Zero Dark Thirty (2012)Director: Kathryn Bigelow
This was definitely the award season movie I was most looking forward to seeing, and it really didn't disappoint. This is really difficult story-telling because of all political land mines surrounding the plot, but I thought the filmmakers did a great job. It didn't seem to me a political film, in an agenda-driven sense, but rather a story about one person's drive and commitment to a cause making sure that cause happens. Jessica Chastain is very good in the role of catalyst and crusader.
I can't recommend it to everyone because it's a dark bloody movie about dark and bloody things. However critical the advanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA may have been in finding bin Laden, they're not fun to watch. They shouldn't be fun to watch: they're terrible and dehumanizing.
Neither is it appropriate to make revenge-fantasy porn about bin Laden's death, and this movie carefully avoids that. I thought it illustrated the raid pretty fairly, and while I think bin Laden's death was just, it's still terrible to kill people, and the movie shows that. The sequence with the interpreter walking through the house near the end of the raid contrasted very well with the special forces' machine-like efficiency. I thought that was very emotionally effective.
Anyway, good movie, even if it looks like it's on the outs this award season.
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