrilling. Suspenseful.. a completely well done, and put together film. I was hooked within the first few minutes...

Zero Dark Thirty, the new film by "Hurt Locker" Director Kathryn Bigelow is about the hunt for and assassination of Osama bin Laden. Coming into this film not knowing anything about the story or the politics behind it didn't help me to understand the proceedings too well. There were parts where I felt they had left stuff out because it was common knowledge, leaving me confused. But nevertheless, the film is gripping, suspenseful, and beautifully acted by the entire cast, especially Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Ehle and Mark Strong. The script is brilliantly written by Mark Boal, a former Journalist. Cinematography by Grieg Fraser is often stunning, bringing out colours and a beautiful palette in the desolate deserts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Definitely one of the better films of the year.

I didn't like Zero Dark Thirty for multiple reasons. For a film being about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, I expected it to be much more engaging. But it's poorly written and has uninteresting characters which makes it difficult to get involved with what's going on in the
film.

Jessica Chastain did not impress me with her performance. She has a couple scenes where she breathes loudly and puts her hands on her face and another scene where she screams like a maniac. Well, I didn't get to know her character aside from the fact that she's obsessed about getting bin Laden. I didn't care for her. She lacks depth.

But I can't blame all the poor acting on just the actors. The script is to blame as well. For one, I don't think the writer knows how to correctly use the word "fuck" and other variations. Multiple times it feels out of place and completely ruins a set of dialogue. There's a couple scenes where Maya introduces herself with "fuck" in the first few sentences. Really? Everyone watch out, Maya's a badass! Now I don't have a problem with the word only if it's used in correct context. Aside from the misuse of that word, the script is also full of many other corny lines.

The pacing is poor. We get too many boring talk scenes with the occasional explosion/gunfire to please those with short attention spans. I also question the accuracy of this film as some of the things that happen seem a bit unrealistic. Probably the biggest problem with Zero Dark Thirty is that we know how it's going to end. I was patiently waiting for the climax (which isn't even that thrilling) but it took forever to get there. It doesn't help when everything before threatens to put you to sleep.

The film would have been better had we a character to root for. But Maya annoyed me more than anything. Also, improvements could have been made on the awful script. So overall it's a dull film that is only moderately entertaining during the climax.

The greatest manhunt in history.

Superb FIlm! People will want to compare this movie to the hurt locker, which is fair in the way that it locks you into scenes and is a war movie. The hurt locker was more of a pure war movie, whereas Zero Dark Thirty uses more dramatizations and has a more coherent direction, while still being an incredibly suspenseful movie. Some people might criticize this movie for a lack of character development, but they are really missing the point of this movie. It's not your typical Hollywood movie that introduces a protagonist and develops him/her until the conflict is resolved. This movie is about tracking and killing Osama Bin Laden, and the way they used the main character as a metaphor for America as a whole was really impressive, even while refraining from your typical, often boring character developing scenes. Jessica Chasain delivers an Oscar worthy performance-powerfully and defiantly standing own her own, and never backing down despite years of administrative obstacles. The film is much more than "torture is good" and "terrorists are bad". Hopefully the audience will find an absorbing, richly textured portrayal of a pivotal chapter in American history--one that's not just clarifying, but also potentially therapeutic. Highly recommended!

Maya is a CIA operative whose first experience is in the interrogation of prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks against the U.S. on the 11th September 2001. She is a reluctant participant in extreme duress applied to the detainees, but believes that the truth may only be obtained through such tactics. For several years, she is single-minded in her pursuit of leads to uncover the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden. Finally, in 2011, it appears that her work will pay off, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team is sent to kill or capture Bin Laden. But only Maya is confident Bin Laden is where she says he is.

Kathryn Bigelow makes another strong case for being one of the best directors when it comes to handling explosive materials, both in the literal and figurative sense. Making a film about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden less than two years after the well known ending is difficult on so many levels and still Bigelow surpasses all obstacles. Her biggest asset: an interesting main character played by an outstanding actress (Jessica Chastain) in charge of the whole thing. It's hard to say how much truth lies in all the details of the investigation and the methods that end up obtaining the vital information, but the film certainly feels realistic at all times. As for the complaints about the portrayal of torture or the aimed killing of a person, the film never takes sides. It just shows the facts, as ugly as they are. Thankfully, the film spares us any signs of flag-waving, "fuck yeah!"-yelling patriotism. With its detailed look at the research and surveillance work the movie does require some concentration on the audience's part, but it all pays off during the oddly calm, menacing and realistic raid on Bin Laden's house in the third act. But it all comes with a cost, as seen on the final shot lingering on Chastain's face. It's her who delivers the film's most memorable scenes.

So, after the Oscar winning heights of "The Hurt Locker", director Kathryn Bigelow decides to stick to a winning formula and follow up that success with another war themed drama. Personally, I wasn't keen on on her previous Oscar winning movie and I'm just as less enthusiastic about this one.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden becomes the prime target following the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Heading the search operation is CIA intelligence analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain) who commits ten years to tracking him down, while others around her have their doubts and reservations. In 2011, her commitment pays off as she believes that he has been in hiding in Pakistan and a U.S. Navy SEAL team are sent in to capture or kill.
Beginning with the events of 9/11, the film fast forwards 2 years where it dares to expose American torture tactics to find the culprits of that fateful attack on New York. Although distressing, they are brilliantly and bravely captured which has led to some controversy on Bigelow's part. The film, basically, doesn't waste time in getting down to business and although the early stages consist of interrogations, Bigelow does well to maintain interest and tension. After this, the film gets bogged down in an attempt to capture recent events that require much more than a 2 1/2 hour movie to sum up.
Apparently, the script of this film was changed during the filming; the original story was the hunt for bin Laden but his (supposed) capture and death occurred before the film was completed. As a result, we have the ending to this manhunt. Personally, I don't buy bin Laden's capture. That's not to say that I think he's still roaming the earth. He may well be dead but I just don't believe that events played out the way we have been told they did. It stinks to me that we are supposed to buy the - almost hush-hush - news coverage of such a high-profile event in current affairs. Sadam Hussein's death was plastered all over the media but with bin Laden we are to just accept with very little evidence produced. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I can't (and won't) readily accept everything I'm told in the media. I believe it to be western propaganda that only serves to instil a belief in people that an end to the conflict is near. People want to believe. People need to believe. Much has been said about the 10-year-long manhunt to capture and kill bin Laden but if, buffoonish, Bush Jr, wasn't so hell bent on drilling for oil and finishing his dear old pappy's lucrative business in Iraq then that time wouldn't have passed.
Anyway, I digress. My write-up is becoming more about my personal beliefs than it is a film review. So let's get back to the job at hand. This is a film that is, undoubtedly, well structured and captured but I found that it meandered and as a result, I began to write a big "lefty" spiel (which I have omitted here) on my opinion of the conflict that we, as the west, finds ourselves in. And the reason this happened? Frankly, it was because I was bored. It wasn't until the hour mark that things begin to get interesting but just when it began to look good, it got bogged down in boardroom scenarios and endless eastern locations. I have been a big fan of Bigelow's previous movies but her recent venture into political events doesn't cut it for me. She's a director that has vibrancy and energy that is hard to compete with but on recent evidence, she's entering into a territory that doesn't accentuate her skills.
What does work in this, is the performances; Jessica Chastain proves, once again, why she's everywhere at the moment. Her progression from shrinking violet to doggedly determined shows good range and some supporting actors also deliver solid work; Jason Clarke ("Lawless") is a standout in the earlier part of the movie and Kyle Chandler ("Super 8") gets a chance to flex his acting chops in some tense verbal confrontations. James Gandolfini and Joel Edgerton are a couple of late inclusions and it's only in the last half hour that Bigelow shows her abilities in staging the action set-pieces. By then, though, it's too little too late. What she does do, in her defence, is portray the actions of soldiers less than heroic. Which is one of the few truths that she shows in the entire film. Another is the ambiguity in the identity of bin Laden. At one point Stephen Dillane's character says "... bin Laden, do I give up all hope of possibly seeing a photograph of him?" Eh... I'm afraid so. As an audience, we have to, yet we're still expected to believe that he was identified and located on a farmyard, killed and buried at sea and an agency expert visually confirmed his identity when she hadn't, physically, ever laid eyes on bin Laden herself.
Gung-Ho, western propaganda at it's most concentrated. Some of it is impressively handled but ultimately, it's nonsense that masquerades as intelligent filmmaking. It's far from it and another blip in Bigelow's, seemingly, great reputation. As a surfer- dude once said, in her earlier psuedo-spiritual, action pinnacle... "Go back to the valley, man...".

'Zero Dark Thirty'. A remarkable, gripping achievement in storytelling. An emotional rollercoaster anchored by Chastain.

Before the operation went down that fateful night, and the team boarded their choppers, I really thought to myself, excitedly, "I know what my review is going to be; the journey is as spectacular as the destination." Watching that operation happen, and its end, I was left feeling empty; the destination was not spectacular by any means. The clinical, heartless manner in which that compound is cleared. The celebrations back at the base, while Chastain examines the body bag, nods, walks out, eventually breaking down in the plane. Bigelow and Boal took me on a ride.

Maya's realisation of the culmination of ten years of work, the loss of life, all that she's witnessed, all that she's turned into, was summed up perfectly in the final scene, and it was brutal. Jessica Chastain deserves all the plaudits she gets.

The ensemble cast is great, and Jason Clarke's creepily personable torturer act, particularly so.

Was the hunt really worth it, having seen this all? I'm going to say no.

An outstanding piece of journalistic filmmaking with a terrific lead performance from Jessica Chastain. Full review later.

Director Kathryn Bigelow's matter-of-fact, fly-on-the-wall, almost documentary-like films have an aura of authenticity to them despite their controversial subject matter. Case in point is "Zero Dark Thirty", a film that follow the CIA's billion-dollar pursuit of Bin Laden from 9/11 all the way to the raid that led to his death.

"Maya" (Jessica Chastain in an oscar-nominated performance) is the CIA agent recruited directly out of high school for the sole purpose of tracking down terrorists (and ultimately, Bin Laden). As the movie opens, she (and we) is introduced to CIA interrogration methods such as waterboarding for the first time. It's an ugly scene, the sort of activity that once was restricted in film to the nazis and other bad guys. Here, we are asked to justify the means to meet the end, and that we are doing this to the bad guys who deserve what they get. Regardless, watching us throw out due process after 200 years is a little jarring (to be fair, recognizing accused criminals rights' is a relatively new concept in this country- the reading of the Miranda rights didn't come about until the late 60s, for example). Bigelow doesn't offer any political proselytizing though, the film as a whole, feels politically neutral.

So how do we wind up catching Bin Laden? The whole thing feels like a bit of a let-down really (a combination of agent Maya's dogged determinism and some dumb luck ultimately leads to his downfall), but the film states the facts in a hyper-realistic manner that feels like we're watching the process of history unfolding right before our eyes. It's an amazing job of filmmaking, and of documenting our modern history.