Zero Dark Thirty

[Dementeleus]

I dug the whispering. "Osama... Osama...."

[baumer]

I like teles torture scene better tho.....lol

[Dementeleus]

I like teles torture scene better tho.....lol

HAHAHAHAHAA.

[baumer]

HAHAHAHAHAA.

Especially picturing Mya yelling at the Arab "WHERE'S BIN LADEN???? WHERE IS HE?" in her Batman voice while a dire version of the Star Spangled Banner plays....

[Lordmandeep]

"I dug the whispering. "Osama... Osama...." "That just seems unrealistic...Seems like the Seal time was playing Hide and Seek with Osama. lol

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Well FUCK.I liked the film, much to my chagrin.And here's why I was able to separate my personal feelings from the enjoyment of the film.I remember in 1991, JFK really divided a lot of academy members because they didn't like the politics of the film. They didn't believe in what Stone and Garrison were saying. So they basically ignored it at the oscars, when imo, it was clearly the best film of the year.So I didn't want to be a hypocrite so I decided I would put my beliefs aside and go watch the film just for the film, and not for politics.So having said that, this is a really good film. Bigelow directs it with a lot of skill and panache. She builds the tension and she had a few scenes in the film that really caught me off guard. The suicide bomber on the CIA grounds that killed Jessica was shocking. It was a very well directed scene, one of just many that Bigelow manages. I can see why this is up for a ton of awards. I'm a little surprised Jason Clarke isn't getting more recognition for this. He is brilliant in this and is perhaps one of the five best supporting performances of the year. I do take umbrage with one part of the film and that is the torture. I felt that they painted the US as the nice torturers. Yes waterboarding sucks, but when the guy at the beginning was being tortured, I didn't real fear for his life. If you want to see another version of American torture to Arabs, watch The Siege when Tariq Hussein is being tortured by Bruce Willis. The torture methods they mentioned in there were a lot more brutal than in here. But that's a small complaint.ZDT is one of the best films of the year. I still have a few films ahead of it and three for sure would be Argo, SLP and Perks. But this is a very well made film.9/10

Wow, I am surprised you loved it. I thought this going to be the worst movie of the year for you.

[JackO]

In Zero Dark Thirty, Maya (Jessica Chastain) tracks down Osama Bin ladin while shredding through bureaucracy and disbelievers.No review is complete without touching on torture. I mostly stayed having not seen the movie but with that out of the way, i can see why it got in so much trouble. First thing that came to my mind was the scene with President Obama shunning torture after election and one of the characters shakes their head and sighs as if saying that was a bad thing. Then after that, Maya's boss complains to Obama's liaison that he could not get enough evidence without the detainee program. And even worse, at start of movie we are immediately dropped into a big torture scene and Maya seems somewhat off put by it. But then fast forward a few chapters and she is the one doing it. I think they tried to insert a doubt scene with a flash of her looking at herself in mirror in a bathroom but it does not accurately convey a balanced approach nor negates the long vulgar torture scenes before. What is worse is that the government feels that they are telling the truth either and the first placard says that it is. Really a disappointing bunch of circumstances.But on a positive side, it is fairly entertaining flick. While Chastain's Maya has the charisma of a wooden log, the drama between the characters and her unrelenting fight to get others to believe her make a somewhat compelling story. The best part of it was when she was with Ehle. Also another good part was when Chastain would write down how many number of days was were going by when her boss wasn't following her lead. Jason Clarke also brings some much needed levity during the disgusting early scenes.But you know, the hype did not pay off here. It is much better then Seal Team 6 but still about on point with Argo. There is a light emotional connection the first time around watching the lead up to the raid, but everything around it is meh. Great first watch but I couldn't quite get as hyped the 2nd go round. The raid is still intense but actually looked better on my computer then on the big screen.I give it a A- for first time I saw it and a B+ for 2nd viewing.

[CloneWars]

I thought this movie was average. Shokcingly, I liked The Hurt Locker more.

[Gopher]

Unintentionally, Zero Dark Thirty serves as a great counter to Argo, an inherently cinematic film (which was the point) while ZDT feels like a docu-drama. Both films have such an effortless quality to them. Bigelow takes you through the 10-year manhunt and all of the patience, loss, fortitude and displacement felt by Maya and her fellow operatives. You're not let into Maya's personal life but you really learn to care for her, to understand her obsession and how this search has broken her. Chastain nails every nuance of the character.I know everyone's talked about the torture aspect but I do think that it gives one of the most interesting undertones to the film. I really don't know how anyone can leave this movie and think it was advocating for torture. Yes, information passed on through harsh interrogation techniques helped them in their search for the courier. But showing torture is not the same as condoning it. The fact that no character has a grand speech about why torture is wrong actually makes the film's point all the more significant- torture was part of this search, and the characters had trouble doing anything about it. The scene with Obama's interview in the background where he's saying "the US does not torture" and the cut to Jessica's pained guffaw says it all, I think. They had to wrestle with the moral ramifications of it. Maya is unsettled by Dan's torturing of the detainee at the beginning of the movie... when she's the one leading the sessions, it slowly breaks her until the end of the film. Dan too reaches his breaking point when he has become sickened by the amount of torture he has done in the name of defending America and pulls himself out of the field.The final SEAL Team 6 raid on the compound is amazingly executed. We all know the ending, but I was still at the edge of my seat. But the movie doesn't glamorize the death of bin Laden at all. The only clear shots we get of his face are in gruesome overlit digital photos. The general apprehension the SEAL team experienced at the end about killing more than a handful of people in the raid was every bit of a downer as it was meant to be. And the heartbreaking final shot of Chastain crying reinforces and expands upon everything this film was trying to argue. The ending is the conceit, and Bigelow knocks this ending out of the park. Okay, unorganized rant over. This is a beautiful movie. Go see it.

Edited January 12, 2013 by Gopher

[lilmac]

Loved it. Well worth the wait! After HL and ZDT, Bigelow has finally erased the stain that is K-19 Widowmaker.

[AniNate]

Unintentionally, Zero Dark Thirty serves as a great counter to Argo, an inherently cinematic film (which was the point) while ZDT feels like a docu-drama. Both films have such an effortless quality to them. Bigelow takes you through the 10-year manhunt and all of the patience, loss, fortitude and displacement felt by Maya and her fellow operatives. You're not let into Maya's personal life but you really learn to care for her, to understand her obsession and how this search has broken her. Chastain nails every nuance of the character.I know everyone's talked about the torture aspect but I do think that it gives one of the most interesting undertones to the film. I really don't know how anyone can leave this movie and think it was advocating for torture. Yes, information passed on through harsh interrogation techniques helped them in their search for the courier. But showing torture is not the same as condoning it. The fact that no character has a grand speech about why torture is wrong actually makes the film's point all the more significant- torture was part of this search, and the characters had trouble doing anything about it. The scene with Obama's interview in the background where he's saying "the US does not torture" and the cut to Jessica's pained guffaw says it all, I think. They had to wrestle with the moral ramifications of it. Maya is unsettled by Dan's torturing of the detainee at the beginning of the movie... when she's the one leading the sessions, it slowly breaks her until the end of the film. Dan too reaches his breaking point when he has become sickened by the amount of torture he has done in the name of defending America and pulls himself out of the field.The final SEAL Team 6 raid on the compound is amazingly executed. We all know the ending, but I was still at the edge of my seat. But the movie doesn't glamorize the death of bin Laden at all. The only clear shots we get of his face are in gruesome overlit digital photos. The general apprehension the SEAL team experienced at the end about killing more than a handful of people in the raid was every bit of a downer as it was meant to be. And the heartbreaking final shot of Chastain crying reinforces and expands upon everything this film was trying to argue. The ending is the conceit, and Bigelow knocks this ending out of the park.Okay, unorganized rant over. This is a beautiful movie. Go see it.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything you said here. Excellent movie with more than its share of gut-renching setpieces. I don't really understand the backlash against either of Bigelow's two recent movies. I thought they were both very much deserving of their critical praise.

[Lordmandeep]

Also she was not saying the raid was wrong or that killing Osama was wrong.She was making us ask, was it worth it and considering the things we did.

[Ezen Baklattan]

Make that the third juicy, intense, and exciting political film of the year, after Argo and Lincoln. With Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow gives the best possible account of Bin Laden's death that Hollywood could have gotten, matched with a script that matches. This is a glorious procedural thriller, folks. It doesn't feel like 2.5 hours at all.

The beginning and ending scenes were absolutely fantastic. Sitting in the darkness while hearing only cries about 9/11 at the beginning was incredibly well made, and just as haunting. The ending shot of tears coming down Maya's face was also really effective. It's essentially asking if all of this was worth it for killing Bin Laden, (Nicely said, Lordmandeep.) and how this long hunt for him had effected her.

Frankly, I won't listen to anyone who says that this movie was pro-torture. In fact, the movie doesn't even take a true stance on whether or not the torture was right. All it does is basically say, "People were tortured in order to find Bin Laden. That's simply what happened." Avoiding taking a stance on this matter made the movie stronger in my opinion. Bigelow knew that this was the best route to take with the movie, and she was very much right.

See this movie now.

A

[4815162342]

Very, very, VERY good. Pacing is perfect. Chastain is very good, Clarke is great, the ensemble is ginormous, and Mark Strong plays someone with hair (aside- if Mark Strong was playing anyone else that character of his would have decked Maya after a couple days of her writing on his window).

[acsc1312]

My favorite quote "I'm the motherfucker that found it"

[acsc1312]

I don't understand how this missed a SAG nomination for ensemble. GREAT cast all around. Clarke should've gotten supporting nominations as well. Jennefer Ehle was also very good in her small role. I just adore this film.

[Jake Gittes]

My favorite quote "I'm the motherfucker that found it"

I also nearly fell off my seat at "Kinda like Gandalf". It was very unexpected and all the more hilarious for it. And it showed you Maya knew at least some of her pop culture.

[#ED]

I actually thought the killing of Bin Laden was left kind of ambiguous. Yes, she identified the body but there is no real way of knowing if that was BIN LADEN OR NOT. She shakes her head yes, but there is no test done to prove its him, so in a way, the movie still leaves it open for questions.

This is what I said about the ending.7/10.I could have taken a shit for the first hour of the movie and returned for the GREAT 2nd hour and a half.

[lilmac]

Also she was not saying the raid was wrong or that killing Osama was wrong.She was making us ask, was it worth it and considering the things we did.

Heck yea!

[lilmac]

This is what I said about the ending.7/10.I could have taken a shit for the first hour of the movie and returned for the GREAT 2nd hour and a half.

IMO, the trade craft (1st half) was just as exciting as the latter half (prep, raid).